[todaysdate]
By Patricia Bruininks
On Oct. 2, Julia Stronks, Professor of Political Science, gave her final Lindaman Chair lecture at Whitworth University. The topic was the role of church and state regarding same-sex marriage, a topic she has explored both through the lens of constitutional law and her own faith journey.
She began by outlining four Christian schools of thought on the relationship between religion and government.
The first, Dominion theology, holds that Christians should work toward either a nation governed by Christians or one governed by a conservative Christian understanding of biblical law. Julia later found this view problematic in that it often results in cherry picking topics, with conservative Christians focused more on social than economic issues.
The second, Separatists theology, holds tightly to the biblical mandate to live in this world but to not be of it. As long as the government recognizes religious freedom, separatists (e.g., Amish) are not concerned with government decisions.
The third school is the Majoritarian view, where focus is placed on organizing special interest groups to influence government decisions. This school has a “winner takes all” perspective, and much time is spent waging war on those with different beliefs.
The last school is Pluralism, which focuses on institutional fidelity. Religion, family, business, and other institutions should function within their own set of rules without being influenced by the state. The government’s role is to protect all of these institutions so that freedom within each institution can exist. For the institution of religion, that means freedom to worship – or not worship – in multiple ways. For family, that means protection of all types of families, including marriage and children for same-sex couples.
It is this fourth view that Stronks subscribes to, but this was not always so.
She grew up in the Christian Reformed Church, a denomination strongly informed by scripture with the goal of having a biblical worldview on every social issue. This led to order in one’s daily life and a great deal of ‘certainty’ about how to live. For 20 years she followed the directive to ‘love the sinner but hate the sin’ when it came to homosexuality. But in 1997 she began to question dominion theology, and wrote an article in the Christian Scholar’s Review that explored the idea of pluralism as a better way to approach social issues such as this. Not surprisingly her piece received a vitriolic response from Christians; surprisingly it evoked the same response from pluralists, with the accusation that Julia was ‘using’ pluralism to support the gay agenda (oh how far we’ve come).
This event led to seven years of individual biblical scholarship as she sought to understand what scripture said about homosexuality. In the end she found the evidence did not support that all homosexual is sinful, just as not all heterosexual sex is sinful. In fact, the bible is silent on monogamous same-sex relationships.
Her focus moved from ‘loving the sinner’ to celebrating that we are all wonderfully made by God (Psalms 139:14). She has come to see her vocation as defending those in monogamous same-sex relationships, and demonstrated this by showing pictures of Whitworth alumni who are living in just such relationships. The most touching photo was that of a family in the hospital upon the arrival of their second child. The birth mom is holding their newborn infant, smiling along with her partner and their 3-year-old daughter. A family full of joy, hopes, and dreams for their life together and all that the future holds.
Not only does Stronks no longer believe in ‘loving the sinner’, she seeks forgiveness for promoting that idea for many years. This humility that has allowed her to seek truth both through her discipline as a political scientist and through scripture was not lost on the audience, which was largely made up of her students, both current and former. Her talk was followed by a standing ovation.
I would like to end this piece with a poem read by Professor Kathy Lee when introducing her colleague and friend. The title is “The Place Where We Are Right” by Yehuda Amachai:
From the place where we are right
flowers will never grow
in the Spring.
The place where we are right
is hard and trampled
like a yard.
But doubts and loves
dig up the world
like a mole, a plough.
And a whisper will be heard in the place
where the ruined
house once stood.
Thank you for this insightful piece, Dr. Bruininks. I also appreciated the poem as deepening the thoughtfulness of the points in the article. I hope to read more from you in the future.