I agree that we should reach out to homosexuals because they are sinners in need of God’s grace as I am. I also believe that God causes the rain to fall on the just and the unjust. As a matter of fact one of my good friends just ran off to Miami with his boyfriend, so I’m no secluded redneck stranger to sodomy.
But there is a vast chasm between supporting the gay lifestyle and reaching out to a gay person. I go to prison with my dad and witness to burglars, but I don’t want them processing my transactions at the bank! The key is understanding the fundamental difference between a sin and a “social injustice”. A social injustice is something that a civilization has deemed unacceptable. Sin is something divinely forbidden and offends the holiness of God. Many things that are now socially unacceptable have been acceptable in other cultures and civilizations. Drug use was common in early English history. Prostitution was a religious exercise in Cannanite cultures. Homoerotic relationships between men and boys was very common among the Greeks and even existed (though often overlooked) in the halls of Oxford university in the early part of the last century.
There is a clear distinction that is often missing between love and acceptance. I know the two are paraded around as mutually exclusive these days, but they are two distinct principles. For instance, I don’t accept some people’s rampant sexuality, but that does not negate my love for them. If I were starting a business however, I surely wouldn’t hire them because we differ in this area. God loves the world, but there is a hell and unrepentent sinners will be going there. These are the two sides of God – holiness and love – and they need to evident in our lives as well, thus the difficult balance.
And I think that’s the key issue: ‘repentence’. Yes they are sinners and they are simply living out their fleshly desires. Without a higher authority, why not! If it’s what you dig, then dig it man! But as a Christian we have to face this question – can morality be legislated?
In a democracy, its tough. We’re doing the whole Judges thing – “every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” What the majority says is right becomes right in this country. We’ve bought into the modern thinking that homosexuality is simply a “social injustice”. We can now be crucified for calling it an injustice – injust to who? Us? Why discriminate against them, and who are we to say they are wrong?
We’re trying to dance with Devil at Heaven’s gates. We’d like to appear accepting and open with a let’s-all-have-a-group-hug mentality, but we’re still hanging on to vestigal beliefs that homosexuality is wrong. We’re appealing to a Jesus who wrote in the sand but forgetting that he flipped over the tables of the money-changers (many of whom were probably unbelievers).
Just thinking.
