Yesterday’s announcement by Tony Campolo indicating his principled support for same sex marriage and the full inclusion of practicing homosexuals within the church took few people within the Evangelical church by surprise. Tony has been travelling this particular trajectory for years.
Back in the 1990’s Tony was a frequent speaker at youth and young adult retreats across North America. I’ve heard Tony live numerous times and even as a young man with limited Biblical discernment, it seemed to me that Tony was more of a story teller than a theologian. He got the feel of faith even if he treated the details with too little care for my liking. I love Tony’s heart for the poor, I love his joy in the Lord, I love his enthusiasm for the Gospel and of course I love his natural gift for narrative and personal humour. As I heard his son Bart say once: “Even if dad’s stories aren’t exactly true, they are so good they ought to be.”
Many of my friends who grew up listening to Tony the youth speaker in the 90’s got involved with Tony the amateur theologian and Evangelical revolutionary in the 2000’s. Tony was the original Red Letter Christian. He spawned a whole generation of people who were intentionally narrowing their focus to the “actual words of Jesus”. “If we could just focus more on what Jesus said, and argue less about the disputable rest, we might see more unity, more mission and more harvest”. So the argument ran.
Despite enjoying Tony the youth speaker, I could never get on board with the Red Letter Revolution. It made no sense to me. Jesus is the second person of the Trinity correct? Therefore in what sense is it true that he is not responsible for the writing of the Old Testament? Are we suggesting that Jesus did not endorse the Holiness Code in Leviticus 18 which says:
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination. (Leviticus 18:22 ESV)
Are we to imagine that when God the Father wrote that one, the Son was off to the side shaking his head and muttering: “I don’t know about that one! That seems a bit harsh.” If Jesus is God then how is he not ultimately responsible for Leviticus 18?
And if Jesus is God and if his word is to be trusted then why don’t we believe what he said about his on-going revelatory ministry through the Apostles? After all Jesus said:
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you. (John 16:12–15 ESV)
In addition to making the point that the words of Jesus, the words of the Father and the words of the Spirit can never be separated in any ultimate way, this passage makes it pretty clear that after his ascension Jesus would continue to speak in an authoritative way via the Holy Spirit through the ministry of the Apostles. He would speak through them. Their words would be like the words of the Old Testament prophets who said: “Thus saith the Lord”. In what sense then can we speak of Paul’s letters as being OTHER THAN the very words of Jesus? Are we to assume that Jesus does not endorse what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10?
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9–11 ESV)
Was Paul out on a limb on this one? Was Jesus covering his face with his hand bemoaning this silly game of broken telephone and wishing he had finished his thought back in John 16 rather than entrusting it to these knuckleheads? Is that what Tony wants us to believe? Because it wasn’t what Tony believed 16 years ago. In a published debate with his wife Peggy, who has long held even more liberal views than Tony on this issue, Tony said this after his wife dismissed the Holiness Code entirely and presented a very suspect interpretation of some other passages from the New Testament:
“For the most part, I would agree with Peggy on those passages, but Romans 1:26-27 makes it clear that any homosexual sexual activity is contrary to what the Bible allows. We can argue over this interpretation or that interpretation, but we must take the church very seriously. The fellowship of believers called the church of Jesus Christ has stood from the time of Christ to the present day, and I believe it speaks with authority. For almost 2,000 years, the church has read Romans 1 in a particular way. People who knew the Apostle Paul personally have written about what Paul meant when he wrote those verses.”[1]
But that was back in 1999. That was back before the Red Letter Revolution. This is what Tony believes now:
"I believe the Bible to have been written by men inspired and guided by the Holy Spirit. I place my highest priority on the words of Jesus, emphasizing the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus makes clear that on Judgment Day the defining question will be how each of us responded to those he calls “the least of these”.
From this foundation I have done my best to preach the Gospel, care for the poor and oppressed, and earnestly motivate others to do the same. Because of my open concern for social justice, in recent years I have been asked the same question over and over again: Are you ready to fully accept into the Church those gay Christian couples who have made a lifetime commitment to one another?
While I have always tried to communicate grace and understanding to people on both sides of the issue, my answer to that question has always been somewhat ambiguous. One reason for that ambiguity was that I felt I could do more good for my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters by serving as a bridge person, encouraging the rest of the Church to reach out in love and truly get to know them. The other reason was that, like so many other Christians, I was deeply uncertain about what was right.
It has taken countless hours of prayer, study, conversation and emotional turmoil to bring me to the place where I am finally ready to call for the full acceptance of Christian gay couples into the Church.
For me, the most important part of that process was answering a more fundamental question: What is the point of marriage in the first place? For some Christians, in a tradition that traces back to St. Augustine, the sole purpose of marriage is procreation, which obviously negates the legitimacy of same-sex unions. Others of us, however, recognize a more spiritual dimension of marriage, which is of supreme importance. We believe that God intends married partners to help actualize in each other the “fruits of the spirit,” which are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control, often citing the Apostle Paul’s comparison of marriage to Christ’s sanctifying relationship with the Church. This doesn’t mean that unmarried people cannot achieve the highest levels of spiritual actualization – our Savior himself was single, after all – but only that the institution of marriage should always be primarily about spiritual growth.
In my own life, my wife Peggy has been easily the greatest encourager of my relationship with Jesus. She has been my prayer partner and, more than anyone else, she has discerned my shortcomings and helped me try to overcome them. Her loving example, constant support, and wise counsel have enabled me to accomplish Kingdom work that I would have not even attempted without her, and I trust she would say the same about my role in her life. Each of us has been God’s gift to the other and our marriage has been a mutually edifying relationship.
One reason I am changing my position on this issue is that, through Peggy, I have come to know so many gay Christian couples whose relationships work in much the same way as our own. Our friendships with these couples have helped me understand how important it is for the exclusion and disapproval of their unions by the Christian community to end. We in the Church should actively support such families. Furthermore, we should be doing all we can to reach, comfort and include all those precious children of God who have been wrongly led to believe that they are mistakes or just not good enough for God, simply because they are not straight.
As a social scientist, I have concluded that sexual orientation is almost never a choice and I have seen how damaging it can be to try to “cure” someone from being gay. As a Christian, my responsibility is not to condemn or reject gay people, but rather to love and embrace them, and to endeavor to draw them into the fellowship of the Church. When we sing the old invitation hymn, “Just As I Am”, I want us to mean it, and I want my gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to know it is true for them too.
Rest assured that I have already heard – and in some cases made – every kind of biblical argument against gay marriage, including those of Dr. Ronald Sider, my esteemed friend and colleague at Eastern University. Obviously, people of good will can and do read the scriptures very differently when it comes to controversial issues, and I am painfully aware that there are ways I could be wrong about this one.
However, I am old enough to remember when we in the Church made strong biblical cases for keeping women out of teaching roles in the Church, and when divorced and remarried people often were excluded from fellowship altogether on the basis of scripture. Not long before that, some Christians even made biblical cases supporting slavery. Many of those people were sincere believers, but most of us now agree that they were wrong. I am afraid we are making the same kind of mistake again, which is why I am speaking out.
I hope what I have written here will help my fellow Christians to lovingly welcome all of our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters into the Church."[2]
Sixteen years later, this is where the Red Letter road leads. As soon as you give yourself permission to truncate the Word of God it is a short step toward editing and eventually ignoring the Word of God. You can hear echoes of that journey in the statement printed above. Listen to this testimony of editing:
“I place my highest priority on the words of Jesus, emphasizing the 25th chapter of Matthew, where Jesus makes clear that on Judgment Day the defining question will be how each of us responded to those he calls “the least of these”.”
Who gave Tony permission to have a “highest priority”? Are we allowed to pick and choose what we believe and what we don’t? If your child said to you that he placed the highest priority on your words related to meal times and social outings, how would you feel about that? That isn’t obedience, that isn’t poverty of spirit, that isn’t Isaiah 66:2:
"But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word." (Isaiah 66:2 ESV)
Not only has Tony narrowed the canon of Scripture down to the “Red Letters” it seems that within the Red Letters he has narrowed further down to “Matthew 25” – the famous story of the sheep and the goats. Even here we see evidence of editing. Tony summarizes the passage by talking about the now infamous “least of these”. Notice anything missing? The full text. The line is “the least of these my brethren”. See the full citation below:
And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’ (Matthew 25:40 ESV)
Some scholars like to debate the identity of the least of these my brethren but a comparison with two parallel passages leaves little doubt as to what is meant:
"And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward.” (Matthew 10:42 ESV)
While he was still speaking to the people, behold, his mother and his brothers stood outside, asking to speak to him. 48 But he replied to the man who told him, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” 49 And stretching out his hand toward his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! (Matthew 12:46–49 ESV)
The least of these my brethren means “my disciples from the greatest to the least”. Tony never mentions that. Tony doesn't exegete the passage to determine whether this activity is how Christians earn their salvation or how Christians show their salvation. He doesn't compare with other texts to determine who these "least of these my brethren are". He doesn't even mention "my brethren". He just talks about how the heart of what God wants from us is ministry to the poor.
Editing.
Tony has spent the last 16 years speaking an ever narrowing Christian message. Love the poor. Care for the outcast. Include others.
That’s good.
I’m all for that.
I believe in that – but I also believe IN THE REST of what the Bible says. I believe that Jesus hung out with sinners – TO CALL THEM TO REPENTANCE. Tony always leaves that part out. Jesus actually said (verse in full):
31 “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 32 I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance .” (Luke 5:31–32 ESV)
The truth is that Tony has never paid much attention even to those Red Letters. Red Letters too often get in the way of a good story.
I want to affirm a lot of what Tony said in his statement. I want to agree that the church should be more welcoming to homosexuals. I want to agree that many gay people don’t chose to be gay – they are born with desires that point away from the design of God. I want to agree with that but unlike Tony, I need to tell the rest of the story. I need to say that the grace of God can OVERCOME contrary desires and replace them, by one degree of glory to the next – with BETTER DESIRES! I want to say that while Jesus did say: “Judge not lest ye also be judged” he ALSO said:
Do not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgment.” (John 7:24 ESV)
We have to wrestle with ALL the Red Letters – and all the black letters too! To be a child of God is to take God at his Word. Jesus said that:
“Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you? (Luke 6:46 ESV)
14 You are my friends if you do what I command you. (John 15:14 ESV)
Red Letter Jesus sounds a lot like the God who wrote Isaiah 66:2. If you think about it, that kind of makes sense.
By his own admission Tony has been listening to a lot less of the word of God over the last 16 years. By contrast, it seems, he has been listening to a lot more of the voice of Peggy, his wife. In his statement, he said:
“One reason I am changing my position on this issue is that, through Peggy, I have come to know so many gay Christian couples whose relationships work in much the same way as our own.”
All sin sounds so much like original sin. There was something of that in the sin of Adam as well. When God confronted Adam for his failure he said:
“Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you (Genesis 3:17 ESV)
There are many voices of truth competing for our attention. Tony, like Adam before him, chose poorly. He slowly squeezed out the voice of God and began to make an idol of his wife. He wasn’t the first, he won’t be the last. This isn’t a criticism of wives – I have one and love her counsel – this is a criticism of listening to anything ABOVE the Word of God. I don’t care whether it is your wife, your husband, or the New York Times. If you listen to anything ABOVE the Scriptures – Red Letter and Black – then you have begun to fall. The fact that we could see this coming doesn’t make it any less tragic.
Its time to get off the Red Letter road. This is where it leads. It leads to editing, marginalizing and eventually ignoring the Word of God. Let’s get off and let’s go back. The way back is well lit in some of those much neglected black letters. The Scripture says:
“Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, you who seek the LORD: look to the rock from which you were hewn, and to the quarry from which you were dug. (Isaiah 51:1 ESV)
This the Word of the Lord, thanks be to God.
SDG
Paul Carter
[1] sojo.net/magazine/1999/05/holding-it-together
[2] To read the statement in full see here: tonycampolo.org/for-the-record-tony-campolo-releases-a-new-statement/