Reverend shares insight on questions of race, gender

“Who am I?” This is one of the most prevalent questions in society today. Society also offers answers usually involving an attachment of one’s identity to their feelings. Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner and Rachel Dolezal span the headlines. Society either lauds them as heroes or rips them apart.

Discussions heat up often leaving people isolated and degraded. Sadly, at the forefront of this isolation and degradation stands the church.

The church is a place one would think should stand as beacon of hope for humanity. Instead her narrative has seemingly turned her into a shadow of hate. So how can the church reclaim her status as a beacon of hope?

To do this, the church must return to her roots and reclaim her understanding of sin. Throughout history, the church recognized that sin resulted from “The Fall [of Man]” and was a deviation from God’s intention for his “good” creation. God creates good. Sin breaks that goodness. Sin broke creation in ways greater than we will ever fully understand.

In 1950s America, sin became deeply attached to morality. But, sin corrupted all things, including morality. This particular understanding of sin has led the church away from the true proclamation of God’s law and God’s gospel into the proclamation of a script of shame.

This script of shame changes the narrative of God’s law from “I should not do this” into “I should not be this.” The former is a natural result of God’s law; the latter, for a Christian, is not.

In the 1950s, the church began approaching sin in such a way that God’s law and God’s Gospel intermingled, watering God’s law down into practical tips for positive living, and hardening the Gospel into a set of ordinances to which one must first conform before God can save them.

However, scripture does not speak this way. Saint Paul says in Romans 5:8, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

God’s law demands our absolute perfection. God’s Gospel delivers Jesus’ absolute perfection to us. God’s law says, “Do this, and it is never done” God’s gospel says, “its already been done in Jesus Christ, ‘while we were still sinners.’” God doesn’t wait for us to clean ourselves up before he can save us. Instead he sets to cleaning us up himself.

Saint Paul said in Ephesians 5:8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not of your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.”

The attachment of sin to morality teaches that God needs repentance from us first in order to save us, the problem with this reasoning is it makes repentance a work and salvation our own doing. Repentance, instead, is evidence that God has already saved us. Repentance is not a precursor to, rather it is a byproduct of, salvation.

What does this mean for the church?

It means if the church desires to speak positively into the prevailing culture she must break the shame narrative, and once again become compassionate, caring and patient.

The church must be calm, listen humbly and be charitable in conversation.

The church must recognize that how one feels and their identity are not interconnected.

For example, in the cases of both Jenner and Dolezal, the church could offer an alternative script focusing upon an identity in Christ, as his beloved, forgiven child who will never be abandoned even, and especially in, the particular pain and struggles with which their innermost feelings might impose upon them.

Doing this, the church can reclaim its place as a beacon of hope and begin creating a space where people can pursue God and deal with their struggles authentically and transparently in community with other believers.

The church has the potential to reframe the discussion of identity altogether with a new shamebreaking script. One that says, “I am a child of God, made in God’s image, and loved by God. The goal of my life is not necessarily to be happy, but to love God and to become Christ-like in the way God intended. My identity, while it may be unknown to me and to others, is not unknown to God; rather it can be a means to serve his kingdom.”

This world is full of hurt and pain, things we like to think we know, in truth, we do not. But, God has a beautiful message, when spoken in love, can take hold of a person’s feelings and identity, break the cycle of shame, and restore them to fullness of life in Christ.

For those who believe in Christ, when the Father looks at them, he no longer sees their identity, what he sees is the identity of his Son, Jesus Christ.

The Rev. Patrick D. Fertitta is originally from Shreveport, received his master’s of divinity from Concordia Seminary and is presently serving as the pastor of University Lutheran Church in Tuscaloosa, Ala.