What the Evangelical Church Often Fails to Get

In the aftermath of last week's SCOTUS ruling, I see a lot of fear from my fellow Christians. Fear that their ideals, their values, will be alienated.

And I get it. I really do. And there's a part of me that sympathizes with them more than my liberal friends would like to know.

But in the midst of all of the hubbub, after the dust had settled, something occurred to me.

That alienation they are feeling today? I've had to live with that same alienation for 26 years, as I've tried to find my place within the evangelical church. Not because of the lifestyle I've lived, nope...I've been married for 20 years to the same woman, have never betrayed that covenant, I've raised my kids to the best of my ability, and I have always tried to be an agent of compassion and grace.

No, the alienation comes about from so many because I'm not condemning enough. Because I don't judge people on welfare without knowing them, because I won't agree with the idea of kicking undocumented workers who've committed no crime out of the country...but mostly because I refuse to condemn my LGBT neighbors.

And if you're looking for me to change in those positions, it's not going to happen.

I believe, and I remain firm in the belief that conviction is the job of the Holy Spirit. It is not mine. And I really do not want to be subject to the kind of judgment I believe I'm due. As such, I refuse to subject others to that judgment.

The one, the single objection that I have heard repeatedly from others within the church is that their refusal to marry homosexuals might cost them their tax exempt status.

To that concern, I have to ask the question: who do you serve, God or Mammon? Scripture is clear that you cannot serve both.

For 3 years, out of my own pocket, I have self funded a very small, one person ministry. It's not near what I would like it to be, but I chose at the outset to refuse nonprofit status. I chose it because it is important that my motives in this particular ministry never become financial.

I say that not to brag, I am saying it simply because, in the absence of tax exempt status, you find a way. And while it will be hard, it does not mean the end of any ministry.

I beg my brothers and sisters in Christ to remember that at the core of this rather contentious issue are people who are simply trying as best they can to live out their faiths. And that refusing to condemn another person for their failings is not a sin.