The "Christian response" to the Health Promotion Board's FAQ was disappointing from the point of view of seeking Christlikeness, at least as I see it. I would like to share some thoughts on the matter and invite the reader to, perhaps, revisit the topic, engaging with the Word of God and considering the issues afresh.
Jesus stated very clearly that two directives were more important than any other commandment. The first is to wholeheartedly love and submit to God, and the second is to "love your neighbour as yourself". (See, for instance, Mark 12:28-31 NIV: One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”)
Jesus was fairly explicit on this matter, and the various gospels are very consistent on this point. To underscore what this should mean to Christians: Jesus, very directly and unambiguously, stated that the above two directives are very important.
To persecute the LGBT community through law is in direct contradiction to the directive to “love your neighbor as yourself”. It is extremely hard (and unconvincing) to spin this any other way. People do try, and the “love the sinner, hate the sin” cop-out is a popular way to pretend that marginalizing "the sinner" through legal persecution is an act of "hard love".
In taking this position, I have personally been on the receiving end of some arrogant (and deeply un-Christian) pontificating. Consider the following:
"I wonder whether you really are a Christian and have any fear of The Lord. I would urge you to seek The Lord and His righteousness." (Note the tone of superiority assumed, characteristic of one "who has figured it all out".)
There has also been meaningless prattle like "you will begin to understand as you mature in the word".
Yet no one has truly relied on the Word of God to offer a convincing argument for "legal persecution" but instead many have leaned on their own understanding. Indeed, some try to argue that "loving The Lord" means to "be holy", and use that as a justification for continued legal persecution of the LGBT community. (Yes, there usually is a gaping hole in the argument there.) Thus, let us discuss the "call to holiness" in the large.
Being "called to be holy" is God's instruction to us to be good and pure, but primarily (actually "solely") by one's own example. The metaphor is apt: "being a light to the world". God does not require/encourage one to enforce, or otherwise "advance", "Christian" practices and beliefs by military/legal or any other kind of coercion.
Persecution by "law" is not and will never be an expression of Christlikeness. Rather, it speaks only of pride and arrogance, and perhaps even sloth — being unwilling to do the harder work of convincing by example.
There may be some debate about the notion of a "holy nation". The question really is whether a holy nation means a collection of people who exemplify Christlikeness, or whether the primary characteristic is a nation governed by "Christian laws". I lean strongly towards the former. This is another thing each person has to figure out. (I think a big clue is found in 1 Samuel 8, where it is written God did not really want to give Israel a king. Still, even in the latter case, persecution of "different peoples" by law is not the logical consequence.) http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1+Samuel+8
Now, there are a few words and phrases that come with a lot of cultural loading in "Christian culture", the less loaded among them include "my Christian brothers and sisters" and "I would encourage" which might be viewed as appropriate for some of "experience and seniority" to use, but not others. But let me state that I do not presume to assume any pastoral authority when I say that I would encourage you, my Christian brothers, to go to the Bible and study the life of Jesus and His teachings with an open heart and in good faith. You will find what you will find.
Regardless of what your conclusion from such a study turns out to be, close and earnest meditation upon the teachings of Jesus can only be healthy. What would be unhealthy is arrogant and pre-mature closure in favour of one's current position, the kind of self-aggrandizing decision that places one's conceptions of the world before the ministering of Christ through His Word.
Being Christian is more than the merely symbolic label on one's national identity card or one's visible appearance in "Christian religious buildings". It is palpably difficult. But nobody said it was going to be easy. Jesus Himself said it would be hard. A cross is not some ridiculous little trinket one wears to show religious affiliation. A cross is big, it is heavy, and it abrades the skin. Oftentimes there is nothing more that one want to do but to put it down. Yet Jesus beckons us to take up our cross and follow. Loving one's neighbour, too, is part of that cross. It means, minimally, to respect others and is, within the Christian community, under continual assault by the force of tribalism. It is hard. There is nothing much else to it.
Jeremy Chen
* Jeremy Chen is pursuing his PhD in Decision Science at NUS and is a member of SDP’s housing policy panel. Article first appeared on his personal Facebook page here.