Go.  Read this NOW.

I’m very much disturbed to see how often it is that Christians are so devoutly interested in upholding their scriptures that they don’t mind if either God or neighbor gets black and blue in the process.

The trick to being an evangelical these days seems to be the willingness to maintain that evil is not necessarily evil when it comes to God. Besmirching His character under the ironic cover of defending God, what passes for good Christian apologetics is actually much more of a defense of prized doctrines such as inerrancy or Augustinian/Reformed soteriology than the only thing worth defending, viz. God’s character. Defending both our carefully constructed doctrines and God’s character cannot always be done simultaneously because they are often at loggerheads (or else many popular apologists would be without a job). Slick, ear-tickling apologetics serve the much-in-demand function of reassuring people that the Bible is everything they think it needs to be in order for their faith to remain comfortable and unquestionable.

….

I’ll be blunt: Holy Scripture or “historic, orthodox” doctrines notwithstanding, the only way God is worth worshiping is if He’s good and loving through and through. I will not subjugate love to scarcely warranted glory or petty retribution disguised as justice. My faith is in a God whose soul is more lovely than ours, who has a higher, more wholesome sense of love and justice than we are able to walk in as humans. My hope is built on nothing less than this!

Srsly. Go read it.  I think you’ll be glad you did.

Dear beloved Sister in Christ,

I’m not God.  I can’t explain why this has happened.  But I love you, and God loves you, and neither of us wants to see you hurting.

Your ex-boyfriend sucks.  Truly.  It sounds like he is an abuser, even if he never harmed you physically.  The wounds of verbal and emotional abuse, and the scars they leave behind, are every bit as real as physical injuries.  Most importantly, you are not responsible for his intolerable and reprehensible behavior.  You do not deserve what happened.  What you are responsible for is the choices you may from now on, how you choose to live your life.  Right now, you’re a victim.  The dream of my heart is to see you transformed into a survivor.  That is where God is calling you. 

I know this, because I was a victim, and I’m a survivor now.  I have loved someone who may not ever know how to love.  I married and lived for more than 15 years with an abuser, with someone who punished me until I no longer even needed him to be the punisher: I became perfectly capable of doing it to myself.  I, too, have felt like a ruined woman, like used goods, like a person no man in his right mind would want.

And today, I am married to the most wonderful man in the world.  He’s cute, but goofy-looking.  He’s brilliant, and he’s broken.  He’s just like me, and we’re totally different.  And he treats me like a precious gift.

There is such a thing as a godly relationship, as a Christian romance.  This isn’t necessarily about abstinence or austerity.  It is about the kind of love Jesus calls us to.  It is recognizing your partner as that precious and beautiful gift, a gift that God entrusts to us for a time, to lovingly care for.  It is sometimes about giving up what you want, so that your partner can have what he or she needs; it is also about accepting the gifts your partner has lovingly given you, out of similar sacrifice.  It is about recognizing each day that you are in this relationship, this romance, this partnership because both of you have chosen to be there.  Neither of you is trapped.  Neither of you is forced.  It is your choice.

So you’re not a virgin.  So what!  What is past is past, and the only one who gets to hold that against you is God.  But God is a God of compassion and grace and forgiveness — God chooses not to hold it against you.  So don’t hold it against yourself!  You are beautiful, and you are precious, and you are a gift God has given to all of us.  And when you have trouble believing in that for yourself, I ask you to put your trust in people of faith and grace: we’ll believe in you for you.

This sucky, abusive ex-boyfriend does have one redeeming value.  He brought you to the Church, and he brought you to God.  He may suck as a Christian — I don’t know his heart, so I won’t say he does — but he gave you at least this one, very precious gift.  God exists.  And God will never, ever, ever, ever leave you alone.  Trust me on this one: even when I’ve tried to get God to eff off and leave me the eff alone (and in those words), all God does is take one step back, give me a little space, and stand there, ready to embrace me in God’s loving arms again.  God weeps for you, and God weeps with you.  God aches for your brokenness, and God yearns to fill you with God’s healing light.

In 1998, the abuse I’d experienced in my marriage drove me into a severe depression.  I was hospitalized three times that year, the third time following a suicide attempt.  Yes, I chose to try to end my life; that was the depth of my despair and hopelessness.  But I’m still here.  I may have committed what is called the unforgivable sin, the complete rejection of God; I’ve also learned that anyone afraid of committing this sin, truly has not.  I have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, and I know God is with me.

I know God is with you, dear one, even when you cannot sense God’s presence.

The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift up the light of his countenance upon you
and give you peace.

And may the blessing of our infinitely-loving, perfectly-forgiving God be with you, beloved sister, in the name of the Father who runs to greet the prodigal with hugs; and in the name of Jesus who lived as a man and experienced abandonment, hopelessness, and rejection; and in the name of the Holy Spirit, who is present with us in wind and water and fire. 

Amen.

Yeah, intolerance is the problem, I totally agree. Intolerance like this:

“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.’” (John 14:6)

Love the believer… But don’t pretend the belief isn’t open to question.

If you are upset about your religion being associated with intolerant assholes then, please, disassociate yourself from intolerant assholes.

Undercover Nun is ALL ABOUT disassociating Christianity from intolerant assholes, false prophets, bigots, purveyors of hatred, and those who live in fear.

With regard to the line of scripture ContraRarian quotes, I love that Brian McLaren reveals how this is often interpreted:

I am in the Way of the Truth and the Life.

In fact, there are many who quote this line, whose other speech leads me to translate their words just this same way.  If you are in the way of the truth and the life, then you are not behaving as a Christian.  The Great Commission is to lead people toward God, and Jesus has some pretty harsh things to say about those who put stumbling blocks in front of God’s children.

This morning, Undercover Nun would like to point out some behaviors that are the opposite of what God wants from us, behaviors that get in the way of the truth and the life.

• Saying, or making signs that say, “God hates _____.”  God doesn’t hate anything or anybody.  Remember how, after God created something, God declared it good? 
• Saying or believing that bad things happen to people because the people are bad.  Bad things happen to everybody.  It sucks, but it’s the real world.
• Racing out as the church service ends, and cutting off your fellow parishioners to get out of the parking lot ahead of them.
• Driving like a demon, especially if you have Jesus fish or other Christian-themed decals on your car.
• Insisting on only one true and right way to achieve God’s favor.
• Putting limits on God, especially on God’s grace.
• Ignoring the poor, the widows, the orphans, the hungry, the homeless, the prisoners, the thirsty, the sick.  This includes the ones in your hometown, and yes, there are poor and homeless people in your hometown.
• Living in fear of scarcity, rather than in the joy of abundant life.
• Wishing hell for any person or group of persons.
• Denying respect and dignity to any person or group of persons.
• Placing yourself (or anyone else) between a person and God’s grace.
• … and plenty of others.

Undercover Nun often finds herself siding with atheists, agnostics, and those who hunger for God but have been harmed by the Church.  There are many, many false prophets in our world — people who try to make Christianity and/or the Church about themselves, rather than about God.  There are many, many Christians who would prefer to ignore the very clear commandment from Jesus to love all persons.  Undercover Nun knows that God will shower these people with grace and love, just as God will shower the poor, the hungry, and the disenfranchised with grace and love.  But in the meantime, I’m going to keep pointing them out, challenging them, and declaring them to be false prophets.  Because, as another blogger has pointed out, Jesus really does need better PR.