by 
Perry over at Life In a Shoe has addressed my post on the McDonald’s boycott, so I thought that it would be only fitting to address some of his concerns in a related post1.
I think many of the difference between the two of us remains a difference of definitions. Because of my background I’m both strangely precise2 and guarded at the same time.
So, when I made the statement regarding being in the “holiness” camp over the “love” camp, I was not making a reference to who I think God is, but rather how Christians have chosen to align themselves.
To explain this, I need a short digression.
MInTheGap – Camp Counselor
Back before I was MInTheGap, I was “The Enforcer.” In fact, my first website at college was called “Enforcer’s Home Page” and had that Screen Name on AOL Instant Messenger been available, you’d probably be reading from “The Enforcer” rather than “MInTheGap.”
The reason for this name was that I believed that rules were made to be followed, and at summer music camp I made sure they were3.
We had one particular camper that was notorious for breaking the rules—just to see what he could get away with. I had many run-ins with him. He had a pet name for me.
Every night, after lights out, we met outside to discuss what was going on in our rooms and to pick who would make the slushie run.
And this one night there was a big disagreement between a female counselor and myself. She believed that we needed to “show love” to this young man, and bend the rules so that he knew that we loved him. I trotted out Hebrews where Paul says that God chastens those that he loves.
How this Applies to McDonalds
This is the type of disagreement I mean. What I’m saying is that I am concerned that those that are pro-homosexual will say that I’m un-loving. What I am saying is that while you’re boycotting you can do something that’s overtly loving in the process.
In the case of my camper, I could just be mean and enforce the rules—tough love, you could say. Or, I could go along side the guy, enforce the rules, but also encourage them to do right.
Again, Perry and Kim probably do this all the time with their children, as they raise them in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. They don’t just withdraw their support, but they offer the alternative—practice the alternative.
Which is why I made the suggestion that instead of just not patronizing them—because they’re money would go to support a pro-homosexual movement—they may want to take up giving to a group that helps homosexual’s get rehab.
This emphasizes a positive message, instead of letting the pro-homosexuals emphasize a negative one.
We’ll take up the rest of his post in a future post, but I wanted to clarify what I was saying and hopefully you better understand.
- In the interest of full disclosure, he and I have been in e-mail contact regarding this topic, and we may engage in debates in the future. Though I have read the content of the post that I linked to, I have not taken up writing on this subject until today. [↩]
- I know, there are times when it seems I’m not. Perhaps those are the days I haven’t had enough caffeine. What I mean by this “strangely precise” is that I have my own weird kind of precision, especially when it comes to cultural issues, where I will use terminology to make sure that there is the least amount of ambiguity and I try to shy away from absolute statements, except where the Bible makes absolute statements. [↩]
- This was at Csehy Summer School of Music, where I was a counselor back in 1996-1997. [↩]
