Choices, choices, choices: Christian Freedom in Public

My community is wrestling with the issue of LGBTQ+ books (and, I presume, other literature) in the public library. Simply: are books that promote, support, and celebrate such “alternative” lifestyle, sexual “freedom” and “choice” acceptable to the community and library patrons? 

By vocation, I am a Christian pastor in a theologically and doctrinally conservative church body and parish. I also hold the vocation of community citizen, generally conservative and generally libertarian in my opinion and approach. This is my personal reflection, not from my Office on behalf of either the parish or denomination. 

Those who support the inclusion of LGBTQ+ books argue that they are protected by the 1st Amendment, this is a Freedom of Speech issue, the Supreme Court determined that homosexual marriage is legal and thus normalizing it across society, and that as a community’s public library, it should not restrict a free exchange of ideas – even those ideas that one might disagree with.  

 If I were merely a citizen, I would have to say these arguments are pretty solid – particularly the SCOTUS ruling and the First Amendment. Yes, we know “limits on free speech” exist, such as not yelling “FIRE!” in a theater, but this is not endangering anyone’s life. Making the books available is not the same as forcing them into someone’s reading list. We are free to choose – how to live, what to read, where to read, and so on. Libraries exist to share ideas and information, even if we disagree. As a libertarian, I decline to impose my ideas on you and expect the same in return. If you want to read LGBTQ+ work, or Dr. Zhivago, or Calvin and Hobbes, or even Calvin’s Institutes, for that matter, you have the right to do so and the expectation to find it in a public place. I might disagree, but I would respect that right, if not the material.

But I am not “merely” a citizen. My citizenship is guided by my faith; my faith is served by but not controlled by my citizenship. In fact, there are times where my citizenship is at odds with my faith, and in those moments, my citizenship must take the back seat. There is a verse in the Bible that says, “We must obey God rather than men.” In times like that, a Christian must obey his (or her) conscience, not the Constitution, and accept the civil consequences that may come. So, as a Christian citizen, my conscience surrenders to a Word of higher authority than the Bill of Rights and the Constitution: the Bible, the very Word of God.

God gives many, great gifts to His people and He establishes boundaries of how those gifts are to be used. He gives us books and literature and the ability to read and write, more than just the Bible. He gives the gift of people with whom we can act and interact. But there are limits on physical relationships. Although the Supreme Court disagrees, God places a boundary for one husband and one wife united in lifelong marriage for mutual support, companionship, and reproduction. It is a reflection of the greater marriage of Christ to His Church. As such, it is built on love that gives fully and freely, of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. 

God gives great freedom within His boundaries for the enjoyment of His gifts, but the boundaries remain in place. There’s another Bible verse that says “all things are permissible, but not all things are beneficial.” It’s permissible (that is, I have the ability) to read all sorts of things, but just because I can doesn’t mean I should. I do not seek to stifle free speech. I support the 1^st Amendment – it also covers freedom of religion - and while I can agree publishers can print and sell pro-LGBTQ+ materials, I do not have to support their availability in the public sector. Pro-LGBTQ+ literature aggrandizes a lifestyle is outside those boundaries established by God, destroying His boundaries of gender, identity, and ideology, replacing everything with the self which becomes its own god. It demands not only tolerance, but obeisance to its agenda – ironically, refusing to tolerate anything with which it disagrees. The LGBTQ+ books seek to normalize these out-of-bounds choices as, well, normal.    

Ergo: because the LGBTQ+ lifestyle and agenda are counter to God’s Word, I oppose including literature that supports such LGBTQ+ leaning in the public library. At the risk of arrogantly assuming a famous quote from a particular hero: Here I stand…I can do no other.

Now, I do have a question for my fellow opponents of these books: where do we stop? Where do we join Sheldon Cooper and Captain Jean Luc Picard: “The line must be drawn here, but no farther!” What is the litmus test against which we lay our (self)righteous anger? Are we upset because we personally dislike the subject, or are we upset because it goes against God’s Word? There is a distinction, and it is a distinction with a difference. Our personal opinion will always be a sliding scale, rationalization depending on us. God’s Word is always a constant; it never changes, regardless how we might feel about it. 

Let me restate my question: if you are up in arms about the LGBTQ+ literature, truly and solely on the basis of God’s Word, where do you stand in other literature, books, and movies that go contra His Word? Do you want to ban them as well? Allow two brief examples:

-        There is an entire section of the library of so-called “harlequin romances.” Rarely, if ever, do these novels describe the monogamous marriage of one man and one woman. Rather, these usually tell sordid tales of affairs and emotionless coupling - all in very graphic detail, I might add. These are heterosexual relationships, but they are outside the bonds of marriage, ergo also a sexual sin in the eyes of God. As a culture and society, we turn a blind eye to heterosexual sin but God does not remain silent. Does anyone stand and oppose these books being on the shelves?

 -        In the DVDs, there is a movie called The Wolf of Wall Street starring Leonardo DeCaprio. When it was released, it set a new Hollywood record for the number of times the “F-word” was used. According to his January 8, 2014 article at Vulture.com, Gilbert Cruz counted 569 uses of the word as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and interjection. The icing on the cake: over 300 curse words in one form or another. Will we allow our family members to watch and listen to almost 1000 specific words that are displeasing to God? 

A quick cruise through the stacks and rows will produce countless examples of books that utilize violence, greed, and dehumanize others. Are we upset because they often glamorize the seven deadly sins? Even classic books like Lord of the Flies, or The Pearl, or Huckleberry Finn – should they also be scrubbed from our literary possibilities because of how they address violence, greed, and people of different skin color? The Harry Potter series is based on fantasy and magic. The Bible speaks adamantly against “magic” – should someone conjure up the spell bookus removus ex shelvus librarus? After all, those are hardly promoting Christian values. 

Here’s a quick test: use the Bible vis a vis against your own favorite author. How does his or her work stand against God’s? How many times at church or Bible study have you had to defend reading a book or watching a movie with the rationalization, “Well, yeah, it did have the gratuitous sex scenes, and there was a lot of violence, and the language was pretty rough, and the morals were pretty thin, but it was a great story line.” Novels are saved by grace through faith in the story lines….

I am only slightly overstating the case to make the point: if we are going to argue against the LGBTQ+ materials on the basis of God’s Word, then let us stand on the Word of God and not cherry-pick those things we personally find displeasing while ignoring and overlooking others. Failure to do so is as hypocritical as to fling “Halleluia!” from your mouth on Sunday morning when the preacher says God despises alcohol only to use that same mouth to sip margaritas and bottled beer while watching the game that afternoon. 

If the argument against LGBTQ+ literature is personally displeasing to you and that’s your basis for arguing against it, then be honest and argue it as such. But, if you are going to use God’s Word as the defense of your litmus test, then be careful lest the test leave you without a book to sit upon to see over the bench of (self)justice.