Michigan anti-bullying bill to allow exceptions to bullying?

I really don’t get into politics ever, let alone comment much on them. But this has me enraged.

An amendment to a new anti-bullying bill was recently made essentially allowing exceptions to bullying based on strongly held “religious or moral convictions”.

The point is to allow room for freedom of speech and freedom of religion apparently. However I have major issues with this, obviously, as thousands of others also do given the uproar about this amendment. Here’s the story.

The issue of allowing these types of exceptions could have obvious tragic consequences for gays, lesbians, and transgendered kids in particular, basically legitimizing an excuse to oppress homosexuals in our school systems because of beliefs about homosexuality being sinful or morally wrong.

As someone who was bullied in school, I can tell you that this type of oppression from peers has life-long effects. I often wonder what I would be like had I not had to experience daily fear, insecurity, and embarrassment resulting from the crap kids put me through. And I was basically just a normal scrawny kid that my ‘friends’ at the time found enjoyment from tormenting. Had I been a scrawny normal kid who was also gay, I can’t imagine what I would’ve went through.

To think that because one believes that homosexuality is sinful gives ones a right to put their hands on another person, verbally abuse him, or subject him to public embarrassment is absolutely disgusting and offensive to God. The Holy Spirit likely does not exist in that person, and God’s judgement awaits that arrogant fool.

This amendment opens the door wide for the continuation of “Christians” thinking the correct response is to rule over another who they believe is in error. Jesus told us to love one another as he loved us (John 13:34-35), and since Jesus died for us while we were still sinners, if we are not coming underneath our neighbor in service as opposed to ruling over them then we are not following Jesus. Radical love means acting out of the genuine belief that people living out a homosexual lifestyle are greater than yourself, not because they’re not in sin, but because your own sin is so detestable to you that your only hope of salvation is Jesus Christ, and not a shred of your own righteousness will earn you eternal life. You cannot express this belief by slamming a kids hand in a locker because they’re gay.

The good news here is that there has been quite an uproar in Michigan about this new amendment, and I’m hopeful that this bill will be revised appropriately to allow no excuses for oppression of any kind in our schools. There is a petition out that you can sign in a matter of seconds to show your support for a true anti-bullying law. Check it out here, and please sign: http://www.change.org/petitions/help-michigan-students-stop-the-license-to-bully-bill

Micah 6:8
“He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Someone on my mind. Meet Juma.

This dude’s been on my mind lately.

His name is Juma. He likes chicken and he takes his sleep very seriously.

My wife, Laura, and I decided to sponsor a child several months ago, and we looked no further than The Dream Project in Mozambique, Africa, an organization that helps kids who are orphaned or whose families are struggling, which our friend Amanda serves faithfully with.

We asked Amanda to pick a child for us, and we were happy to find out that Juma and Laura are kindred spirits in their views on sleep.

It’s been several months now since we started sponsoring him, and for most of that time it’s been, at least for me, what I expected sponsoring a child to be. You give money monthly, put his picture on your refrigerator, pray for him sometimes, and maintain a relatively disconnected relationship mainly based on a monthly financial transaction and some occasional letters.

But God’s been doing something in me personally lately. Over the last couple weeks I’ve really begun to remember Juma more often in prayer. And more and more I’ve felt this strange affection for him, as if he was somebody in my own family whom I loved dearly and wanted the best for. It’s caught me off guard, honestly, because for someone who compassion doesn’t come naturally for, it’s been an odd experience to be filled with a genuine concern and love for a boy on the other side of the globe whom I’ve never really been in any kind of real relationship with.

I listened to this sermon this morning on my day off from work, and fully expected to be challenged and conflicted, as I often am when I listen to Francis Chan speak.

If you have 20 minutes, I really suggest you listen to it as well. As I was laying on my bed afterwards processing these challenges I’ve processed many times before, I prayed that God would show me what he wants me to do for him, and moreover to fill me with a passion that would allow me not to do it out of guilt, but out of shear love and joy. I fully expected not to hear anything, but as I got up from that prayer and went to make myself breakfast, Juma popped into my head, and I was again just overwhelmed with love for him, and others like him.

In response I sat down to finally write the quarterly letter to Juma that Laura and I have been forgetting to write. It felt good to make him a priority, and to, in a small and somewhat distant way, include him in our family.

One thing that has kept me from blogging lately is that I have felt that I have to have a point to every post – some sort of challenge, or something insightful. I don’t really have that today. Just processing how God has been responding to me.

So Laura and I have been talking about some stuff in regards to all this. I’m sure as things start to solidify I’ll post about it. But all in all, God is moving in our midst and we’re already seeing some interesting things starting to happen. Excited to share when the time is right.