The eyes of the world gazed upon Washington this week for the second inauguration of President Barack H. Obama on a monumental Monday morning also remembering the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In his inaugural address, Obama invoked the tradition of King, declaring that our generation’s task is “to carry on what those pioneers began,” calling for “tolerance and opportunity, human dignity and justice.” For many moderate to progressive Christians, Obama’s words were glimpses of the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven.
Alex Gallimore |
Absent from the Monday morning ceremonies was Louie Giglio, Atlanta pastor and founder of Passion Conferences. Planners of the event originally tapped Giglio to deliver the benediction. Giglio, however, later withdrew himself from the celebration when a sermon of his from the 1990s yielded a public outcry over what many felt were anti-gay sentiments.
As a native of Atlanta, I have been familiar with the ministry of Louie Giglio most of my life. As a student and young adult I heard Giglio speak weekly at 7|22, a worship gathering and Bible study for 20-somethings. In college I attended several events hosted by Passion Conferences, was at the first meeting of Giglio’s Passion City Church and considered myself a member of the 268 Generation.
Although some of Giglio’s thought has always leaned much more evangelically reformed than my own, those aesthetically unique moments of worship and spiritual growth are major mile markers along my own theological journey. Sometimes while preaching I can still detect the influence that Giglio has had on the delivery of my sermons and am grateful to him for that.
Giglio gained the attention of inaugural organizers earlier this month following Passion Confer-ence’s gathering of more than 60,000 college students in Atlanta and their prayerful commitment to end modern-day slavery worldwide. Students raised more than $3.3 million for Passion’s Freedom Campaign, an initiative seeking to “shine a light on slavery.”
When the White House took notice, President Obama said of Giglio and Myrlie Evers-Williams, who delivered the invocation, that their collective careers “reflect the ideals that the vice president and I continue to pursue for all Americans — justice, equality and opportunity.” This, of course, came before Giglio’s sermon surfaced in which he spoke negatively of the gay-rights “agenda.”
I’m not going to analyze Giglio’s dated sermon or, as in previous articles, offer my own thoughts regarding homosexuality and the church. In the aftermath of Giglio’s removal from the inauguration, however, I will comment on the thoughtless conclusions presented by those on both sides of the issue which suggest that Giglio’s theological perspective was fixed and complete when he made those statements many years ago. Such commentary has alluded to an inaccurate notion of Christian spirituality and faith as unchanging, final and static.
As Christians, whether we be conservative or liberal, we should have enough faith in the mysterious work of the Holy Spirit to know that every new experience, discovery and life event brings about greater revelation and understanding of the Divine. Christian faith is never stagnant and still but rather living, active and, like any other growing organism, forever transforming and evolving. Christian faith is dynamic, constantly taking on new forms and features every time the gospel of Jesus rewrites itself to bear fresh witness for a new age.
Even Jesus himself, toward the end of his life, leaves his disciples with the exciting promise of such vibrant faith when he said: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth” (John 16:12). The Spirit has come, and Jesus is still speaking, still guiding, and still revealing the truth of God to us in new ways each and every day. Are we listening now, or searching exclusively in the past? Are we allowing the Spirit to lead us to future possibilities, or are we too preoccupied with what we held as absolute five, 10, 20 years ago? Is our faith static or dynamic?
I must confess that I like Louie Giglio and respect the work of justice he and his organization has sought to bring to the world’s most marginalized people. Though I have not always agreed with his conclusions, I have always found many issues championed by Giglio that should inspire partnership from cooperative Christians everywhere.
I don’t know how Giglio feels about his almost 20-year old statements, but I refuse to hold his faith captive to them because I don’t want to be held captive by what I believed only five years ago. I’ve grown. For now, this progressive Christian is content to join Louie in loving all people while lifting up the name of Jesus.
Alex Gallimore (alexcgallimore@gmail.com) is pastor of Hester Baptist Church in Oxford, N.C.