What we don’t need now, is angry Christians

Let’s tune in to a corner of the internet, which I usually try to ignore.

“I’m furious at Andrew Thorburn,” writes the very conservative Bernard Gaynor. There’s two of him – father and son, both extremely outspoken. This is BG the younger who has the slogan Stand tall fight hard.

“Thorburn had an opportunity [to] be brave. To stand tall. To fight hard.

“But he squibbed it. Big time. He’s run away with his tail between his legs.

“‘”Andrew Thorburn acted like a cowardly loser. That’s fine for him. He was CEO of NAB. I’m sure he can afford to be a cowardly loser.

“It’s a different story for the rest of us. The little people need blokes like Andrew Thorburn to do his duty. The little people can’t afford to lose their jobs like him.

“That brings me to the second reason to be very, very upset with Andrew Thorburn.

“While Andrew Thorburn was CEO of NAB he empowered and fostered those who sniff out Christians and persecute them. That’s exactly what he did.”

So while Andrew Thorburn is accused by many of the public squareof being mean to LGBTQIA persons because he chairs a mainstream evangelical church, he’s also accused by some angry Christians of being too nice to LGBTQIA. (Pray for Thorburn, please.)

If not anger, other Christians are struggling with sarcasm: a prominent Christian blogger whom I greatly respect, self-deleted a post yesterday because of tone. It is hard.

Another tone, a grim realistic one was struck by Michael Bird of Ridley Melbourne, an evangelical Anglican theological college, when he posted “There is no prospect of throwing our hands up in the air, graciously conceding that we have lost the culture war, and then exiting stage left from the podium to some monastery to live out our days practicing prayer and contemplation. Wherever we go our adversaries will follow us and find us.”

True. That passage is from his book “Religious Freedom in a Secular Age.” It is not a fly-by-night comment.

Bird adds “Militant secularists tell us that our religious beliefs are affronting, a threat to the social order, and our beliefs must either be muted or brought into compliance with the progressive vision. These secularists urge religious communities to lay down their diatribal swords, to surrender their weapons of protest, and to yield up their armouries of apologetic discourse. To which I respond: molōn labe, come and take them! “

(For non-readers of the Ancient Roman writer Plutarch, “come and take them” is a translation of molōn labe).

Bird makes it clear, for evangelicals, a response to the Essendon saga is needed. He’s saying we can’t avoid it. He’s counselling that we continue to to say what we believe, and not be silenced. That’s the thing he says we should not surrender.

But getting the tone right is not easy.

In the heat of the moment, as City on a Hill’s senior pastor, Guy Mason found out on Seven’s Sunrise, getting a considered argument across is hard. Read the transcript here https://theothercheek.com.au/city-on-a-hills-guy-mason-in-a-no-holds-barred-interview-freedom-for-faith-calls-for-a-religious-freedom-act/

Thorburn as CEO of the National Australia Bank led an organisation that sponsors the Midsummer festival, Melbourne’s main gay festival, and held its own gay month.

That is what a Christian who leads a large secular organisation should be doing. Christians can not expect to be given space to be different from others if they refuse it to those who are different from them. 

Christians who lead faith-based organisations have a parallel responsibility – they should extend hospitality to “outsiders” if we expect Christian “outsiders” to be welcome in secular bodies. 

I expect that hospitality in both directions will be incomplete. In the same way as a Christian school will be nervous about a non-Christian teacher, a Football club will be worried about a Christian CEO. In my view, both should embrace difference.

That is hard. One commentator on this site says Thorburn is speaking out both sides of his mouth if he says homosexuality is a sin, while doing what he did at NAB and supporting Pride iniatives. Perhaps 1 Peter 3:15 is part of an answer to that: our message should be given with gentlenress and respect, even if it is not received that way.

Instead of the “Stand tall, Fight hard” mentality of Gaynor, we need to “Stand firm, Fight soft.” 

Listen to our leader who tells us we’ll get help in getting the tone of our response right. “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.Be on your guard; you will be handed over to the local councils and be flogged in the synagogues.On my account you will be brought before governors and kings as witnesses to them and to the Gentiles.But when they arrest you, do not worry about what to say or how to say it. At that time you will be given what to say,or it will not be you speaking, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you.” (Matthew 10:16–20)

We are not at the arrest stage, unlike those sisters and brothers who face persecution in other nations rather than disagreements here. It is worth noting that Jesus is talking about protecting speech, not status or privilege for his followers. Scripture gives little comfort to Christians who might wish for a privileged space in society.

As always, time to turn the other cheek.

Image by Karolina Grabowska