Embracing the differences

By John Hatcher
Contributing Writer

John Hatcher is pastor of Outreach International Center, 1091 South Jeff Davis Drive, Fayetteville, Georgia 30215. 770-719-0303

As part of my Christmas rounds, I attended a Christmas Day Dinner at the home of my sister and brother-in-law who live in Macon. Before other guests arrived, my sister showed me with pride the new interior features of her 100-year-old home. She indicated she had contracted with a talented interior designer to make the improvements. She also shared that she had invited him and his partner to the Christmas dinner.

Christmas events seem always to bring folks together. In fact, at times family members gather at Christmas activities and would actually prefer not to see one another. But Christmas’ magic is that all kinds of folks come together to celebrate the birth of Jesus: high brow Wise Men and lowly shepherds, for instance.

Now my sister knows full well that I am an evangelical minister. Not that she hasn’t tried to get me to embrace Catholicism. She has often said, “You would be a good priest.” But what I like is that she didn’t have to worry what her brother would think or say as she extended the invitation to two of her new friends who are gay.

Unfortunately they showed up late and I had to leave early to get back home to prepare for Sunday services. I did get to meet the men and extend my hospitality — for whatever that meant. I had hoped to have enough time to demonstrate that this evangelical minister respected them, loved them, and considered them individuals of worth and dignity. My sister certainly has done so.

I believe it’s past time for those of us who think we are super righteous as we think and talk about sexual lifestyle to get off our high horses and start getting to know people whom we have written off as going to hell. For you see, for the most part, the evangelical community has believed gay men and women are going to hell and consequently have treated them as dirt.

At this particular point, my evangelical brethren object to my depiction of their position. They come back with the position of “we love the sinner, but hate the sin.”

Well, we must honestly ask the question: where is our hate of the sin of divorce? I mean if we really want to get Biblical, God clearly and unequivocally states, “I hate divorce.” Have we shown the same equity to divorcees that we show to gay men and women?

My evangelical brethren now have another spiritual hiccup: you don’t believe homosexuality is a sin?

In response, I want to say it this way: the Bible clearly teaches that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That means every Sunday school teacher and every pastor, rabbi, and priest. We have sinned and missed the mark of God’s perfection. But praise God, he has made a way for me and the way is Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the sinner’s bridge back to God and not some church’s doctrine. I believe the grace of God in Jesus Christ is stronger than any peculiarity, uniqueness or sin in our lives.

I remember how, when I was a child, my mother talked with low voice about her divorce before she married my father. In the 50s, divorce was the sin that would sweep one into hell without further consideration. Today, many men, among them church deacons, trustees and the like, tell their stories of divorce and remarriage, often with a sense of pride.

Here’s my suggestion: instead of such dedication to the labeling of people’s sins, let’s get to know one another — Black, Brown, White, Divorced, Gay, and Straight. After all, none of us was put in charge of judgment. That was and is reserved for the Father in heaven.

Let’s make friends of people who are different from us. Let’s invite them into our homes and become their friends just like Jesus did. He never met a sinner he didn’t love and for one, I’m mighty grateful.