Reminder, Soulforce‘s two-day rally at Focus On The Family’s Colorado Springs headquarters begins Sunday. (Previous XGW coverage)
Soulforce makes little mention of Focus in connection with ex-gays; Nonetheless Focus can’t simply expect people to push happy and healthy gays back in the closet, ergo Focus points to their token alternative "Love Won Out". Wayne Besen makes the case in Anything But Straight that religious right groups such as Focus disingenuously support ex-gay organizations to justify their own attacks on all gays. Groundwork laid, Soulforce’s upcoming confrontation of Focus is unquestionably an ex-gay issue. This post is meant as a change for XGW which tends too often towards reactionary content, typically dwelling on events ex post facto rather than offering more proactive analysis.
On Sunday April 1st Soulforce has a rally, church service, concert and a press conference to attract attention to their cause and fire up their supporters. (Schedule) Realistically any mainstream media coverage they receive will be from events on Sunday since as I shall argue, Monday’s planned "direct action" at Focus headquarters is poorly thought out and will prove anti-climactic.
“On Monday, May 1, [sic] James Dobson has to make a moral decision," explains the Rev. Dr. Mel White, Executive Director of Soulforce. "Does he welcome this delegation of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people with supportive clergy and other people of faith? Or does he lock us out and force us to risk nonviolent civil disobedience and arrest? We can’t just go away and ignore the terrible consequences of Dobson’s ignorance and bigotry." (Soulforce press release)
Soulforce makes it pretty clear they anticipate some great confrontation with Dobson on Monday. However, as far as Soulforce’s own schedule indicates, the only time they plan on even setting foot on Focus property is taking one of many public tours on and maybe eating lunch in the cafeteria. Focus had proposed a panel discussion for April 25th titled "Biblical Text and Homosexuality" which Soulforce boycotted. So yes, it appears their best chance to confront Dobson will be on the public tour if they happen to stumble across him.
Fat chance.
In the words of Soulforce is Dobson going to “lock us out and force us to risk nonviolent civil disobedience and arrest?”
Please, give me a break.
And Dobson is probably smart enough to steer clear of the lunch room that day. [joke]
Soulforce and Mel White have the tone of defiant children daring a parent to punish them. It’s my opinion that Dobson is going to let them take the tour just like everyone else who comes to visit Focus. Maybe if he’s getting some bad press Dobson will call up Hannity & Colmes and say something to the effect of “Why would I ever turn away God’s children? Who am I to single them out? Everyone is welcome to take the tour here at Focus.”
So what should Soulforce do? In my opinion their best shot is to bring attention to all the horrible things Dobson has actually said about gay people. Soulforce has diligently documented and published this on their website. If Soulforce paired this documentation with persistent media savvy instead of childish stunts they would succeed in bringing much more attention to their cause.
While it is an attractive action to directly challenge homophobes, as in this action, I am not so sure it is an effective method. To my mind, going up against Dobson offers no very believable chance of success. But there are others who are not our supporters, or who are lukewarm or wishywashy that make far more plausible targets, IMHO. Jim Wallis and Sojourners spring to mind. As does Philip Yancey of Christianity Today. These are Christians who express unease with gays and with the way other Christians treat gay people. But who have not taken firm or public progay stands. I think that these would be a more intelligient target.
Excellent commentary Daniel. Very insightful.
Not sure if it’s been mentioned here yet but it looks like the “never camera shy” Stephen Bennett has started his very own blog.
https://stephenbennett.blogspot.com/
I defend Dr Dobson’s position on this controversial issue, as well as his values and his core Christian beliefs. I found the opening editorial on this website to be biased, without merit and very disturbing.
To start, case in point, there was no hyper-link to Dr Dobson’s Focus On The Family website: http://www.family.org where a truly informed reader can review it and make an informed decision, yet all the while there were hyper-links to his critics websites. Enter “Spongebob” under the search engine on Dr Dobson’s Focus On The Family website and you will find his position and understand his objection to the childrens video.
Furthermore, Jesus’s words are grossly mis-quoted by the world today. Jesus said we are to love sinners, but not the sin. He came to forgive us of our sins. Homosexuality is one sin of many, but it is still a sin. God says so in the bible and his word is true then, today, and tomorrow. His word does not change. Trying to teach tolerance of an immoral behavior, such as homosexuality, to our children is another trick of Satan, that is successful unfortunately in the dumbing down of our society to God’s word and the truth.
God says in the Bible under the book of Galations, chapter 5, verse 14: ” The entire law is summed up in a single command: “love your neighbor as yourself.” Christ instructed us to love one another, but not the sin.
God also says in the Bible under the book of Galations, chapter 5, verses 16-25: “So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things, there is no law.
God also tells us in the Bible under the book of John, chapter 3, verse 16: “That God so loved the world , that He gave us His one and only Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have ever lasting life.” That’s the good news that we need to hear! Not tolerance of sin, but of the reward that awaits those who believe in Christ and are saved by faith in Christ and His grace!
Jesus commands those who believe in Him to live a new life apart from their past sinful ways. At the point of our salvation, He makes us new creations. He says in the Bible under the book of II Corinthians, chapter 5, verse 17-21: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” He gives us new commands for how to live our lives daily as Christians in the Bible.
This is what our founding fathers believed when they sat down to design and put into place our constitution and our government. They used Christian beliefs and values to form our laws and give us our freedoms and liberties we enjoy still today. Look at the preamble and you will see evidence of this in Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence decaring God’s devine providence in their undertaking to separate from England and form our country into a democratic Republic.
Ummm, how do you make the astonishing leap from this ‘God’ person to the ‘Bible’? Is one related to the other? It is not helpful to simply say that something is ‘God’ when clearly it is simply a human artifact. The Bible is no more related to ‘God’ than any other book. It is simply another ancient work. One that lacks the clarity and quality of ‘On the Nature of Things’.
Quotes from old books really do not advance our discussion here. Regardless of which old book you prefer.
Hi Granville,
You said, “God says in the Bible under the book of Galations, chapter 5, verse 14: ” The entire law is summed up in a single command: “love your neighbor as yourself.” Christ instructed us to love one another, but not the sin.”
I think, though, that this is exactly the problem is having with Dobson. He has used some very harsh and non-loving words about gays. Not just about the sinful nature of homosexuality–he broadens his scope to be much more than just proclaiming it a sin. What are your thoughts about what Dobson has said about gay people as documented here: https://www.deardrdobson.com/booklet.htm?
Granville,
I actually appreciate your post, because it is respectful and compassionate. Let me try and stay in the same frame of mind as I reply.
Both you and Mr. Dobson are free to hold any religious beliefs you want, that is a right guaranteed to you by the Constitution of this great land – a Constitution, I might add, the specifically rejects any religious litmus test for a citizen to hold public office. Despite the widespread acceptance of the superiority of Christianity by the population of the colonies in the 18th century, our Founding Fathers rightly saw the dangers inherent in choosing one religion over all others. They were, of course, products of the Enlightenment, when critical analyses of all of life’s “truths” were championed.
But all of us citizens of these great United States have the right to our own religious beliefs, and the vast majority of people that regularly post to this site, I would guess, have chosen religious beliefs that include the belief that gay and lesbian people are not “broken” – that God or whatever higher power controls this universe has, at the very least, allowed homosexuality to exist naturally in our world.
So like all good Americans, how do we handle the conflict between these sets of religious beliefs? Well just like the differences between Christians and Jews, who of course reject the basic premise of all Christian religions, we agree to disagree, and ensure the law protects all of us.
It is the latter issue that concerns most of us about Mr. Dobson. He is not content to merely label gay people as immoral and out of step with his religion. Instead he and his cronies in the quasi-religious political movement of fundamentalists/evangelicals use their contention of homosexuality’s immorality to then label all gay people (or sometimes just gay activists) as a threat to society. According to a lot of the rhetoric of the religious right, gay people want to destroy marriage, harm children, and undermine society.
It is those accusations, those slanders, that we fight. It is entirely possible for every religion to accept the rights of people to make mistakes, even religious ones. For instance, I regard evangelical “Christianity” as a false, immoral perversion of true Christianity. That does not mean I believe all people who follow those religious beliefs are bad, and I respect their right to choose those religious beliefs, even though I believe they are making a huge mistake.
Mr. Dobson and his compatriots do not act with the same respect toward those of us who hold religious beliefs that are different from his. In fact, his entire attack on the We are Family Foundation (to which they have sadly acquiesed) was based on the premise that any expression of tolerance toward gay people will lead inexorably to negative effects on society. But that stance is incredibly unfair, not to mention unAmerican, because it labels all gay people as some type of criminal, without the assumption of innocence that is central to the American justice system.
Just as Christ taught that even Samaritans, considered heretics by the Jewish people of his time, can in fact be good, decent and honorable people (with his parable of the Good Samaritan), it is time for the religious right in this country to accept that gay people, despite allegedly living sinful lives, can still be decent, upstanding members of their communities, with no ill will for their straight friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers.
For instance, I personally believe that God honored the sacrifice of all the passengers and crew on United Flight 93, the only flight on which there was a rebellion against the hijackers on 9/11. That includes both the born-again Christian and the gay man who helped lead the rebellion.
Granville,
Maybe you can help me with something…
just where is that verse in the bible where it says to love the sinner and hate the sin? I’ve tried an online search but I just don’t seem to be able to find it.
As a Christian I celebrate the gospel (good news)of Christ. But I think that a great many Christians have lost touch of the idea of the gospel actually being good news. There seems to be a belief that the whole deal was nothing more than no longer having to sacrifice a lamb but getting to say a prayer instead.
God did not give his Son so that the sheep population would be preserved. He made this sacrifice to bring a contract (the Law) into completion. He fulfilled the Law of sin and punishment replacing it with a new contract, not based on sin and punishment but rather on a relationship with God. This is truly excellent news. No longer am I judged by a list of rules, but rather by the condition of my heart.
I believe, although I know that many disagree, that focusing on the sin of others or even of yourself is a dishonor to the sacrifice made by God.
I do not mean to say that we should never worry about doing thing that God would rather we didn’t. But we are given a rule against which we can measure whether we are on track: are we treating the people around us the way we want to be treated.
Dr. Dobson has actively campaigned to make it more difficult for people to visit their sick, bury their dead, adopt orphans, get medical insurance, and a host of other things. If we were talking about any group other than gay people, we would be horrified. We would never believe that this kind of treatment was from a Christian.
So we have to ask: is Dr. Dobson right? Can we select certain people to treat badly? Can we just say that we “love” them but then make their lives difficult?
I know that there’s a teaching that the way to love people is tell them of their sin and warn them of hell. And yet Jesus didn’t preach that; he taught that you do good to people, actual physical things: food, water, comfort, clothes.
I have to conclude that Dr. Dobson’s actions are not consistent with the teachings of Jesus.
Timothy says:
“If we were talking about any group other than gay people, we would be horrified. We would never believe that this kind of treatment was from a Christian.”
Of course we would; only Christians could treat other people this way. Such conduct would horrify an atheist or a humanist. Religious Jews would shrink from it. Only Christians act this way. Such treatment of others has been a consistent feature of Christian practice for going on 1700 years. Why should we be surprised? To assert that somehow Christians treat others kindly is best described as niave. Or more precisely delusional.
Dalea,
I can’t entirely disagree with your point. There are far too many historical instances.
However, I was adressing someone who considers himself a Christian; and from his point of view, it would be inconsistent with how he sees himself. And, for that matter, how I view my Christian values.