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I get this question a lot, because I resist the use of the word ‘accountability’ to describe our relationships as brothers and sisters together:

I have been reading some of your books and listening to some of your CDs and they are really making a difference in my journey with God. Last night we had our new Assoc. Pastor, Scott, over for dinner and we got to talking and “accountability” came into the conversation. In fact, he evidently left his last church because they refused to deal with some people who were in obvious sin. I had heard you say in one of your teachings that you dislike the words accountability and commitment. That they are not used in the Bible. That is true, but what about passages like Matt 18 and Titus? Is that not accountability? Or, is that not what you are meaning when you use the word accountability?

Here’s how I responded: No, I don’t dislike the words, my point is that ‘commitment’ to an institution is not New Covenant language. My commitment to Sara, and my commitment to other brothers that I labor with in any given season are incredibly important to me.

My issue with accountability is that Scripture never uses that word in our relationships as brothers and sisters. We are all accountable to God. That is clear. We are called to love each other deeply, not hold each other accountable. That said, I don’t ever see love ever separated from truth. Matthew 18 and Titus (and many other passages) are simply about believers walking in love and truth with each other, not allowing blatant sin to become embedded in their midst. Love always speaks the truth and tries to rescue people caught in sin with gentleness. It does not delight in holding people accountable. So that kind of honesty for me is not accountability (which is an institutional word), but a relational reality of loving God and others with his life and truth.

Thanks for replying to this. It’s kind of sinking in. I realize my accountability to God is much higher than any accountability to other believers. So dealing with blatant sin is more on the level of pointing out truth in a loving manner and turning them to God for accountability. Is that close?

It is!

People who think they have to hold others accountable have misunderstood the passages on New Testament church life and do not know the power of love and honesty.

One final note: I just wish our sense of ‘blatant sin’ included religious arrogance, greed, and unloving actions toward broken lives, not just the sexual sins we’re so fond of despising and judging!

If you hear a new voice around Lifestream these days, that’s because we have a lovely college student filling in as my personal assistant this summer. Jessica Glasner is the daughter of some good friends of ours and is home from Westmont College for the summer. She’s agreed to come aboard helping with book and CD orders and other office needs that will free up my time. I’m really blessed to have her here, if only for the summer. It will take her a bit to get up to speed on everything, so please be patient.

And don’t forget the need in Kenya if you’d like to help those brothers and sisters. You can see my previous blog for the details. With that need, plus the cyclone in Burma and the earthquake in China, there is ample opportunity for us who have extra to share with those in the midst of tragedy. I hope you’re finding some corner of the world that Father wants to touch through you.

Also, Brad and I will be flying to New York tomorrow to finalize our new publishing partnership with Hachette Book Group, formerly Time-Warner books. They have opened a huge door for us, not only in helping keep up demand for THE SHACK, but also to make a fresh presentation of my books in the culture and to let us develop other projects. We maintain total creative control as well as deciding how our books are presented in the marketplace. They believe in our message and that there is an audience out there of people who are burned out on religion and looking for a real interaction with the Living God. Of course they see it more as a market and we see it as a mission, but since we are in control of the final product, we’re excited to add their expertise and wisdom to our passion. And we’ll be free to put our time and energy into content instead of production and distribution.

Finally, Sara and I were invited to a pre-screening of Prince Caspian on Monday night. This is the second of the Chronicles of Narnia movies being made by Walden Media in collaboration with Walt Disney Entertainment. A friend of mine works with Walden and invited us to the screening.

What a movie! I was a bit disappointed in the first movie of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. It seemed to have all the right pieces, but didn’t connect at a heart level. I felt like I was looking through glass at some incredible pictures, but didn’t get personally attached to the story. It all seemed so clinical somehow.

But whatever they missed on the first one, they found with the second. Sara and I both enjoyed this adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ classic story. The action sequences are beefed up for a younger demographic, but the message of the book and the telling of the story are on point. The photography was spacious and beautiful and we enjoyed the performances. They also added some much-needed comic relief throughout that made the characters all the more endearing.

My only regret is that the movie didn’t have a bigger pay off at the end. Aslan, who is wonderfully depicted in the artwork, still seems a bit stiff and distant when he talks. It seemed hurriedly put together and there could have been so much more legitimate emotion in the children reuniting with Aslan and in having to say good-bye at the end. It wasn’t bad, but it could have been a lot more powerful. You won’t regret going to this one. There’s a lot of humor, action, and suspense with a powerful story line throughout.

And I so appreciated the improvements they made in this version over the last.

A few months ago we were able to respond to the crisis in Kenya that resulted from tribal violence following a contested election. The circumstances have quieted and many people have been able to return home. But the brothers and sisters God linked us with in Kitale are still taking care of about 400 families who cannot return home. Their food and supplies are running low. I received this from our friend there this week:

Greetings in holy name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Thank you very much for your prayers and for more concern with your team towards our brothers and sisters. We would like to appreciate very much for your great (giving) towards our brothers and sisters. The Lord is doing a new thing. More of our affected people are returning to their places. This was started this week on Monday. Around four hundred families still need our help because their areas are not secure to be settled and they have camped in the churches and in the houses of our saints and for good Samaritan.

It may be 8 months before they can resettle. Our team has worked out to visit every family and to write the details and domestic needs. It has taken a long time to complete the list we have send to you for brothers there to continue praying for these people. The last support you send our team managed to support those who were worse than others which is about 30 families as you may see in the list. After the interviewing they reached an agreement of supporting each one of the 3200 so that they may have a place and to buy what they needed.The usefulness of the money, divided among 30 families. We still need your prayers. Everything here is so expensive and if God opens a way we could use some more support. If we can get 70 bags of maize, it will save other children and those who are starving with old age.

May the Lord bless you so much for your with the entire team there for standing with us in this hard time where our country has experienced for the first time. we are still praying for you, and we know that God is in control.

Over the first three months of this year we were able to send almost $15,000.00 to help in this crisis. I am simply putting the call out there again for any who would like to pray for them or send money to help with this great need. Every dime sent to us will go directly to those who need it. Nothing will be taken out for administration on this end or that one. If God puts it on your heart to send something, please go to our Invoice Page and click on the ‘Pay Invoice’ button. You can then list “Donation for Kenya” and the amount you’d like to give. If you use the ‘Donation’ button you will need to also send me an email letting me know you wanted this to go for Kenya and not for Lifestream. All donations to this cause are tax deductible.

Or, if you prefer, you can also send a check to Lifestream • 7228 University Dr. • Moorpark, CA 93021.

Thank you for giving this need your time and attention.

First, an announcement. For those who want to listen to an interview I did on the The Drew Marshall Show on April 12, you can click here for the audio link. We mostly talked about So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore.

And then I wanted to share this letter with you. For many folks the combination of a few of the following: The Shack, He Loves Me, So You Don’t Want to Go To Church Anymore, The God Journey and Transitions has been a bit of a ‘perfect storm’ to help them catch the reality of living in the love of the Father. I am so blessed by that. Because the reality isn’t really any of those things. We try to describe it in various ways in each of them, but it is in knowing him and how he works in us and in the world that helps us discover how to live in him, not just talk about.

A couple of weeks ago I received the following email from a sister in England that captures that perfectly. More than anything I don’t want people reading or listening to my stuff, but finding the freedom and joy of just living in the Father’s reality every day and watching him make a difference in them and through them every day, wherever they happen to be living, working or playing. That’s the gospel!

Thank you so much for Lifestream – and thanks for the Jake book and the God Journey as well. And The Shack of course.

My husband and I left our charismatic (originally a house but now an organisation) church after 18 years there, being in church leadership and both of us on staff in responsible positions in the past. You don’t need to know the reasons but it was a very painful process involving betrayal and control. I never wanted to go near a church again – but thought (now I see erroneously) we would be in a dangerous place if we had no “covering”. So we tried a few but for some reason God seemed not to give the green light. Instead we bought a small flat by the sea and spent our weekends and Sundays walking the cliffs and on the beach, listening to worship, reading books (Christian and otherwise) and enjoying each other’s company. We also invited friends down and once a month had a get together when we ate together and just rested in God’s presence for a couple of hours.

However, I still felt guilty that I hated the organisational church, loathed the thought of house groups, never wanted to darken the doors of a conference ever again, and enjoyed good teaching on the web but only as long as I closed my eyes and didn’t watch the church bit. After all the Church was the Bride of Christ wasn’t she – so really I shouldn’t hate it. Guilt… Guilt… Shame.

Then extraordinarily (well not, of course) two things happened. My husband went to Spring Harvest 2 weeks ago to man a stall for work (not to go to any meetings though, no way man!) and he discovered the book The Shack. He is not a great reader but he could not put it down and he wept his way through a large part of it.

While he was away I discovered So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, read it on line in one sitting, found it totally liberating and then discovered the podcasts and the other stuff on your site. And of course saw the link with The Shack.

So when he came back I read it, also wept, and something has happened to me – I have been taught about God the Father and Daddy God until I know it inside out in my head, but the penny has never really dropped in my heart. Reading The Shack made the connection for me between the two but I didn’t realise it at the time until I emailed a friend and my jaw dropped when I realised I was talking about what Daddy wanted to do. I have NEVER felt comfortable referring to Father God as Daddy before although my husband found that heart relationship about 2 years ago. What a miracle. What freedom to know that all I have to do is let Daddy love me, and from that I will be able to love others. I DON’T HAVE TO PERFORM ANY MORE!

It is clear that God is shaking up organisational church all over the place. When praying the other morning he gave me a picture for the church I left (since then many others are exiting as well) but which I think is applicable worldwide. He showed me a glass beaker punched all over with holes and water was pouring out of the holes. But what was so amazing was that as the water landed on the table it did not remain in little droplets separately but it made a pool which was held together by the surface tension. If more water came near it and joined it then it became one with the first lot of water so you could not tell which was which. God is far more interested in the contents than the container and those contents do not need a structure to keep them together. (emphasis mine).

Gotta love that last line! It really says it all! God is more concerned with people coming to know him than he his preserving our religious institutions. But that is nearly impossible for those who manage institutions to understand. They are used to sacrificing individuals for the good of the whole, thinking that is God’s heart. If only they could see…

I know not everyone can appreciate the journey we are on with this little book called The Shack. I can appreciate the concerns people have that we might sell out in the name of success or be changed by it in some horrible way. We honestly didn’t expect that everyone would understand and we are grateful for your prayers and your insights.

Today that book has climbed to #8 on the USA Today list and they are publishing a feature article in Thursday’s edition about this story and how it has found its way into the marketplace. I thought many of you would like to give it a read. The picture at left is one they’re using with the following caption: “Garage warehouse: William P. Young, left, author of The Shack, helps publishers Brad Cummings and Wayne Jacobsen pack books for shipping.”

I’ve never been involved in something that has grown the way this has. It is not my experience that Father often does things this way. Mostly he does his most amazing stuff in quiet, hidden ways that few people notice. But in this case, we feel as if there is something in his heart that he wants to share with the world. We look at this story as a gift and are mostly simply responding to the doors opening to it, rather than pushing it by our own strength. And we’re shocked at the results.

Yesterday, Paul, Brad and I were at Fuller Theological Seminary sharing with students, staff and community about the collaboration behind this adventure and the story behind the story. We had an awesome response with some great comments about what this book has meant to them and some great questions to help them understand it at a deeper level. We don’t often get the chance to hang out together like that. We also met with a major studio today who wants to help us bring this story to a feature length film. Their enthusiasm was a bit overwhelming.

We do appreciate your prayers. We feel as if we hold a gift in our hands and each day we are simply looking to do what we see the Father doing with it, and speak to a world what we hear him saying. It is beyond anything we could have asked or ever imagined!

Three years ago when I was working on rewrites of The Shack with Paul and Brad, I wasn’t even sure we’d be able to find a publisher for that book, much less an audience for it. And, as many of you know, we couldn’t find a publisher who would take the risk. This has been my frustration with so-called ‘Christian publishing’ for so long. It was why I left it in 2000 to publish my own works, so I wouldn’t fall victim to the control and lack of imagination that I have experienced in that environment.

The industry seems to pander to a religious mentality deeply ingrained in Christianity-as-religion that is based on performance not grace, rules and rituals instead of vibrant relationship, exalting the trappings of institutions and leadership instead of the reality of the ever-present Christ, and turning the joy of community into an obligation to sit through a meeting, rather than the irresistible opportunity to share the life of Jesus with other followers.

And I’ve found I’m not alone. The run-away popularity of The Shack has opened a lot of doors for Paul, Brad and me to be in conversations with some of the key publishing people around the nation. We are hearing from authors, editors and executives who have struggled under the same constraints and are celebrating the fact that The Shack has helped to identify a massive spiritual hunger that lies outside the lines of our tightly-package Christian machinery.

This came from an email exchange with an author based in the Chicago area:

You have an eloquent way of putting words to thoughts I’ve had after writing five books and several articles for Christian (and secular) publishers. I couldn’t agree with you more that, ‘It is tough for Christian publishers to do a good job on books that challenge the status quo, and almost impossible for secular publishers to deal in positive terms with the reality of Jesus.’ This – ironically – makes authentic, cutting-edge, Christ-loving, truly grace-driven writing into some kind of anathema.

And this, from the Mick Silva, the editor of WaterBrook Press, a division of Random House and one of the leading Christian publishers:

Briefly, my dream is to bridge the gap between safely packaged (often sanitized) Christian messages, and honest, warts-and-all God-encounters. I’m sure you’re aware that too. Too often God is given short shrift in Christian publishing. And that supposedly simply reflects American Christianity—many trappings, little substance.

That’s what I’ve had to accept—until the success of The Shack. Now I can ask: what if CBA (Christian) publishing doesn’t necessarily just reflect the problems in the church, but also perpetuates some of them? I used to believe that changing people’s hearts was the only way to show that the commonly held publishing assumptions about the “what’s-in-it-for-me?” audience have been off. But now The Shack may be proving there’s an audience hungry for something different—or at least intrigued enough to buy it.

I believe, like many of us, Eugene Peterson has seen this shift coming. The big Christian houses may not be ready to cut ties with their big accounts to chase this awakening audience—and the secular market is certainly not ready for that. But a small company like Windblown can be much more strategic. And that’s exciting to me, not least of all because God has been tapping me on the shoulder to consider my next step.

Honestly, I’ve been surprised to find so many people among the rank and file of Christian publishing who have longed for something that better reflects the breath of God to our culture. They, too, feel stymied by the corporate culture that markets to a demanding demographic instead of taking the risk to put something real and creative into the marketplace.

Brad and I have called this space ‘the Missing Middle’. We are convinced that there was a large group of Christian readers who are looking beyond the plastic answers and petty power structures of the Christian marketplace, and nonChristian readers who are ready to interact with stories and literature about the God of the Bible if they are engaging and relevant to the human struggle.

And now we’re finding that some publishers have been looking for that kind of material as well. Due to the success of The Shack, we are being invited to participate in some of the dialog that goes on in the top echelons of publishing across the U.S. Yes, we know they are wanting to share in the popularity of The Shack, but the invitations and the conversations have been wider than that. First of all, they have the capability to distribute far more books in far more places than we can. But more than that, they are inviting Windblown Media to a place at the table of putting books out there that encourage an out-of-the-box view of relationship with God, Christian community and engagement with the world that demonstrates that love and reality.

This is an excerpt of an email exchange from a C.E.O of one of the top-tier international book publishers:

Now that we’ve read So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore and He Loves Me, we are even more enthused about utilizing our skills to spread the messages of these books, plus the Shack. In fact, ever since we acquired (our Christian imprint), we have been in discussions with them about finding books which would appeal to those Christians who feel dissatisfied by the traditional Church, who are challenging the tenets of received dogma, who are no longer happy with the religion they acquired as children (emphasis mine). So it was with great pleasure that we discover these books at Windblown Media and see the strength of the message and stories in them!

I was quite impressed with the ways in which Wayne and his co-author, Dave Coleman, were able to put into words many thoughts I’d had myself about the ways in which today’s churches had become mostly rituals and rules, mostly about judgment and not about love or forgiveness. So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore is an empowering book, which can really enable the reader to discover not only his or her own relationship with God, but also where and how he or she wants to express that relationship and, yes, worship.

I realize this is a market-driven industry and we’re a message-passionate team. We wouldn’t even be having these discussions if The Shack hadn’t been such a run-away best seller that has caught the industry by surprise. And I realize our opportunity to publish into that space will only last as long as we find an audience there willing to buy it. But Brad and I have felt for a long time that we wanted to speak into that space—not just through books, but movies as well. Now, we’re being invited to do so at a shockingly high level. Whether it will work out or not, is more in Father’s hands than ours. We realize he has been behind all of this.

We haven’t made a decision yet as to which company we will work with, but that decision is immanent and involves finding contractual language we can all agree upon. No matter which way we go, however, this will decisively impact my life and vocation for the foreseeable future. In many ways the last 12 years has been almost retirement for me. I’ve been in the background working on the books I love, traveling and meeting with people who are living this journey and dabbling in other opportunities such as BridgeBuilders and other people’s books as God has opened doors. I couldn’t have been more blessed at the simple life I was allowed to live. But it seems Father is inviting me into a different season that will put different demands on my life.

And add to all of this the fact that we are ramping up now to make the movie version of The Shack in which I will be significantly involved and you’ll see that my life is changing. We have been in meetings over the past few months with so many people in believers who are in the film industry, that we see Father assembling a pretty incredible team to help make that adaptation.

As fun as all of this might be, however, this increasingly invites me out of carefree schedule I’ve treasured for these past few years and into a workload and responsibility that will change some of those realities. I won’t be free to travel as often, at least in the short term. I won’t have as much space to do the articles and blogs as I have in the past, or even to have the extensive email dialogs I have had with people. But I am a firm believer that fruitfulness comes by our being responsive to different seasons in our lives and realizing that God calls us to different things at times, and we must have the freedom to respond.

Even with all of my misgivings, I am convinced that God is asking me to step into some space that will bring some radical changes into my life. I will be able to get back to some of the books I’ve wanted to write and to help others, who have something valuable to say to the body of Christ, find the place to say it.

I wish there was more I could say at this point, but there is so much that is still up in the air. Don’t worry about The God Journey. We have every intent of keeping that going as well as expanding it in some interesting ways in days to come. But I covet your prayers and your wisdom as God might speak to you about all of this. I will need some resource people alongside to help in the tasks that I’ve been able to do myself over the years and I have no idea who those people might be. One very specific request here is that God will provide an administrative assistant that is gifted in administration, editing and writing. I have no idea how to even begin to find such a person where we live.

But I know God is an amazing provider. And that he has things already lined up that I couldn’t figure out if I spent all day racking my brain. So, I’ll just move on like every other day—doing what he has put before me, knowing that my view of these things will get better in days ahead.

Stay tuned. There will be more details to follow.

Greetings from the spring explosion that is New England. Every time I travel here, I wonder why I don’t live here. I absolutely love all the seasons here, except the humid, heavy, hot days of summer, but they usually don’t last long. Sara tells me it’s because we have children and grandchildren in California. But I love it here. I love the wooded countryside, the streams and lakes around every corner and the beauty of spring mornings and autumn days.

Every morning I’ve been here, I’ve been able to take a long walk in the woods while Jesus and I get to sort some things out. One morning three of us slipped some kayaks in the lake and wound our way upstream enjoying the turtles sunning on the logs, the beaver slinking on the bank and the herons and hawks overhead. What a beautiful quiet morning!

Last weekend I spent three days in Connecticut with a bunch of Lutherans who are as alive in Christ as any I’ve met. We had a fabulous time, sorting through the life of Jesus and how to live beyond the rules and rituals to embrace the fullness of his life. They are asking some intriguing questions and seem to be on an incredible journey. I love finding hearts like that in more traditional settings. God is inviting all kinds of people into an engagement with his transforming love. What a great time!

Then I headed north into Fitchburg for a Sunday night BridgeBuilders presentation to a group of home schoolers at a regional debate and speech tournament. That’s a pretty broad swath to cut in the body of Christ in one day—from a Lutheran high-church liturgy to a home schooling convention. I almost got spiritual whiplash. This usually is not the core audience for my BridgeBuilders passions, since these groups often have a more adversarial posture with the world than I think effectively communicates the gospel. But I was warmly received and the adults and children listened intently when I talked. I even had some good interactions with many there, so they didn’t seem to fit the same mold I’ve experienced elsewhere.

Then I settled in Central Massachusetts for the week. I have many dear friends here and have enjoyed catching up with many of them this week as well as meeting some of their friends and relatives. For the next three days I will be meeting with believers who are gathering in Whitinsville, MA from a eight different states here in the Northeast. This was supposed to be a small gathering of family and friends to talk through some of the Transitions material, but it has grown over the last two weeks. We even had to rent wedding tent and set it up on a farm to accommodate the crowd who are headed this way.

It should be a pretty amazing weekend. A lot of those coming are wonderful friends of mine and many of their friends. I can’t wait to see how this plays out. But I do hope people are drawn to greater reality in him, and make connections with each other that will nurture the work of God in the world!

All the while I’ve been following a number of developments on the publishing front and the movie possibilities that I will report in a future blog… But for now there are more people to see and more fellowship to have. Blessings!

I have recently met a woman who cares for orphans in the Sudan. I published her letter to me a few weeks ago that touched many of you.

She is in the States at the moment and I got an email from her today. I can’t imagine a better follow-up than what I posted about community a few weeks ago. But this is community reaching out to the hurting and marginalized in our culture.
This was just an aside to a longer email:

I will be speaking Friday and Sunday evenings in Connecticut and doing street outreach in the Bronx on Saturday. I can’t be THAT close to New York City without finding a bad area to go love on.

You would think someone here from the Sudan, doing some speaking, might need a Saturday to relax and recharge her spiritual batteries. Perhaps this is how she does that! But this is the kind of heart God builds in us to reach the world the way he wants us to reach the world—not as an obligation but as an infectious, can’t-help-myself, compassion for people.

I get this question a lot, so I thought I’d post the exchange here, so i won’t have to rewrite it so many times:

First of all, thank you for the encouragement you have been to us in the last year. We left the institutional church a little over a year ago and honestly do not think we can ever go back. Your blog, book – So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore, Transitions and The Shack have been both freeing and refreshing to us.

Secondly, not asking you to critique or anything but how does your belief system differ from the organic church movement? We read Pagan Christianity and it really opened our eyes. We don’t want to start a house church because we think that can be just moving the institution to the home. If you are willing to give it, we would like your opinion on the whole apostolic house church movement.

To answer your question, In my view the organic church movement, is not very organic. How can it be when they give you all the models to follow? And I’m never thrilled with movements. They always seem to have too much of a touch of man’s plans and human efforts behind it. People create the illusion of a movement for many reasons. Some might be sincere, thinking they are providing a valuable resource for God’s people, though that is rarely the result. More often they end up only trying to validate people that they are part of ‘something special’, or to sell them their books and seminars. God just doesn’t work that way. He moves freely in the earth inviting people to him.

The apostolic house church movement is also too man-driven and program-centered for my tastes. Body life rises out of brothers and sisters who simply want to learn to share Father’s life together as friends and to have his heart in reaching out to others in the simplicity of living their lives. People doing that will find the life of the church springing up around them. It can’t be imposed by implementing any system or model, which only teaches people to play church instead of really living as it.

Thus, discipleship (learning to walk with Jesus) precedes any depth of real community together. So learn to follow him. Encourage others to do so. Follow what God puts on your heart to do together in joy and freedom and you’ll find yourselves being the church. Set up a weekly meeting with a mini-ritual and soon you’ll feel like its just a routine you’re going through. Because it is. But let God connect you with people who want to share a journey, and your life together can take on a myriad of expressions in different seasons as best serves his purposes in the community in which you live.

God wants to give us real frienships with others and teach you to share his life together. We’ll get to experience that simply if we don’t try to put something else together on our own first. Then we’ll just end up with another substitute, not the real deal.

He can do this in you. Ask him to show you and just follow what he puts on your heart each day as you learn to live in the reality of his love…

Many of you know how I tire of most ‘Christian’ approaches to dealing with culture issues in our world. Despite their rhetoric, their anger and manipulative strategies always come off as hating both the sinner and their sin. And instead of demonstrating the compassion of Jesus for the most marginalized and brokem in our culture, we end up only increasing the anger and misunderstandings on which our conflicted culture seems to thrive.

This especially focuses on public school issues where I occasionally serve as a mediator for cultural and religious conflicts as part of BridgeBuilders. Each April the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network sponsors a Day of Silence each year to encourage students to use silence as a way to identify with the bullying and discrimination that is directed toward students perceived to be gay or transgendered, and to help be a voice to make schools safer for them.

In recent years Christian groups have responded with a Day of Truth to counteract ‘the gay agenda’ in the Day of Silence. These students are told to make it clear at school that homosexuality is an abomination to God. But there is a new alternative being suggested for this year, and I think it offers a much better way for students to be part of a solution, rather than prolonging the conflict. It’s called The Golden Rule Initiative.

While admitting that many conservative students are conflicted about this day. They do not affirm homosexual behavior but they also loathe disrespect, harassment or violence toward any one, including those students who are or may appear to be gay, lesbian or transgendered. The proponent of this approach, Dr. Warren Throckmorton, Associate Professor of Psychology at Grove City College. He suggests participating in a pledge of safety for all students based on the Golden Rule:

We believe the teaching of Christ in the Golden Rule should guide our actions and attitudes regarding all. We also believe that we should work to make school a safe place for all students.

Thus, we advocate students spread a message like this on the Day of Silence:

This is what I’m doing:

• I pledge to treat others the way I want to be treated.

• Will you join me in this pledge?

• “Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:31).

Because the Day of Silence participants will be passing out cards describing why they are silent and what the Day means to them, we advocate exchanging a card or paper in return. Write or type the Golden Rule pledge on pieces of paper or an index card and pass it out at your school if the Day of Silence is being observed.

Of course, I think it would be more powerful without the Scripture reference. Most Christians can’t imagine how offensive it is to people who don’t embrace the truths of the Bible, to have a Scripture reference thrown in their face. It makes it appear to them as if we’re only doing it to follow a rule and not out of love or respect for them.

They’ll be taken with the truth of the quote far easier if we don’t reference it. It would be far better to let them discover where it comes from at some future time.

But over all, I like this approach.