Even most Republicans thought this went way too far (thought strangely, none of the presidential candidates), and Mr. Limbaugh gave an apology of sorts. I don't feel any need to comment on Limbaugh's remarks in particular, but I think they fit within a pattern often seen among religious folks. We often presume that we occupy a religious high ground from which we may disparage the morality of others.
Conservative Christians tend to do this on issues of sex, abortion, and a few other law and order type items. But we more "progressive" Christians can get just as holier-than-thou over social justice issues that are near and dear to us.
And so I was struck by Paul's words on sexual and other forms of immorality in today's reading from 1 Corinthians. The Corinthians have obviously misunderstood something Paul has said to them earlier about shunning immoral persons, and Paul wants to clear things up. The faithful are not to judge those outside the church on their immorality. And his earlier command not to associate with immoral people does not apply to outsiders, but only to immoral church members.
Now it is difficult to make an easy application of Paul's words in our day. The Christians at Corinth were outside the mainstream of society, and Paul was not so concerned with politics and such as he presumed that Jesus' return was imminent. Still, it seems to me that we in the church are often prone to do exactly the opposite of what Paul recommends. We are loathe to say anything about the morality of those in our group, be they members or our church or our political party. But we are quick to pass judgment on those outside our faith, our church, or our political group.
Seems to me that Jesus warned us about wanting to remove the speck in our neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in our own. And our reputation (sometimes deserved) as hypocrites arises largely from our ignoring Paul and Jesus on this.
There's a chapter in Donald Miller's book Blue Like Jazz (now a motion picture - hope Miller appreciates the plug) where he and a few other students at liberal and godless Reed College decided to set up a confession booth at an annual festival. Given the Hedonistic nature of the festival and the rarity of openly Christian students on campus, this seemed an odd idea. But this confession booth took Paul and Jesus' words to heart. It wasn't for the godless, liberal students of Reed to admit the errors of their ways. Rather it was for Miller and his companions to confess the Church's sins to the world, to the other students at Reed.
It was a huge success as a steady stream of people came to hear their confessions. And afterwards, the students at Reed were a lot more interested in hearing about Jesus and helping with mission projects. Who'd have thought that the best way to reach out to the "godless" is for the "godly" to say they're sorry.
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