I get it. But…
The rhetoric around this campaign (which I get, whether “He” does, or not) has been such a challenge to me these past few weeks. Despite the sources or the intent of the sponsors, through this campaign, my church and I are making contacts with people who DO need an encounter with the “woke Jesus” who I know…not to convert so much as to serve. The HGU system is making this possible (until they read these words and cut us off for not following party lines).
It has been a privilege to serve those people who are funneled to us through their system and who are NOT going to get the “line” that perhaps the deep pockets behind HGU are hoping for. 😉
And I laugh. Because…this still is standing in the Holy Canon: “And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal dwellings” (ESV). That’s even in red letters for those who look for such things!
Subversive to the donors’ intent? Hmmm. Maybe. But I think perhaps he really DOES get us (the awakened church) where this is concerned as well. It could be that the God of the very loving, inclusive, “woke” Rabbi, if not The Servant Christian Foundation, will forgive this “liberal” pastor and his hopeful and trusting flock for intruding into their “party.”
Am I wrong? I’m not trying to align myself or my congregation with something evil, but to move us toward serving those who are offered to us—even if offered by people whose motives may not align with our understanding of faithful living as Christ-followers.
Or, to put it more pointedly, have any of us received salary from a congregation which has been in any way benefactor of funding from the things they may be ethically edgy about (gaming, alcohol, sexually exploitative businesses, or other amoral or immoral) financial sources? I know that I have…and as “dirty” as the money may have been in its sourcing, somehow it has not been refused by the institution that “sanctified” it.
Just thinking…
Skin of My Teeth 