Sex, Money, Power And Religion

      In my years as a newspaper editor I did a good deal of lunchtime speaking to civic clubs. The residual effects upon me are two: I am wary of baked chicken and green peas. And I bristle at complaints about negativity in news reports.
     Nowadays I bristle in silence.  Back then I tried to explain: By definition, news is information that is new in some pertinent way. It is off the norms of what you would assume, expect or already know. It may alert you to foresee experiences tomorrow that you did not have yesterday. Or it may represent a fresh iteration of developments that have affected you before.
     Your weather report leads with storm or drought, not with the 45th consecutive day of bland weather in San Diego.  Your spouse tells you first that your neighbor had a heart attack, not that health in the rest of the neighborhood remains unchanged. Your newspaper reports that the price of milk or peaches is going to jump. It does not go on to detail the continuing abundance of affordable food.
     I had to remind myself of this outlook as I cringed through news reports of the declaration called The Nashville Statement. In it, an evangelical group (convened in Nashville) played judge and jury on issues of sexual orientation, gender identity and same-sex marriage. In one crescendo they declared: "We affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transgenderism ... We deny that the approval of homosexual immorality or transgenderism is a matter of moral indifference about which otherwise faithful Christians should agree to disagree."
     As an observant member of a Christian denomination, I am aware that this hardness of heart does not typify faith or faithful life. The church people in my world are attentive to the core message: Love; do not judge.  They understand the enduring implications of Paul's admonition: There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one ... . They would never call tolerance immoral.
     Still, these news reports perform their function. They alert us.  They remind us that in 21st century America, storm clouds are still boiling on the horizons of our shared life. The so-called Christian right remains aroused and aggressive.
     If they were asked what they were up to in Nashville, I suppose the sponsors of the statement might respond with ministerial language.  Proclaiming the word. Calling out error. That sort of thing.
     But of course confrontational behavior of this sort goes farther, and is meant to. Elements of evangelical leadership have been eager for their ministerial functions to be performed for them by the authorities of secular law. Clearly, in framing their  pronouncement, the Nashville people were not unmindful of energizing a zealous bloc that likes to keep a thumb on the scales of public policy.
     The corrosive effect of mixing religion and politics is nowadays lamentably evident in national affairs. It need not be reviewed here. I am saddened, meanwhile, by high-decibel caricatures of the Christian message. Nowhere does the Bible contain blueprints for a moral caste system that entitles some human beings to look down on others.
     Someone wrote that an idea is not responsible for the behavior of everyone who claims it.  I would hope that the Christian message would not be faulted for the behavior of a faction that is covetous of secular power, cordial to mega-church greed, and intrusively preoccupied with sex.
     About sex the Bible has little to say. About power and greed the Bible has a very great deal to say -- all of it cautionary.