A few days ago a friend of mine posted a photo on Facebook of an ashtray outside of a church. In American christian church culture smoking is a no no. You are a special kind of sinner if you smoke. My friend was encouraged that this church provided a place for smokers. Some of the comments that followed disgusted me more than an ashtray. The judgement and condemnation. I know a lot of people may not agree with a lot of what I have to say about this stuff. And some of the situations are more complicated then what I make them (though I think they make them more complicated).
I remember when I was 16. Most of my church friends and I snuck in some smokes when we could. Me and a friend went to the getty mart in boiling springs because we knew they sold to minors and we both back a pack of Marlboros. Had we known better, we'd have got something else. I stole a pack of L&M Kings from my grandma, put them in a cassette case and shared them with those same friends. We then graduated to cigars. Someone else, very close to me, that's a girl close to my age and related to me and we share the same parents introduced me to clove cigarettes when we were teenagers. And we always hid it. We didn't want our parents to find out or we'd get in trouble. Or we might end up in hell.
I still enjoy cigars. On occasion I'll still pick up a pack of clove cigs. I know smoking is bad for you. But you know what? So is ice cream. So is fast food. So is red meat. So is soda. So are some of the images you put into your mind. So is some of the harmful talk that comes out of your mouth. So lay off smokers you hypocrite.
According to the bible and most modern christian teaching, everyone sins. EVERYONE. But if you go to most churches, if you sin a certain way you are still not allowed to volunteer or serve. This, IMHO, is total nonsense. Or in other terms, bullshit. Or as the Apostle Paul would say, Skabula!
I know all the chistianese responses to this. It's unrepentant sin if you live openly about it. Well...you live not open about yours and you've been doing it for 15 years....what's the difference?
And the fact that some church leadership doesn't care if an openly gay individual serves as an usher but there may be members that do, they'll side with the members. So you'd rather continue to oppress those already oppressed then stand up for what you believe is right? I know you want to roll it out slow that it's not a bad thing. But what about the long slow roll out process of someone being an openly gay christian finally being able to be themselves and serve. How long will you continue to roll out that process? Another hundred or so years?
Back to my original point. Stop calling stuff sin. Unless you are going to call it all out and have everyone openly confess to everyone what their sin is, stop calling it out in others.
I've got a good qualifier. Don't be a dick. If you are a dick, you can't serve. If you are mean and hurtful to people, you can't serve. Wait...wait....wait... I bet the generation that still likes to keep sinners from serving in the church was bullied when they were younger with all kinds of do's and don't's (I know thats the wrong way to spell don'ts or is it dont's, see my predicament). They are finally to the point where it's their turn. So let the bullies serve. Let the gay people serve. Let the alcoholic serve. Let the closet porn addict that half your volunteers already are continue to serve.
When someones behaviors are destructive to themselves or others is a fine time to step in and ask your friend about their decisions. Ask them about why they do what they do or how the feel.
Back to smoking. You may be saying that the smoke smell wafts around and you can still receive harmful effects from second hand smoke. I get that. Smokers know that. But don't go saying it's a sin.
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