When rules and sanctimony are more important than people
I didn’t want to write this post, but it needed to be written. It pertains to an organization near and dear to my heart.
Before I begin any discussion about what has happened, I need to start this by talking about what World Vision does, lest anyone is unfamiliar.
World Vision is an organization that provides food and agricultural support to malnourished children and impoverished communities. It installs access to clean water, hygiene, and sanitation in areas where people would otherwise suffer from dysentery and other waterborne diseases.
It offers medical care and builds clinics in regions where infants might otherwise die of preventable illness. It builds schools and helps pay for education for children who might otherwise wander the streets alone. It empowers communities with microloans and other economic development.
It rescues boys and girls from abuse, neglect, forced labor, conscription, and the sex trade, and it helps rehabilitate those who have faced the worst kind of trauma and evil. It lobbies lawmakers to pass policies that help the poor, both here in the United States and abroad — no easy task in the current political environment.
World Vision does all of these things — and much, much more — in nearly 100 countries around the world. It does so in the name of Jesus Christ, whose life and ministry made clear to his followers that they must do nothing less.
On Monday of this week, word got out that World Vision U.S. — the national support office for the global partnership — had decided to hire and honor employees in same-sex marriages. This should not have been a remarkable announcement. Gay marriage is already legal in the organization’s home state of Washington, and the issue has nothing to do with its mission, no matter what the Pharisees might say.
According to Richard Stearns, president of World Vision U.S.:
It’s been heartbreaking to watch this issue rip through the church. It’s tearing churches apart, tearing denominations apart, tearing Christian colleges apart, and even tearing families apart. Our board felt we cannot jump into the fight on one side or another on this issue. We’ve got to focus on our mission. We are determined to find unity in our diversity.
Amen to that. I respect Rich as a godly man who truly wants to do the right thing.
Needless to say, the instantaneous backlash was nothing short of vile, despicable, and downright demonic.
Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, swiftly proclaimed that World Vision “obviously doesn’t believe the Bible.” Michael Brown from the Christian Post declared that the decision was “a betrayal of the gospel, a betrayal of the Lord, a betrayal of the family, and a betrayal of the countless thousands of Christians who have put their trust in World Vision as a legitimate Christian organization.”
Russell Moore of the Southern Baptist Convention self-righteously quipped that “World Vision is a good thing to have, unless the world is all you can see.”
The aforementioned invective, my friends, is a veritable case study on why Christianity is steadily declining in relevance within mainstream society and culture, particularly among members of my generation. That’s a tragic trend to witness, but in light of the vitriol named here, I don’t blame anyone who runs as fast and as far away as they can from this religion.
Child sponsors who subscribe to such perversions of the Christian faith called en masse to cancel their monthly gifts. Partners to the organization threatened to withdraw. Pastors indicated that they’d stop supporting the organization’s work if the policy wasn’t reconsidered. Religious accountability groups threatened to blacklist World Vision.
What ensued was, in essence, mob action on the part of a group of shrill, screaming bullies whose hostility and verbal violence represented the antithesis of anything that Jesus Christ ever stood for.
By Wednesday, the board members of World Vision U.S., undoubtedly flabbergasted by the vituperative reaction to a seemingly inconsequential policy announcement — and indeed that’s what it was — saw the terrible harm this was doing, not just to the organization, but to the “least of these” whom World Vision serves and who would suffer the most because of a backlash over…sexual orientation and hiring practices.
You really can’t make this shit up.
So they caved to the blackmail and rescinded the decision to treat gay employees with honor, dignity, and respect. Discrimination remains in effect at World Vision U.S. — because a shrieking group of evangelical fundamentalists wanted it that way, and they used extortion as their weapon to make sure their demands were met in full.
Other World Vision support offices across the partnership quickly distanced themselves from the U.S. office in light of this fiasco, and rightfully so. From World Vision New Zealand (emphasis added):
We work under New Zealand legislation and do not discriminate on the basis of gender or sexual orientation. World Vision New Zealand hires on merit. We do expect all of our staff to be aligned with our organisational values…We serve all vulnerable children and value them as people irrespective of race, religion, sexuality, gender or ethnicity.
Value them as PEOPLE. AMEN to that.
World Vision U.S., meanwhile, immediately (and tragically) became the butt of jokes and satire, not to mention an affirmation of what progressives already knew they knew about Christianity. Here’s a sample from Think Progress (emphasis added):
The message from these conservatives is clear: discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation is a higher priority than humanitarian work. An organization that serves the needy can only be supported if it promises it will never provide a salary to someone in a same-sex marriage.
Sickening, but absolutely correct. In other words: According to those who strong-armed World Vision on this issue, rules and sanctimony are more important than people.
Let me repeat that, because this is the heart of the matter: Rules, or ideology, or sanctimony, or whatever the hell you want to call it, is more important than welcoming, honoring, and serving human beings who are created in the image of God.
How dare we?
How does that look to someone who is on the fence about his or her faith? Is that person apt to be drawn closer to God? Or driven away upon correctly recognizing the false gospel that this religion represents?
And we wonder why Christianity is apparently failing at attracting young people?
Jesus Christ demonstrated unequivocally that he wouldn’t hesitate to break boundaries, rules, laws, customs, norms, traditions, and conventions if it meant honoring, serving, and loving others. He also clashed repeatedly with those for whom the laws of man clearly mattered more than people.
I’m not speaking with an ounce of hyperbole when I say that the exact same scenario applies right here and right now. What matters most? That a malnourished infant in Niger is properly cared for? That a young girl on the streets of Bangkok isn’t sold into sexual slavery? That an alcoholic father in Bolivia reforms his ways and values his children’s education?
Or that World Vision doesn’t employ a married gay person in a U.S. state that already sanctions that right anyway? (You’re seriously going to cancel your sponsorship of a child living in poverty over this?)
Which among these align with the gospel we know?
There are two responsible ways to respond to this debacle. I name them both here:
- Do not blame or penalize World Vision for this. Again, the organization was blackmailed by external forces. World Vision is a good, righteous organization that does good, righteous work across the globe for those who are vulnerable and in great need. Now, important point of clarification: “Good and righteous” does not mean “perfect.” Don’t interpret it that way. Do interpret it as a call to continue supporting the work of those who live out the true gospel, however imperfectly.
- Divorce Christianity permanently and unequivocally from the corrupting forces that used blackmail to achieve these reprehensible goals, which represent neither true Christianity nor the gospel taught by Jesus Christ. World Vision should take no more money or partnerships from the likes of Franklin Graham; that money is dirty. This challenge is analogous to a thick piece of duct tape stuck to one’s arm hair. It will hurt terribly to remove the tape. In the short term, the pain may render the process nearly unbearable, and indeed, it will hurt for some time. But it can be done either now or later — and if it’s postponed, the pain will be far greater. Regardless, it must be done.
In the meantime, remember that we are all sinful, broken people — you, me, and everyone we know. We must not judge or condemn. We must love, we must accept, and we must serve. That’s the only way to a more peaceful world as long as we live east of Eden.
Remember when I wrote about how proscriptive theology is a terrible idea? This is a perfect example of why I think so.
