A controversial post

This Sunday we're going to get controversial. I know, I know. I HATE getting controversial. I really do. But I was asked recently how I could possibly support gay rights and remain a Christian. And while I answered privately, I also felt led to make my answer public as well. Because this is actually a subject I am quite passionate about (surprise surprise, can anyone find a subject that I'm NOT passionate about?). So here goes.

How do I, as a Christian, support gay rights? I think, honestly, its truer to ask why, as a Christian, I shouldn't? I mean, lets be clear and honest right here from the start. The Bible very clearly states homosexual acts are a sin. And I am a strict follower of the Bible. I am not, in any way, trying to say that it's not a sin. It is. It is a sexual perversion of what God meant sex to be. Clear and simple, whether you want to hear it or not that's what the Bible says.

But I don't think supporting gay rights is the same as supporting the homosexual act. It's all a matter of loving the sinner but hating the sin, really. Something we should all be really good at because we all have a lot of practice, its what we do everyday with ourselves. You are a sinner, my friend, as am I. Yet we love ourselves. And as soon as we learn to love others the same way we will all be a lot better off.

But anyways, this is my thing: We can hate that sin, as we should, without persecuting it the way we seem (as a church) to feel the need to. I mean think about it, its the number 1 worst attacked sin ever. And I don't really understand why. I don't know where Jesus said it was the worst sin ever, where He said to pursecute those outside the faith with this particular sin. Yet I see it everyday persuecuted above and beyond any other sexual sin. Ive never heard of anyone trying to make co-habitation against the law. That's a sexual sin equally bad in the eyes of the Lord. I've never heard of anyone trying to make it illegal for people in their second marriage to adopt children. And I hate to break it to you, Jesus said that any man to marry a divorced woman is committing adultery. Plain and simple, God never intended divorce any more than he intended homosexuality. They are both perversions of His plan, they are both sin.

And I really don't see what we think we are achieving with all this hatred. Except a bad rep maybe. I cant count how many friends and acquaintances that have told me this one issue has stopped them from joining the church. Just the fact that they don't want to be seen as or be surrounded by "haters". Really. Christians equal haters in these people's minds. That is so backwards to me. Christ was about love. About loving sinners above all. Yet all we are showing the outside world is Hate. Fear. Zelous Persecution of those different than us.

And we arent getting anywhere. Making it illegal for gay couples to get a legal marriage (because lets not joke ourselves, after the way we have behaved no gay couple wants to even ENTER our church, let alone get our blessings) does not in any way change our own marriage, their position of sin, or anything else. Refusing to speak to your gay daugther/sister/friend is not holy or right, its hateful and prideful. She has just as much right to not speak to you, your sins are equally dark in the eyes of the Lord.

Lets take this energy, I say, and turn it into something more like what Christ would be doing. Loving people. Hating their sin, yes, but loving them. Welcoming them in all their brokenness, in the brokenness that we ALL have, with open arms. When did Jesus get involved with the laws? When did he ever persecute anyone? Arent we supposed to be HIS followers?

And maybe, just maybe, if we change our ways, the gay community can forgive us. I like to believe they just might.