The New Normal

Earlier this week I watched an episode of a TV show called, “The New Normal”. In this particular episode a situation was posed that caused questions to begin reeling through my mind. While this program is what we'd term a situation comedy, I found not much to laugh about.

I'll presume that you aren't familiar with this show and give you a little background. A gay couple from LA, CA has hired a surogate mother from Cleveland, OH to carry their child. This surogate has a daughter and grandmother in tow as well. The grandmother has a mouth with absolutely no filter and she is bent far right politically speaking. This of course causes all sorts of opportunities to laugh at the situations that they find themselves in.

At any rate, a situation arose in this particular episode where the gay couple was faced with the prospect of spirituality for their unborn child. One of the partners is a Jewish doctor, the other a Catholic TV executive. Neither of them “practice” a faith of any sort as you would imagine. Where it becomes difficult is that the “Catholic” partner begins to seek God via the Catholic Church. He is met by what appears to be a very hip priest. In the end the priest invites him and his partner to attend mass.

This episode was a true departure from what is normally to be expected in viewing this show. I found myself silent after watching and contemplating this very serious issue. The question I asked myself, and later my wife is, “Now what?”.

In America we find ourselves in a very polarized existence. In the body of Christ we can scarcely find ourselves in church with people of different races, least of all sexual preferences (for lack of a better term). We have differences along denominational lines, practical lines, and troublingly, racial lines. Is the gay and lesbian line the final frontier or just another in a long line of “religious” battlefronts and strongholds that we need to overcome?

Here's the problem as I see it. As a Christ follower, I have been tasked to draw all men/women unto Him. I find this more difficult to do than to say in this case for several reasons. For one thing, Christians at large have drawn lines in the sand with respect to the gay and lesbian community and made it very plain, in my opinion that they are the enemy of everything holy. On the other hand, the gay and lesbian community has done the same thing. It appears to me that we are in a situation where these people will never feel welcome, nor comfortable enough in our “meetings” to begin to seek our God. This is a problem. Can you imagine a gay couple coming to YOUR church with their family and sitting next to you on the pew? How would you react? Would you move away? Would you give them the obligatory hand or hug of fellowship at the appropriate time? Think on that.

At the end of the day, we are all sinners. People who preside over church, people who are leaders in church, and people who attend church have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We were all, I presume, given an opportunity though to work out our salvation while not feeling alienated from those that lived a “better” moral life. How do we carry out the “great commission" with respect to the gay and lesbian community? That is the question. I have absolutely no answer. I do however believe that there needs to be a discussion about this and I also believe that some healing needs to take place in order for us to even have a launching point from which we can repair this breach.

Friends, if you've made it this far in reading this post, please leave a comment? I am serious in my inquiries and I truly wish to find answers to these most serious questions. I for one, do not want to stand before God with no answer for Him about why I didn't even try to reach the least of these.

I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Keep the faith and wear the crown. Holla!