Soul Support

An article in Stanford caught my eye today. It made it as cover story and is titled "Soul Support." It is about the spiritual discussions that have become so much more frequent on the Stanford campus lately. One student said it seems like they've "doubled." Diane Rogers says that "Students are speaking up about their religious beliefs, as many on campus work to replace polite silence with genuine understanding." I was quite pleased going into it, but I had my suspicions about exactly what they were praising in this article, since Stanford isn't exactly the bastion of righteousness I wish it could be.

The format is as follows: The main article with pictures and bios dispersed throughout. The bios are what interested me because they had stories about real people, not just some journalist analyzing the progression of spiritual discussions in dorms and in the classroom. The article was pretty repetetive anyways (that seems to be a trend in the material im reading lately...). It did keep my attention through the whole article, though, so I'll give that much credit to the author/editor.

I read all the bios, but was sorely disappointed with all of the "Christian" entries. The first was of the son of an Episcopal priest. He grew up very much enjoying the church, and said he always felt like a part of it. He apparently struggled with homosexuality and said that in his senior year of high school he decided to choose his faith because his faith was more important to him. How refreshing! Someone who decided to conquer with the power of Christ such a painful struggle. But I was mistaken. That's not what he meant. I guess he meant his community or earthly relationships with people of a certain religion were more important, and that by 'coming out' he would lose those. "That changed during his freshman year on the Farm." It was then that he decided being closeted was keeping him from a right relationship with God. By the time school let out he had a boyfriend that his parents wanted to meet and was still active in the Christian church.

But is honesty really all that's necessary to have a right relationship with God? It's certainly the first step. You have to admit you have sin before you can start seeking a Savior. But there's a difference between confession and repentance and simply "being honest with yourself." Sinful behavior is simply not acceptable to God. It breaks off communion with Him. The apostle Paul addresses this area quite tactfully in Romans 1:27: "and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another. Men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." In 1 Tim 1:9-10, men who practice homosexuality are listed among murderers, the sexually immoral, liars, enslavers, those who dishonor their parents, and that which is contrary to sound, or healthy, doctrine. I simply find no evidence from the Bible or my own experience for the possibility of being in communion with God and being sexually immoral in any way. It doesn't make sense. It can't happen.

Another story that was actually not in a bio reported a Christian that had been dating a Jew for over 2 years. Now, one believes that Jesus Christ is the Messiah and Savior, and another totally rejects that. I'm not sure what sort of spiritual encouragement they could possibly get from each other based on this observation, but I don't see how this is at all excusable. Perhaps the Christian missed 2 Corinthians 6:14 which tells us explicitly not to be "unequally yoked with unbelievers."

One encouraging story featured a particularly gentle student, apparently gifted with service. She says she leans toward the "social" aspect of Christianity. The context was going on missions trips, so I can only assume she means giving of herself to her community (or someone else's!). She seemed pretty solid, being confident that she was "well-equipped" (2 Tim 3:17), striving for "continuous communication with God throughout the day" (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and keeping a daily journal to keep herself accountable. She certainly seemed like an example to be followed!

One red flag came up at the end of the bio, though, when she said she distances herself from "the ugly side of Christianity that can be so alienating for so many people." They didn't go into any detail about it, but I can only hope she meant the history of the Roman Catholicism and not the sayings of Jesus such as are found in Luke 14 or Matthew 7, which contain very radical claims about who is a Christian.

My purpose here is only to follow the command given us in 1 Timothy 4: "Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by doing so you will save both yourself and your hearers." The goal of correction is never rejection, but restoration. We need to guard our life and doctrine and take care that it does not turn one iota to the left or right, then we will rescue ourselves and hearers from sinful behavior and bring each other into a right relationship with God.