9 As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.10 And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. 11 And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12 But when he heard it, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. 13 Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
-Matthew 9:9-13
I sat next to a woman whose current profession is stripping, and we had a long conversation about the business and the people in it. My view was, and what I feel confident saying is the view of most of my self proclaimed christian friends, that strippers are completely slutty, gross, uneducated women with no moral substance and that the men that that go to see them are sex obsessed male chauvinist pigs who are controlling and also more than likely gross. Yes, this is an extreme and many people I know would deny that this is what they think, but from the way most people who claim to follow Christ joke about the people involved in this or talk about how disgusted they are by them, I find no mercy and no empathy whatsoever. But what I experienced was enlightening. Here was a beautiful woman with no makeup, an undergrad degree working toward her doctorate, in a serious committed relationship, and volunteering to help some of the most needy people in America, who earns her money to live by stripping. She spoke of many of the women in the industry as being well educated and talented. Many of the men as being bored or lonely. She described the clubs as being very feminist and respectful toward women, and not at all as though they are all sex selling brothels. I identified with this woman, we laughed together, and I listened and listened and when I got home was devastatingly sad because I knew that if I told many of my friends about her, they would judge her and stereotype her, when all I wanted to do was spend more time listening and laughing and working through life with her as an equal. If I were to spend all my time with those on what is no longer the outskirts of society necessarily, but those on the outskirts of the christian society, I would be frowned upon: I have been frowned upon. This is sad to me because in this way, I want to be like Jesus.
6/28/11
I grew up in a church in downtown Medford. It was the closest church to the homeless shelter and a couple halfway houses, so we often had visitors of a more gritty nature.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite image of church growing up is seeing Orrie Bateman, a burly man who was previously associated with a biker gang, holding up his arms in the front row of church in worship. The naked women on his forearms seemed to worship God as well.
My favorite story told at the Mission trip I went on recently, was told by the speaker for our camp Travis Campbell. He did his ywam dts in Scotland, working with men on the streets. One man who had recently left a life selling drugs and supporting prostitution rings came up to Travis after a Sunday service on the street and said in his heavy scottish Brogue "I just read through the book of Colossians. Paul is a fucking genius."
To rebuke these men for the way they pursue God is one of the most unchristian things I can think of. And those Christians that view people as dirty or unforgivable are the very Christians I think Jesus would be likely to say "I never knew you" to. Hopefully you'll be presently surprised when you share stories like this with your Christian friends, but there are many people out there that do not commit themselves to anything with their entirety anymore. All the more reason for the few that do to give their all.