The crowd gathering in the congregation is old and young. Some members are alone, some coupled, and lots of families, with kids in tow. And virtually all white. Everyone seems excited to be here. When things actually begin, it is as professional as any Broadway show, with fantastic music by a small band, and everyone is singing. Although there is a brief prayer early on, the service seems oddly devoid of any mention of God, much less Jesus. And within the first 10 minutes, the head minister announces that the time has come for what we’ve all been waiting for: the collection, the chance to give for the work and ministry of this place. And everyone cheers. That’s right, cheers! Wild applause, enthusiastic delight at the chance to contribute to the ministry.

But soon, the mood turns dark. In between the uplifting songs, the message is: they’re coming to get us. One by one, the speakers lay out the parameters of the siege under which Christians live, attacked by liberal and godless forces on every side. An African-American minister from New York describes a change in policy in New York City to disallow churches to hold services in public schools, and his message is, “Beware. What’s happening in New York is headed your way! Get ready!”

The sermon is delivered by a guest preacher, whose main point seems to be the evils of feminism and sexual immorality. In the 40-minute “sermon,” there is hardly a mention of the Divine. “God” shows up about 30 minutes in, and Jesus is mentioned only once, at the last minute. The senior pastor delivers an additional message, imploring those present to return that evening for a debate about homosexuality (the reason I’m there—and to their credit, both sides are being represented). His explicit message is, “Come tonight! I cannot prepare you for the onslaught of immorality and anti-Christian fervor if you don’t come! There is a battle underway for your souls, and I intend to outfit you for a holy war!” Every message, action and gesture seems calculated to ratchet up the anxiety of those who are listening. And then it’s over. Just like that.

I honestly don’t know how typical such a service is among evangelicals, bent on making people fearful, but if you left that service feeling hopeful, at peace with God, and eager to help the poor and needy, then you weren’t paying attention. It is no wonder to me that many conservative, Christian people are fearful, and believe that there is a war on religion (especially Christians) in this country. After all, it is drummed into them every week.

This past week, the owners of Hobby Lobby argued that such laws as the Affordable Care Act, with its contraception mandate, are walking all over their “religious liberty”—and astonishingly, the Supreme Court of the United States agreed, and allowed the religious freedom of this corporation and its owners to trump the healthcare needs and rights of thousands of its employees. And still, these people feel oppressed.

Fear is a terrible thing. It does awful things to the people who feel it. Yet, it’s an effective way to bind people together and to make them feel that if they don’t band together, they will be overtaken by hostile forces. And fear is a difficult thing to counter, especially when their leaders are reinforcing that fear at every turn. The cynical side of me suspects that these leaders know exactly what they are doing, but I admit that it is indeed possible that these leaders believe exactly what they are teaching.

What can progressive people, and progressive religious people in particular, do to demonstrate that American culture is not trying to take away their freedom to pray, worship and believe as they wish? How can we speak to their fears in a way that gets them to understand that there is nothing to be fearful of? Vigilance, yes, is prudent and necessary in any free society, but fear bordering on paranoia—fear that is objectively unwarranted—is corrosive.

Religious freedom is something I would fight and die for. But I do not feel threatened by our precious separation of church and state in this beloved United States. That separation should not only protect religious people and communities from interference by the state, but should also protect the secular culture from unwarranted influence and control by the church, synagogue or mosque. Robert Frost got it right: fences make for good neighbors. And while church and state are good neighbors in America, it’s the fence between the two that make for real religious liberty.

Within only a day or two after the Hobby Lobby ruling, prominent evangelicals called upon President Obamato declare broad religious exemptions to his upcoming executive order banning discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people by federal contractors. Just stop and think about the image of religious people pleading for the “right” to discriminate against certain fellow citizens. What would Jesus do, indeed?!

I am keenly aware that such a view might be perceived by some as having a good dose of paranoia of my own. But I think that while oppression and discrimination against LGBT citizens can be demonstrated with ease and myriad examples, oppression of religious people by the government and society is much more difficult to document. Anti-gay sentiment is waning in American society, and with that forward progress, conservative churches will see a loss of credibility and a diminished effectiveness of their fear-mongering. That is as it should be. Neither the church nor the state is served by it.

Bishop is the openly gay former Episcopal Bishop of New Hampshire. He recently announced that he and his male partner were getting divorced. This is his second divorce.

*****

Skyline Pastor Reacts to Daily Beast Critic: We Fear Only God

By Ken Stone
TIMES OF SAN DIEGO
http://timesofsandiego.com/

July 8, 2014

Skyline Church, the Rancho San Diego megachurch known for hosting conservative speakers such as Glenn Beck and Texas Gov. Rick Perry, was harshly judged this week by a former Episcopal bishop famed for defending gay marriage, including his own.

In a column for The Daily Beast, the Right. Rev. Gene Robinson wrote about attending a Sunday service at Skyline and finding a mood that turned dark.

“In between the uplifting songs, the message is: They’re coming to get us. One by one, the speakers lay out the parameters of the siege under which Christians live, attacked by liberal and godless forces on every side.”

In a piece headlined “Even After Hobby Lobby, the Religious Right is Still Terrified,” Robinson wrote:
Every message, action and gesture seems calculated to ratchet up the anxiety of those who are listening. And then it’s over. Just like that.

I honestly don’t know how typical such a service is among evangelicals, bent on making people fearful, but if you left that service feeling hopeful, at peace with God, and eager to help the poor and needy, then you weren’t paying attention.

Now a senior fellow at the liberal Center for American Progress, Robinson concluded his 1,100-word column posted Sunday with this:

“Anti-gay sentiment is waning in American society, and with that forward progress, conservative churches will see a loss of credibility and a diminished effectiveness of their fear-mongering. That is as it should be. Neither the church nor the state is served by it.”

On Tuesday, Skyline senior pastor Jim Garlow responded.

Answering a Times of San Diego request for comment, Garlow said: “We did not know the writer was in the audience on that Sunday morning service. We did invite him to a Sunday night service.”

Here is Garlow’s full response to Robinson, which he termed “my thoughts.”

Although I do not affirm the lifestyle decision of Gene Robinson, I do consider him my friend. In fact, I emailed a warm note to him and said, “I can answer the question you pose in your article.” I had also read that he had recently divorced the man he married. I asked him how he was doing, and asked if we could talk by phone. He wrote me back this morning, and we are going to talk.

The writer had many wonderful things to say about our church and we appreciate that. Skyline Church is a loving, biblically convictional and very fun place to be. The church has a great sense of humor. Laughter is quite common in our place of meeting.

He misunderstood the nature of fear. We do have fear, but it is a healthy fear, or reverence, for God. We fear or reverence God rather than fearing people.

If we had fear, I would not have invited Gene Robinson, the poster child for same-sex “marriage,” to come speak on our platform. We invited him so that he and I could model thoughtful, respectful, civil discourse.

If we had fear, we would not have asked John Corvino, a homosexual man who has a male partner, who is the head of the Philosophy Department of Wayne State University, come and speak the same day.

If we had fear, we would not, as a Protestant church, have had a Roman Catholic speaker preach the sermon that day.

If we had fear, we would not have a woman preach (some churches do not believe in female preachers) that day.

We believe that marriage was established by God as one man, one woman. Gene Robinson and John Corvino do not. Yet, they were our invited guests that day.
We are so secure in our beliefs that we invited those who oppose the historic, biblical, natural definition of marriage to come speak on our platform, as we are convinced that in the spiritual “marketplace of ideas,” God’s truth — yes, even on the definition of marriage – wins.

We are so secure that we invited those of opposing views, those who disagree with us on the definition of marriage, to be in the audience that day. And, they came. And they were treated cordially, like guests.
We are so secure that I have reached out and formed good friendships with many who have opposing views. And I value these relationships.

Ironically, I have not been invited to speak in their circles. The writer of the article has never reciprocated and asked me to speak in his venues. That is fine as I have never expected it or demanded it or – until the writing of this article – even thought about it.

But it does seem odd that he says we have fear when I invited him to share his ideas on our platform, yet he does not invite me to speak in his places of influence. He is certainly not obligated to ask me at all.

(Candidly, I have a “full plate” as it is, so I am not looking for more things to do.) But the question remains: Why? Could it be that those who oppose the biblical view of marriage are afraid – yes, there is that word – to ask me and people like me to speak? I don’t know. Perhaps. Perhaps not. Maybe they have fear. If so, why do they fear us and our ideas, our thoughts, our biblical convictions.

Do we have fear? Only of one thing, or I should say, person: God. We have a healthy fear or reverence or awe.

We fear Him, rather than any person.

There are, however, reasons for cultural concerns. Why are people fired from their jobs for believing that marriage is defined as one man, one woman? Why are people not allowed to get licensed or credentialed if they believe that marriage is one man, one woman?

Would Gene Robinson come to the defense of those who have been fired for expressing their biblical views, their First Amendment right of the full expression of their religious faith? Has he written an article condemning those who are being harassed or fired because they believe marriage is one man, one woman?

He refers to a man from New York City in the article. He does not mention that this man was a Hispanic leader, and a member of the New York City Council who gave a three-minute report about religious liberty in New York City.

Since Gene Robinson lives reasonably close to New York City, did he stand up and defend the right of several hundred black, Hispanic and multi-ethnic congregations that, while the public schools were permitted to rent space to other groups, were thrown out of renting space in public school buildings?
Did the writer of the article miss the key issue that this Hispanic leader from New York City had experienced harassment and discrimination and needed to be defended? Did he fail to mention that a group of black and Hispanic clergy were arrested for protesting that their churches were discriminated against? Why did the author miss the whole reason the Hispanic leader gave the three-minute report from New York City?

And the writer missed one more point. While evangelical churches continue to grow in America and around the world, the denomination of which he is a part has been ripped in two (over the decision to ordain him) and has now split.
The Episcopal Church has been in a downward spiral in attendance for over 50 years, plummeting from the attendance it once was in the middle of the twentieth century, simply because they failed to affirm biblical values.

Why did they fail to affirm biblical values? Because they lacked courage to stand for biblical values, such as the definition of marriage. It is them who have, sadly, walked in fear. Fear of what others might think.
Boldness is walking in truth when the prevailing culture mocks you for it. Fear is when you compromise your values and accommodate to the prevailing winds of belief.

No, we do not walk in fear. Candidly, we walk in faith, in great faith. The Kingdom of God will do great. The authentic churches across America – and there are ten of thousands of them – are doing and will do great.

America, however, might not fare well. If this once great nation continues to drown itself in debt – spending more than it takes in – if she continues the destruction of families – with increasing numbers of children left without mommies and daddies to raise them, then there is reason for concern regarding the future of America.

I suppose that those who have contributed to the moral and economic decline of America should have fear for the fact that they will someday stand before God, and be held accountable for their actions. Now THAT is a reason to have fear.

END