Most Americans, including Christians, now support equal rights for gays and lesbians serving in the U.S. military.
A new poll by the Pew Research Center indicates that 58 percent of Americans support equal rights for gays and lesbians in the armed forces. Large majorities of Democrats (70 percent) and independents (62 percent) favor allowing gays to serve openly. Republicans are divided (40 percent favor, 44 percent oppose).
But let's look at the religious breakdown too:
Let me be clear, I'm very glad to have Christians moving toward a strong stance in support of equal rights for gays and lesbians in all sectors of society. This is a positive step forward for the society at large and Christians should be part of it.
The Pentagon report released yesterday finds significant support for repealing DADT among the younger "blue collar warriors," while a vocal minority of top brass will be uncomfortable with the shift. And don't get me wrong, I want the churches to continue to support fair and equal treatment for gays and lesbians.
However, there are other sticky questions I want to raise.
Are the Christians that want a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell also supporting gays and lesbians within their own churches? Do they advocate for LGBT justice and liberation? Do they invest in and promote gay and lesbian leadership and open their congregations to new, liberating ways of reading scripture in the context of the LGBT life experience?
Secondly, are the Christians that want a repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell also calling into question military service in an era when the U.S. has the second largest standing army in the world (behind China) and has troops stationed on all six inhabited continents?
I can support equal rights for gays in the military, but there's the bigger question: As a Christian should I be supporting military participation at all? And how do Christians critique the prevailing "Empire consciousness" and offer instead our "prophetic imagination" or "alternative consciousness," as theologian Walter Brueggemann calls it, on issues of war and peace?
If Christians are supporting the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell, then are they also advocating strong teaching in their churches on the Christian pacifist tradition or the rigorous moral "just war" process that any Christian -- gay or straight -- must go through before participating in any given war?
When Jesus says "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God," what does he mean? Or when he says, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you"? Or "To the person who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other one as well, and from the person who takes your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic"?
Early generations of Christians refused to participate in war (though those who did were counseled and sometimes asked not to seek communion for a period of time, but were not cut off from community). Soldiers who subsequently converted to Christianity often left military service, viewing it as incompatible with their new life.
Why? Largely because of idolatry. Military service forced them to put the gods of nationalism ahead of the God of Jesus Christ. Military service also fostered hatred for an enemy, an attitude viewed as antithetical to Christ's teachings. "Love of enemies is the principal precept of the Christian," said the Tunisian theologian Tertullian in the first century. Until the time of Constantine no Christian writing allowed for Christians to participate in war. Military valor was not a virtue. True victory was won through love.
In a democracy that enshrines civil rights and "justice for all," it is right and good for Americans to support the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell and promote LGBT civil rights in the society at large.
Christians, however, have another set of values to examine. For traditionalists it may be whether you can be gay and Christian. For progressives, it's whether you can be Christian and "Army Strong."
This post first appeared on Rose Marie Berger's personal blog.
Don't ask, don't tell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Don't Ask, Don't Tell - Servicemembers Legal Defense Network
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Judge orders 'don't ask, don't tell' injunction - Yahoo! News
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No delay for 'don't ask, don't tell' ruling, so Pentagon takes ...
The Kingdom of God is within you.
Passive resistance is a great concept, and it certainly has its place. But it also has its limits.
A Christian should not entertain any notion of patriotism or loyalty of such social constructions that are based upon evil methods. In the world but not of the world. Those who foment war and revolution in the name of Christ or not Christian. Rather they are Zealots, the first century expression of the antichrist.
Much of the justification for violence we see today is based on the Book of Revelations, an apocalyptic Jewish text through and though, one which Martin Luther rejected as not belonging in the canon because it contrasted with the Gospel version of Christ beyond acceptable limits and because its visions were being taken as material realities rather than the spiritual warfare it depicted. Unfortunately, once a book became included in the canon by fiat of church council, it became an object of biblical idolatry.
You've made this issue way too complicated. Opposition to the repeal of DADT has nothing to do with "equal rights for gays and lesbians in the armed forces" rather it has to do with whether or not an open homosexual lifestyle is compatible with the military readiness and discipline.
Further, your idea of a "rigorous moral "just war" process" escapes me entirely.
The goal of war is to influence an opponent to do our will. The ideal of war is to accomplish this without violence. Sadly, ideals are just that. The only "rigorous moral "just war" process" is a straitforward calculation - which is likely to generate greater evil (injustice, oppression, violence etc.) the decision to apply violence or the decision not to apply violence.
Repeal of DADT is far overdue.
And your opinion would matter, if the military were a democracy.
Yes, many Christians who want to repeal DODT support GLBT individuals within their own congregations.
Yes, we are calling into question military service in the first place. Many of us are coming to the answer that no, we should not be supporting military participation.
Yes, we are advocating strong teachings on the Christian pacifist tradition.
It is a matter of simultaneously loving God and loving your neighbor, the two are not mutually exclusive.
Thank you for your thoughtful insights.
My personal belief has always been that the same men who think nothing of exposing women to sexual harrassment are scared--uh, spitless--at the thought of facing any themselves.
Why we even call it "alternative lifestyle" is beyond me since we give them no alternative!
Wait, that's not funny... Thiat's SAD!
www.Twitter.com/WillRogersUSA
And they do, thanks to the cross. But there is a cross.
if we are to accept your conclusion based on faith, we should accept everyone's conclusions based on 'faith'.
Therefore, people don't go to heaven, the get reincarnated.
It seems to me that if not for the Christian religion, DADT wouldn't be an issue in the first place. Every law against homosexuality from DADT to gay-marriage, has been based on Biblical teachings and implemented by Christians holding political power.
The LGBT and liberal move likes God's second greatest command. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’, with disregard for the first, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’
And really does not like what Jesus has to say here:
“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them."
Nor do they understand fulfillment vs. abolish, in favor of abolishing. Most own a bible but have never read through it.
Grave misunderstandings. Only God is just, you are trying to trump God with your world view of justice in his name.
If homosexuality is not a choice--and the evidence is very strong--then rejecting homosexuals is rejecting God, for they are also in His image.
And how in heck did you or anyone else miss all that Jesus said about God's love in favor of the Old Testament harshness?
Question is; Are Christians compassionate toward LGBT's who attend church? and; Is it compassionate to lead someone to a false sense of salvation?
New and liberating? "Hey look here, God was wrong!" "Paul was not inspired!" "Jesus never said that, did he?" I don't like the way that one was interpreted by thousands of scholars."
Sounds like talk from the garden. Deceit in the name of the Lord. Nice Rose, interpret God's word to fit a lifestyle. It's not false teaching, just enlightened interpretation.
No question social justice and personal kindness are important, but this is God's greatest command number two, but disregard God's greatest command? To reject God's commands, live an unrepenant lifestyle, yet expect God's grace? Do I love my brother or sister by showing them the true and narrow path or making them feel good with a false sense of salvation?
So why, assuming one thinks homosexuality is a bad thing, can't we look at the whole person....There are many young people in the military who died or were maimed for what they thought was a worthy cause at the time....yet they were compelled to hide part of themselves as if they should be ahsamed....why would we do that to them or anyone else who's just trying to make their way in this often awfull world....They should be themselves and not be made to feel bad about it......if one is fortunate enough to find someone to love and care for and who returns that love what business is it of mine or yours what their genders are?
It's OK to kill for the country but not to have marriage rights.