Victory vs. Mercy- A Recovering Evangelical's Point of View

I've gone to pains to emphasize the evangelical roots from which I come. It's hard to completely remember now how I used to think. I know I'm not especially proud of some of my previous political and religious opinions in the past. But it's hard to remember exactly what I would've thought of [insert touchy news item here] in evangelical, to-the-right-of-God days.

But every now and then, I get a little bit of a reminder.

In a statement released on their website they proudly proclaim, "You will understand the importance of this place for our evangelization in the area. So the Sodom bar will become the pub of Mercy."

They are that type of old-school Catholics who actually care about the souls of those caught up in the gay lifestyle. You know, what we used to call mercy but is now often demeaned as judgmental.

Source- ncregister.com Basically, some traditionalist Catholics purchased a gay bar that went out of business. They're planning to in effect open a pub there intended to reach out to the homosexual community. They want to use it to give gays a place to be cared for. It'll still be a "gay bar" but not in the "hook up" way as before; it won't be a den of sin anymore. Instead, it'll be a haven of mercy.

I truly believe at least 99% of evangelical would've started an international fundraiser to purchase the bar for likely top dollar and turn it into an evangelical youth center. The pious "Bible-Christians" would've proudly thumped their chests over conquering "Satan's bar" as if it somehow proved something. Meanwhile, the previous owners of the gay bar laughed all the way to the bank and set up shop someplace else.

In the end, nothing would've changed, except maybe for the worst.

The Catholics didn't do that. They bided their time, bought the building for a song and found a way to use the bar to care for people in need of mercy rather than lord their "victory" over the "vanquished". And their humble, merciful, forgiving attitude means they don't even need to turn out even one convert at this point to be considered successful; they've already succeeded in their witness. Everything else from here is gravy.

I say all of this to say that I know very clearly which of those courses of action I would've taken back in the old evangelical days and I'm so grateful to be on a much better path now.