Jars of Clay vocalist supports gay marriage

***Update (4-26-14): The day after I wrote this, Dan Haseltine posted an apology for his egregious miscommunication. I still believe the principles/overall theme I've written about are correct, but would probably amended some details if his response had been posted sooner. All that to say, there is a link to his response following this post. Definitely worth the time to read his side of the story. I'm not sure that it's a complete reversal, but I was at least happy to know that he made an effort to clarify.***

Rules. Every household has them.When I was growing up, my sisters and I were only allowed to listen to Gospel/Contemporary Christian music. So for this reason, I am (or at least used to be) well acquainted with the group Jars of Clay. 

Flood was my personal favorite of their songs. I know it's fluffy, but I was in middle/high school, ok? Cut me some slack. And besides, they really do have some great songs. Even my sister who broke the rules and preferred "secular" music liked them. Their first album was listened to many a time in our house.

I really haven't even thought about Jars of Clay for years, until today. I saw on facebook today that their lead singer Dan Haseltine has come out in support of gay marriage, so I looked it up for myself. This and other articles confirm the claim, as well as Haseltine's twitter account.

 If you scroll back on his feed, you can see that the original tweets seem to be an articulation of his thoughts after watching 12 Years a Slave. I haven't seen the movie, but from a read-through of all of his comments, I get the impression that he is equating racists to those who consider homosexuality to be a sin.

His first tweet on the matter was "The treatment of people as less than human based on the color of skin is crazy... Or gender, or sexual orientation for that matter." Actually, I don't disagree with any part of that statement. It makes me so angry to hear people of any race, gender, sexual orientation, political party, religion, etc. belittle the worth of someone who disagrees with them. When it comes to the value of a person, we are all the same. Most people would agree, even though they seem to forget this truth when it comes to heated arguments over controversial subjects.

Unfortunately, though, the tweets didn't end there.

Here is the first one that I'd like to address. "Because most people read and interpret scripture wrong. I don't think scripture 'clearly' states much of anything regarding morality."

First off, who determines who "most people" are? Do I fall into this erroneous category? Does Haseltine? Or is he the one who determines who is or is not interpreting Scripture correctly? I'm not so sure he thought through that sweeping generalization.

Second, if Scripture doesn't "clearly" give us guidelines for morality, then why is he reading it? Why has he made a career singing about Jesus if He made false claims about morality? And how do his other tweets line up with that claim?

"It is perhaps less important to know what is 'right and wrong' morally speaking, than to know how to act toward those we consider 'wrong.'"

"I don't particularly care about Scriptures stance on what is 'wrong.' I care more about how it says we should treat people."

Um.... The subject of how we treat someone that we disagree with is a moral issue. And if he doesn't care about what the Scripture says on one moral issue, then why, pray tell, does he care about the moral issue of our treatment of others? Not to mention, what Scripture has he read to give him the impression that classifying something as a sin is the equivalent of treating someone badly? Jesus did it constantly. He actually said, "Go and sin no more." (Helpful pointer: This means people do sin, but that there is hope.) His whole ministry revolved around helping others by physical healing and instruction on what it means to honor God.

I guess I just find it ironic when anyone accuses people of pointing fingers by pointing fingers. Essentially, they are unintentionally proving that it is OK to confront sin. And it is.

Here's where you might assume I was going to start addressing the issue of homosexuality, but I have no desire to discuss  that in this post. The issue at stake here is much bigger than that. (Not to mention I'm so tired of Christians singling out homosexuality as though it were the unpardonable sin. Confront some other issues for a change!)

What I consider to be one of the biggest problems with this whole situation, and countless others like it, is that the privilege and task of Bible study has been largely overlooked by the church (at least here in America). I don't just mean in liberal churches. Conservative ones are just as guilty. Oh, sure, in depth Bible study may be preached as an ideal, and we talk about how great it is. But talk and reality are two very different matters. In my experience anyway, most of us struggle with consistency in this area. Even when I've attended organized Bible studies, the majority of the participants haven't completed their weekly studying. Sometimes I fall into that category myself.

So my questions are...

Do we really dig into the meat of Scripture like we should? Do we value it as God's redemptive story, or do we just see it as a helpful book that we sometimes get around to reading? Do we seek its truth diligently, or do we skim over it because we've read it before? Do we eagerly anticipate God's message when we read, or are we more interested in checking the task off our to-do list?

I honestly believe that if Christians, not just churches but individuals, would return to valuing and searching out the Word of God, then we would stop having so many stories like this one. The Bible in its original transcript should either be highly regarded in its entirety, or thrown out completely.

(And before someone accuses me of eating bacon, I'm not talking about following Old Testament codes here-I'm talking about studying why those codes are no longer necessary. "Why" is such an important question in all areas of life.)

This isn't the first time that I've heard someone simultaneously preach love and dismiss morality. The hypocrisy of it all is what's so frustrating for me. When someone is an atheist and chooses their own moral code, then he is not acting hypocritically. If there were no God, then we would all have no choice but to decide what was right for us. It's when men pick and choose haphazardly based solely on their own opinions that really gets to me. I think this is why God says He would rather us be hot or cold. It's the lukewarm that He will "spew out of his mouth."

And I'm not saying that we as Christians should all agree on everything all the time. We don't. We never will. And that's OK. There are so many trivial issues that folks get all huffy about! But dismissing Scripture by claiming no moral codes are clear in it? Hmmm, not so much OK. If "love" is all that's clear, then I find it especially ironic that Haselstine isn't defining it correctly. I Corinthians 13 is a very helpful tool to define it (and he even mentions this in a later tweet). Nothing in that passage promotes not calling out sin. Quite the opposite in fact. Love doesn't rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. But really the whole of Scripture is necessary to define love, which leads to the solution to our root problem.

We have got to dive into God's Word, and we've got to go about it the right way.

There are some critically important things to remember when we're reading the Bible. Before we even start reading, it's important to pray for God to make us receptive. So many, non-Christians and Christians alike, search the Bible with an intent to prove something rather than an intent to learn something. When we seek wisdom from God, we find it.

And right along those lines, we need to be open-minded when it comes to Scripture. Right off the top of my head I can think of three major issues that I believe were incorrectly taught to me from the Bible as a child. The reason I changed my mind about them is that I challenged what I was taught. There may be just as many issues that hold up to scrutiny, but the important thing is to study them as though any belief is a viable option. That's just a basic way to determine what the Bible actually says.

Context is of utmost importance when it comes to determining what the Bible has to say on any issue. Really that's not just a Bible study tip, it's a generally good principle to follow in life. Don't make a decision about anything before you know the whole story. The Bible needs to be taken as a whole, not just studied in piecemeal fashion. It's a beautiful story of redemption, but it needs to be read cover to cover to even begin to understand the story. And don't just take someone else's word for it. Commentaries can be helpful, but what the Word actually says is infinitely more important.

Sounds like a lot of work, right? It is. Many people have studied the Bible their whole lives, and they still don't understand it all. Let's not let that discourage us! We can continue to learn more and more about God's extraordinary plan for this world when we apply ourselves diligently and consistently. We can learn what God values and places emphasis on throughout Scripture, and we can discern which matters are simply based on man's opinions.

I genuinely hope that Christians will take the time to consider this story on a deeper level, rather than just googling Bible verses on homosexuality to tweet at Haseltine. He makes some very good points in the discussion as a whole, including...


"Interesting how Christianity was both a proponent of slavery and the force behind abolishing it."

 Another example in which Christians were ignorant of what Scripture has to say.

"If we know or do not know the particulars of a persons 'wrongs,' we should love them the same. Correct?" 

By the definition of love as patience, kindness, humility, etc.? Absolutely!!

"Wow this escalated really quickly! :) I am simply asking questions. Don't quite know how I've offended so many."

This last one says so much about the response he's been getting. Let's not live up to the hateful reputation that has been thrust upon us as Christians. It's OK for people to have questions. In fact, it's desirable. But with those questions, I pray that those who find themselves on one "side" of any issue will seek truth, not proof.

Our lack of regard for the importance of studying God's Word is a big, BIG deal. I pray that God will help me to lead by example. I pray that God will ignite a burning desire within us to learn from Scripture each and every day, and that this desire produces faithful obedience. I pray that we will recognize that the heart of this story, the real problem, is not homosexuality. It is our own failure as a church to remain faithful to what God has called us to do.

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." II Timothy 2:15

***Dan Haseltine's response: http://danhaseltine.com/blog/2014/4/25/reset-contexttangentapology.html.