Response From (and, to…) Sojourners

I just promised my friend Tobias that my last post on Sojourners would be my LAST post on Sojourners… Tobias, believe it or not, I really do take your comments to heart.

But I wanted to share this:  I got an e-mail from them a few days ago after my multiple e-mails, expressing my concerns about their decisions regarding the LGBTQ-friendly “Believe Out Loud” ads.

Hi Peter,

Hope you are well. I wanted to let you know that Sojourners has put together a frequently asked questions document trying to answer some of the questions people have about our decision. This document won’t answer all of your concerns but we have heard from others that it is at least helpful in clarifying what our position is. I know you have been blogging about this and hope the document is helpful.

http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.advert_faq

Let me know if you have any questions. Feel free to email or call… my cell number is below.
Many thanks,

Tim King
SOJOURNERS
Communications Director

Here’s my response:

Hi Tim,
I appreciate the e-mail, thank you.  I read over the FAQ and can appreciate the bind Sojourners is in, as a student myself at an Evangelical seminary (George Fox) that will not take a stand on LGBTQ issues.  I give them a hard time, too.

However, what really simplifies this issue for me is the comparative question of race: if the issue in question was whether or not Sojourners would compromise its efforts on poverty to stand in solitary for racial equality and integration, this would not even be a conversation.  Sojourners would not fight to maintain friendly “coalitions” with racist Christian organizations for the sake of the poor.  I see race and sexual orientation as interchangeable in this argument, and Sojourners has chosen to relegate LGBTQ sisters and brothers to a lower status for the sake of another marginalized group.  This is horizontal violence, initiated vertically.

I have given money to Sojourners in the past, and align myself ideologically in many ways.  I don’t wish to beat down my sisters and brothers in Christ because of mere theological disagreements.  But this is not only theological.  It is an issue of human rights, and I believe Sojourners tried to take the safest path – a path that would avoid jeopardizing ties with well-moneyed conservative allies in the war on poverty.

There has been a lot of vitriol on the blogosphere from all of this, and I confess I have participated to some degree.  I am sorry if I risk overzealousness in opposition to other Christians, but cannot watch the symbolic impact this ordeal has had on those very close to me, and not react.  I think Sojourners decision was a political miscalculation, rather than a spirit-led move.  I think Western society is moving rapidly toward open affirmation of LGBTQ people, and here, Sojourners has played a role in slowing the church’s positive response to it, rather than “progressively” moving the church forward.

Thanks for your time.
In Christ,

Peter