[BrotherLarry]

The Word tells us to honor our Father and Mother. In my days of enslavement to the Catholic church, I thought it meant to honor the priest and Mother Mary. My parents corrected me often.

Of course I now understand thanks to the Baptist church it means to respect them as well as bring honor to the family name (White, E. 1956). But ever since they moved to godless Long Island, my parents are constantly asking for favors. Larry, come help your father mow the lawn. Larry pick up some bread and bring it to breakfast tomorrow. Larry we need our brakes fixed. On and on and on.


Not only does this interfere with my ministry and my gnathology, it just gets annoying. They are wealthy enough to hire someone for their menial tasks. I shouldn't have to work for my inheritance. Why are they so ungrateful for my being a good son?


When is it OK to say no to them? I am supposed to go to brunch with Todd and his husband Richie, hopefully to bring them to their knees afterward. But Mother just called saying their cat needs some food and will I pick it up and bring them burgers and fries. I am distraught. What say ye?


With many thanks for your guidance,


BrotherLarry

[WWJDnow]

Brother Larry,

In Luke 14:26, Jesus tells us:

If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Of course you must honor your parents, but not at the cost of your ministry or your obligation to tithe to the church.

I suggest that you explain to your parents that, when they are old and decrepit, you will be the person selecting a nursing home for them, and that if they don't want to spend their final years on Earth in the Fruit of Islam Home for the Aged in Duluth, Minnesota, they had better start thinking about how their nagging is affecting your ability to save souls for the Lord.

[MitzaLizalor]

There's no need for an opinion from me: it depends where on your Christian journey you are. And it has nothing to do with what they deserve. What we all deserve is the very thing Jesus died so horribly, after being whipped and everything, to set us free from. Someone within a faith tradition as yet unredeemed lacks His words to guide them. In Judaism for instance, respect would be shown as required by God right up to the point where they bring home one of those excessively gem-encrusted idols with 14 arms and start offering it food at mealtimes. Yuk!

Like, it can't actually eat so the food would just sit there and go rotten.

Constrained by The Law, what you should do then is clear. It's not the same as if you did it though. Jesus also taught how people should relate to one another, as has been mentioned. Christians leaving a false faith tradition behind, of whom there were multitudes, go through a transitional phase prompting Jesus to explain:

Luke 14:25-26 • And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them, If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Within that multitude there'd be people from not actually false traditions, but ones that had been neutered into meaninglessness, as well as currently, soon to be ex- and former idolators and/or even worse savages, which brings me to Todd and Richie. You will notice that Jesus omits one category: Husbands. Clearly when you marry you will regard your wife as Jesus commands. Imagine if in that multitude there was a Todd. (Or Richie.) Assuming they were already married, how should their future relationship be assessed? Neither is required to hate the other. Perhaps that's something you could discuss with them over afternoon cocktails.

In Christ.