My daughter heard this statement
the other day: "God did not create homosexuals, because God would not
create something he hates", and that got me thinking (never takes
much). The assumption here is that God did not create the homosexual tendencies
in men (males and females), because he hates homosexuals and would not create
them, and he therefore is not responsible for creating them. Did He
create them? Does He hate them? My daughter suggested I try and
make some sense of this to her.
Of course, the God
of the universe tells us all men have a sinful nature, as well as that, “all
men are liars”, depraved, and yet, that he takes responsibility for creating
every one of us.
It seems like in Christendom, just like
everywhere else in human conversation, there are statements like these which at
first glance seem to have a ring-of-truth about them (particularly if we want
them to) but then we come to find they are actually erroneous sentiments that
have lazily come to be accepted by men through time.
Westboro Baptist Church would be an
example of a group of people like this who surely think the introductory quote
is true. We've all heard of them in the national media. They are
the Baptist church in Topeka Kansas which concocted the by now familiar
God-smearing, gay-smearing media-campaign slogan that reads, "God hates
fags". A "fag" in this case is a derogatory word for their
idea of a homosexual.
What’s a homosexual? To God,
a homosexual is a person who practices sexual relations with a person(s)
of the same sex. Did he make them that way? Yes, the same way he made me (and you) with a
tendency to be a fornicator, covetous, and a liar, yet with the self-control
and respect for him to manage and not to practice such things.
God has made us
sexual human beings with a purpose of reproduction, and he made the sexual act with
both physically and emotionally pleasurable qualities. Used for its own pleasurable purposes it can,
at its best, bring brief physical and emotional satisfaction. At its worst, it can bring fatherless
children into the world, as well as disease, strife, jealousy, heartbreak, even
betrayal, abuse, rape, and humiliation into the lives of people touched
sexually by others. There seems to be a strong
sexual undercurrent in almost everything in our culture these days. There seems to be almost always something
ready to send one’s sexual instincts into overdrive to the point where it
becomes a constant physical challenge. I
find myself sometimes longing for the day when things were a little bit less
exposed. With this constant arousal factor, it is no surprise
to me that it is uncomfortable for those whose sexual orientation, by other
people’s standards, is not entirely clear.
But let’s get back to the discussion about people
putting words in God’s mouth as a license to hate others, and whether or not by
doing so they are actually condemning themselves.
I have done man
hateful things, but his love abided with me then as well, when I was still a
liar and an adulterer. Long after I
should have known better I learned that he was asking me to take him seriously
and understand that if I was going to practice stuff that was not good for his
Kingdom, then I would not be welcome in it.
That, I came to understand, is very little to ask in return for having
his well-pleased presence walk with me every day through eternity. Understandably, it’s not as easy for many.
It is not merely the same-sex orientation
that condemns the homosexually oriented person, just as your or my orientation
to be covetous, bear false witness, or gossip does not condemn us. It is indulging in those acts that does it. For the homosexually oriented person, does that
mean no sexual relations? Yes. But, how is that fair? It’s fair because many of us who would fall
under the label as heterosexual can’t have sexual relations outside of marriage
either – I have no wife, I am under the same constraint. But then, it’s true, heterosexual marriage is
still available to me if I chose – and not to the homosexual. The homosexually oriented person can love another
of the same sex, but must find a way other than sexual relations with him/her to
relieve themselves sexually. Surely, it
appears to some of us that our sexual impulses were given to us for a purpose,
and beyond that purpose we are to keep them to ourselves. An act between two people in which was
designed to form a new life must be regarded with respect and care.
Why can’t a homosexually oriented
person, then, just get a wife (or a husband) under the banner of Marriage and
enjoy the protection it offers so as not to be having sexual relations with
another immorally? The short answer is
that one doesn’t need a husband or a wife to make love. “Having sex” is not “making
love”. The good news is that two people
can make love without having sex. There
is a much longer answer we are obligated to give here, because love and sex can
be enjoyed together, and even overlap, but for the moment, this answer is true
and simple, even surprisingly sufficient – you don’t have to have sex to make
love. It is critical to understand that “making
love” and “having sex”, might, at any given time, have nothing in common. One of the most precious things I have had the
honor of teaching my daughter in these confusing times is that “you don’t have
to have sex to make love”.
Marriage was not designed as a free pass for
merely sexual relations. And even if a
same sex couple were to custom design something which they were to call a
marriage, the famous marital sex act itself could not be consummated since they
don’t have the opposing set of body parts necessary. It would be an act of pure sexual
gratification. Making love is not having
sex. Granted, I am completely leaving
out many of the other non-sexual sentiments homosexually oriented people are primarily
looking for in a marriage. But this post
will get unbearably long even without a discussion on gay marriage. The point I desire to make at this juncture is
that there is no easy fix for finding a channel of relief or gratification for the
diverse inborn sexual desires people are issued. The challenge here is to clarify terms and
concepts to make the conversation more productive. Let’s
plod ahead.
If
it were a sin to merely lust after a person of the same-sex, then heterosexuals
would be equally condemned for the many times they lust after a person of the
opposite sex to whom they are not married (i.e., fornication, adultery,
etc.). Men are born with a wide range of inclinations – to gamble, drink,
covet other’s husbands or wives or possessions.
Our sinful natures often times are a handful to deal with.
In times of challenge, the living God in us
is happy to supply the self-control we are lacking.
It’s a sort of loving show-of-strength,
wherein, if we think lack the strength ourselves, God comes to our rescue with
more than enough to make up for our weakness.
And no one is condemned.
Much
like an alcoholic who may have a longing for intoxication that simply does not ever
completely go away, so are sexual desires of many.
Yet they might choose to abstain.
In
the case of same sex-attraction, the research literature has it that 25% of
adults in the U.S. acknowledge some same-sex attraction (Gates, 2011),
What condemns each - the heterosexual and the homosexual alike - is not who
they are, but how they practice being who they are. We can't always
practice the things we like. And this word 'practice' is the one God uses
to distinguish between the individuals he condemns and those he does not.
We all have fleshly desires that God has asked us to exercise control
over and use only as He intended. When we fail to follow His road map it
causes problems: unwanted children, broken families, or drunken dissipated
lives, to name a few. And he has let us know in
1 Cor. 6 and
Gal. 5:19 what
those practices are that mess things up. He asks us not to practice those
things. To "not do the things we would like to do" when they are
different than what He intended - things that are vain, selfish things.
He is looking out for his and our own long-term best interests. His
constant and enduring love for our best interest is the only power that will
sustain our interest in putting the desires of His kingdom above our own.
One desire of his is that we discover that he and his spiritual blessings can
satisfy our desires here in this world. He is looking for mere imperfect
mortals to recognize and return his love for them. No imperfection is too
great.
We all have the natural
tendency to smooth over our faults, even drink to much, and sometimes covet,
lie, and steal, as it suits us (he says "these things we all once walked
in", in one form or another), but in doing so we hurt ourselves or others.
And later on in 1 Cor. 6:18 he even appears to distinguish sins at issue here
as those being committed outside the body ("Flee immorality. Every
other sin a man commits is outside the body . . .". ) That is not to
excuse immoral thoughts, but there is a difference between mere thoughts and
those turned into actions - "deeds of the flesh". Those who are
claiming "God hates fags" are wholly misquoting him. God says
all men are liars. The Westboro Baptist church is full of both of them,
and God does not hate them. But they should be concerned that they are
putting destructive words into God's mouth.
We all have the wrong
thoughts and orientations all day long, and we exercise self-control and turn
away from them (many of us). We try and grow in other directions and in
more productive ways. Who we are is not dependent on whether they are there or
not, but what we do with them when they arise, because God says we are all cut
from the same cloth - "none are good, no not one" - and he still
doesn't hate any of us. The "people" from Westboro Baptist Church,
not God, hate "fags" - whatever a fag is and whether there even is
such a thing in God's eyes. God has never said such a thing; the people
from Westboro Baptist Church are out there hating homosexuals all by
themselves. God is not in it. God has taught us to be disposed to love
all men, and more than that, he has shown us by example.
So, if God loves all men,
and expects us to do the same; and if I carry around the label of both
"heterosexual fornicator" as well as "accepted child of the
living God" for my past words and deeds, then what prevents a
non-practicing homosexual from enjoying the same blessing? How is it that
a so-called homosexual is hopelessly condemned and hated by the Westboro
Baptist Church for admitting to certain lusts of his or her flesh, and I am
not?
If you
read about the six things God hates you find that he hates no men or women; He
hates certain things they do and certain things they say, but He hates no
individuals. It's not about who you are, it's about what you do with who
you are. He has made us all of nothing good except the ability to listen
to and follow after Him; unable to extricate ourselves from our sinful nature,
yet able to manage it. And doing so, or attempting to do so, with all of
our heart, mind, and strength, we are considered good, useful, and acceptable
to Him.
God hates lying, and
all men are liars (or so He says). So does He hate us all? No, He
doesn't hate any of us. He so loved the world (all of His creation) that
He gave His Son for all to behold (to see), and to hear, touch, believe in, be
raised up with, and follow into his presence - all they must do is honor him as
God and then follow after him. He has told us that He is not a respecter
of persons. All have sinned and fallen short; none are good. That's
a part of how man (male and female) is created. And He regards them from
a position of love. He hates no one (there were groups of foreigners in the Old
Testament whom He hated for a season, but He always tells us who and why).
There is no other indication that He hates anyone; not the thief (the one on
the cross), the liar (all of us), the covetous, the drunkard, the effeminate,
nor the homosexual, heterosexual fornicator or adulterer, he doesn't hate any
of us, but rather, says only that he hates the practice of such things.
Instead of hate for anyone, he is patient toward all and not willing to
lose any of them, but desiring only that they turn away from their own glory
(perhaps even false teaching) and towards His Truth manifested and proven not
only in Jesus, but by His own well-known presence from the beginning of
recorded history.
He
doesn't hate me, or them, for being either heterosexuals or homosexuals but
rather, He says he hates the "deeds" of those who practice such
things - the deeds of the flesh, not the individuals themselves. And
fortunately so, because if I conclude that God hates homosexual individuals, or
any individuals, then I have to also conclude that He hates me all the more.
I am a
heterosexual who has practiced these unfruitful deeds of the flesh -
"deeds" that God hates. Such things as fornication, adultery,
dishonesty, covetousness, and reviling (for a few). By all reckoning (the
reckoning of some) I must, then, be five times worse off than a mere so-called
homosexual. But instead, I no longer walk in darkness, I no longer do
what I please. Because of God's kindness, His presence, and because of
God's patience, while I formerly walked in darkness and practiced whatever I
wished, that is, while I was still a sinner - worse than a drunk, worse than
merely a liar, worse than an adulterer or a homosexual, he still loved
me. And it paid off for both us us. I turned and regained the
delight of a Father, and He regained a loving son. Now I hate the things He
hates - the useless unfruitful things, the destructive purposeless, vain words
and deeds and things of this life that take the place of better things He has
here for me.. And I don't hate "fags". And neither does
He.
Look in
Ephesians 5:5, 1 Corinthians 6:9, Galatians 5:19, or Proverbs 6:19, for
examples of what practices will eliminate some from their inheritance in the
kingdom (and there are many more examples). These will be people like you
and I who have decided to give in to the practice of such things. To engage in
these things which are described as deeds of darkness, deeds of the flesh, that
are unfruitful or even destructive to others, or the things of God, in some way
or another. These people possess an urge that, alone, does not defile
them, but what proceeds from their heart in the form of action does. He
hates their deeds, and He waits for their hearts to turn in the direction of
His upward call. Something bigger, better. A fair proposal - a magnificent
opportunity. But I can be sure He does not hate these people he refers
to, because He has not said that He hates them.
God
tells us that he loves all men. That being the case, then we can't impute His hate on anyone under any circumstance. And if we err, then He restores joy and
comfort to our victims, such as in the text below.
"Hear the word of the
LORD, you who tremble at His word: 'Your brothers who hate you, who exclude you
for My name's sake, Have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your
joy.' But they will be put to shame." (Is. 66.5)
Wouldn't it be wonderful if I would just end this thing
right here?
Without wandering too deeply into
'how', then, some men and women wind up with a same-sex attraction in the first
place (because I tried wandering into it and it gets really tedious in a real
hurry), I think we have to simply recognize that same-sex attraction does exist
in many individuals, and it is starkly absent in many others. Around
one-fourth of the adult U.S. population acknowledges some same-sex attraction,
and around 3.5% of adults identify as LGBT (Gates, 2011). The object of
your arousal determines whether you are called a heterosexual, homosexual.
We are born with the urges we have, many different. By all indications, I was
born a heterosexual; and with no choice to be otherwise. As it were, with
my lack of success at obtaining a female partner in this life, I should have
perhaps arguably been driven to seek out a male life partner. But the
urge for a male partner is not even remotely in me.
My sexuality was tested at a young
age, even challenged, by some older (homosexually oriented) friends.
Unlike towards the neighbor girl, the attraction for my male buddies was not
there; the urge was not in me. What was in me, it turns out, was much
worse, if you are a mathematician, and produced a much longer list of sinful
urges God hates, such as heterosexual adultery, fornication, and covetousness,
which alone amounted to several times the condemnation than if I were merely a
homosexual. Even today, as a heterosexual, my flesh still obeys the law
of sin (like Paul's), my heart is deceitful (lying) and wicked above all things
(like yours), and there is nothing good in me (as the Lord has informed us all)
- nothing, yet my mind obeys the spirit of God; and obediently - sometimes
begrudgingly - my flesh follows. Therefore, if God has reason to hate any
anyone, homosexual or heterosexual, because of the abundant, sinful inborn
urges of His flesh, then He would have had reason to hate the
"heterosexual, me" more so. But he hates none of us.
I know I am not alone in past sins,
because He tells us all that, "in them you also once walked, when you were
living in them". He tells us we all once walked in the wrong things
(big and small) until that time when we reached the point of accountability,
beheld God the Son, and put our faith in what he has said and done. The
difference between me and many who might find offense in talking about past sin
is that I now walk in the light - and therefore in truth, not just regretting,
but making right the errors of the past, no longer looking back but
forward. Now all things are new in that we consider ourselves dead to our
old ways (practices) and alive to new spiritual life and vigor of God's Spirit
within us. We can't change our mortal natures. Each of us is ready
to slip (backslide) into our unique, old urges at any time (ask many prone to
alcoholism) - licentiousness, lying, adultery, homosexualism, drunkenness - if
we say we do not sin, we fool ourselves, and the truth is not even in us. Hate
no one except, perhaps, your own sinful nature. Our sinful nature was
crucified with our decision to receive and follow the life-giving Spirit of the
Lord; now it is ours not to rebuild it.
Can a person have seemingly
acceptable "heterosexual urges" and still not be in an acceptable
condition with God? ("Acceptable condition with God" is the
definition of "righteousness"). Yes, as an adulterer,
fornicator, molester, covetous - unfortunately the list is long, he can be in
big trouble. Can the same heterosexual be in good standing with God if he
puts aside the urges he knows to be wrong? Yes. Not only that, but he
"can" love another man’s wife for her personality, her maturity
in the Lord, even adore her beauty as a person, without being an adulterer,
fornicator, or covetous. In fact, he is commanded to do so. He is
commanded to love all men (male and female). A heterosexually oriented
man or woman is able to love another man or woman with love authored and
modeled by God without committing a sin, even though fleshly desires are always
not far off. And so can any two men or two women freely love each other
with Godly love while putting aside their respective potential fleshly desires,
and feel no guilt or shame or experience condemnation, for they are commanded
to.
Let's take this thing one painful
step farther. What about a man or woman in mid-life who has never had a sexual
relationship, never was able to find a marriage partner, is simply not sexually
attracted to members of the opposite sex at all, and if anything, finds him or
herself sexually attracted to individuals of the same sex? What if this
individual finds it unlikely that he or she will ever have an actual sexual
encounter with anyone in this life, in fact never does, suspects she may indeed
be a homosexually oriented, and in turn fears she may never be accepted by God
(or man) - because she is being told as much by her church elders (perhaps
especially in the case of the Westboro Baptist Church)? Her own urges
persuade her that she is a so-called homosexual, yet, she has never had a
sexual encounter with another individual, either sex, and perhaps never
will. She wonders if God loves her or not. She wonders if she is
hated or condemned by God as some of those at the Westboro Baptist Church might
say? Just the very description of her
urges, to some, might condemn her as homosexual (perhaps even a more masculine
appearance). So, where does she stand? Does she somehow have to
develop a sexual attraction to a male before she can be accepted by God and not
be condemned as a homosexual? Does she need to develop a sexual
attraction to men to be saved? Yes, perhaps she can contrive one somehow
if she must, but must she? Does her sexual preference alone make her
doomed as some are seen to interpret 1 Corinthians 6:9? Or is she
entitled, like the rest of us, to simply not practice such things and partake
in the grace of God and follow Christ?
Here is the most obvious problem with
the proposition at the top of the page. What, as a Christian, do you tell
hermaphroditic people of their acceptance by God - if their church elders are
not sure? They are individuals born here in God's creation who have both male
and female parts on one body. Do we tell ourselves (and them) that
God did not create them that way, that he hates the way they are, that there is
something inherently bad about them, and maybe their forefathers did something
bad to bring it on them? We have no other choice than to believe God
created them, and that it pleased him to make them the way they were
made. Does medical science now have to come to their rescue for them to
be saved from their ambiguous bodies and assure their acceptance and salvation
from God? I would say not. Flesh is flesh, and spirit is spirit.
Their flesh is made of the dust of earth, which God, at one time, cursed for a
time and withdrew his spirit from; but their hearts/minds/spirits, are still
wondrously made, in his image, and designed by him to seek him, and be brought
home with him.
We can now trace our sexual
behavior, by God's own design, to the elemental things of the world (which God
calls good). They are the chemical underpinnings of our physiological
makings. God's physiology; God's chemistry; we are fashioned perfectly in
accordance with how he saw fit to fashion each one of us, individually, from
the dust of the earth. It pleases Him to form men and women in almost
every conceivable imperfect way; with a mind (and spirit), capable of joining
with His (mind and Spirit) and walking with him through this world. And
if we are puzzled as to how some of those whom we perceive as being to mentally
or physically compromised to rightly answer God's call to them, then we are
comforted by knowing that he has a gracious, unique plan for each of them as
well - He desires that none will parish - He has blessed you and me with sound
minds, others He takes care of as it pleases Him - in His own way. Our job is
to leave room for all others and be mindful of our own unworthiness for such a
love.
Alcoholics, just like homosexuals,
are one of many groups of whom it is said that if they practice such things,
will not find a place in God's eternal community. Yet, Bill Wilson,
well-known to those who struggle with a weakness for alcohol, even though he
had given up drinking alcohol for many years leading up to his death,
considered himself an alcoholic until the day he died. As an alcoholic,
didn't he know that alcoholics will find no welcome into the kingdom of
heaven? Didn't he fear God's rejection, God's hate? No, he loved
God, and that love likely caste out his fear. He was not fazed by the
hysteria in Christendom over labels. And by boldly admitting that he was
an alcoholic, born with alcoholic tendencies greater than most other men, he
was able to turn to God, and turn many others to God as well. There, God
did not take away his urge, but gave him the strength to turn away from it
himself. Mr. Wilson was able to help tens of millions of other alcoholics all
over the world discover the love of God. He is an alcoholic who was going to
enjoy a place in God's eternal Kingdom, in spite of his label.
This urge that Bill Wilson
struggled with promised him feelings like he could find nowhere else on this
earth, except in the friendship with his God. Today, through
brain-imaging studies, we observe proof of how consuming alcohol physically and
permanently alters control centers in specific areas of the brain. It changes
them from what they were prior to abusing alcohol and thus we describe it as a
disease. Bill experienced an overwhelming urge persistently lurking in
his system long after he stopped drinking which was constantly threatening to
either kill him, or send him back ultimately into detox in the psychiatric ward
to force him to stop temporarily. He could only make sense of this
process as being "alcoholism". He recognized that, in his case,
the only thing stopping him from giving in to the urge was the Spirit of God,
and his desire to please him. So, he, an alcoholic, and God, went on
together to start the self-help group called Alcoholics Anonymous. He
considers himself a "recovering alcoholic" - always recovering,
always an alcoholic. He possessed an inner urge that almost killed him several
times and which was always poised to do it again. At every meeting for
the rest of his life he introduced himself as "My name is Bill, and I'm an
alcoholic", and encouraged others to be mindful of it as well. He
was an alcoholic whose love for God won out over his love for alcohol.
I drank excessively at times when I
was younger. I thoroughly enjoy drinking alcohol, but, I can either take
it or leave it. In my experience many Christians drink to the point of
excessive drunkenness socially, particularly on holidays (especially
Christmas), and unfortunately drunkenness is also on the list of practices that
eventually, if not turned away from, will threaten to interfere with one's
admission to God that he or she truly loves Him. Fortunately, as with
most life-draining urges, most of us can both drink to excess or easily manage
to stop altogether, at will. But not all are built alike. We all
have our own unique brain chemistry, and mine is different that Bill's.
The strong biological urge to drink is not in me. I was not born with
alcoholic tendencies, or homosexual tendencies; but, sadly, I was born equally
troublesome urges mentioned earlier, which arguably, are worse than either
alcoholism or homosexual urges. And so were you. Christ has
mentioned them. I no longer let mine rule over me, nor engage in
practicing them. I am sure many homosexually oriented Christians are able to do
the same. Christ never leaves us, but neither does our sinful flesh.
"Hello, my name is Todd, and I'm a sinner", and I will see pennant
sinners of every description, from every entry in this hated list of
behaviors, who have turned from their wicked ways and followed Christ
Home.
The list of long. What about
the areas of adultery? Or, fornication? There used to be 31 million
accounts on AshleyMadison.com, a website dedicated to helping married Americans
arrange secretive adulterous affairs. It is a better thing for Christianity
that we don't know, statistically, how many of them were so-called Christian
men. Many were (and still are). Many of those who still are likely
consider themselves as having a one-way ticket to heaven on that glorious day
to come when, after tiring of worldy pleasures, they will move on to greener
pastures, and so-called homosexuals will not. I say men, because it has
been found that most of the women's accounts are fictitious, and that out of 31
million men and 5.5 million supposed women, fewer than 10,000 women responded
to a message from a would-be cheating partner, and fewer than 1,500 women ever
checked their inbox. Many womens' accounts were set up for lack of
women. One of the 31 million men, Josh Duggar, surely must have thought
he was OK in his Christian walk and looking forward to a warm welcome home in
heaven. However, as a practicing adulterer and covetous liar, technically
he is on God's list of people who are not welcome in the Kingdom of
heaven. If the average homosexual is in jeopardy, then as an adulterer
and a liar Josh Duggar is in double jeopardy. Not to mention that he has
made a mockery of the Family Research Council with which God entrusted him as a
in fact, a representative of His. This man's uncovered adulterous sexual pass-time
has done more to bring discredit to the Church than a whole nation full of
homosexuals, in my opinion, yet in the opinion of many others, he is surely
"in", and many homosexuals are surely not. Surely, he can
simply check-in to Christian rehab, repent excessively, and give up his urge
toward sexual promiscuity? Do we suppose one day we could ask a penitent
Josh Duggar if he any longer covets extra-marital sex, or even sexual contact
with small children, and that he will say, "No, I am now free of those
urges". Well then, the apostle Paul was not so lucky, and Mr.
Duggar, if he continues to grow as a Christian, will not have grounds for that
claim either. The apostle Paul says he still has the urges to do the
things that he hates, and that only by the grace of Christ's strength in him is
he able to keep from doing them. The old nature is still there with all
of its original potential for evil - apart from Christ. No need to be a
homosexual to be in trouble. By stating that the "urges to sin"
never completely go away, Paul takes away our claim (as heterosexuals) that we
are free from urges of those kinds which God hates, - the many that comprise
the remainder of the long list more multitudinous, wicked, and destructive than
those of the practicing homosexual. And therefore, he gives those whom
have such urges toward homosexual practice the right to claim that they, too,
can acknowledge inherent, inextinguishable urges, not act upon them, and be in
an acceptable condition with God. And neither they nor anyone else gets
to choose the unique, sinful urges he or she is born with, but rather only
whether to engage in the practice of them or not.
We all have natural weaknesses
(strong urges), some for alcohol, sensuality, to steal things, to covet, to
fornicate; God does not remove an individual's fallen nature, He simply gives
him or her knowledge and self-control to manage it. Even greater than our
self-control - He offers us to be partakers with Him of His divine nature, and
to use it to bolster our own mortal self-control. And that huge,
gracious, Spiritual Gift leaves us without excuse if we do not avail ourselves
of it.
I have a friend at work. I
love him more and more all the time. He is a 59-years-old fellow whose
mannerisms are very feminine, and which for as long as he can remember, he
says, have made him the subject of physical and emotional violence perpetrated
by Christians and others. He has often cursed homosexuality, who people say
he is, and wishes he were not. But, he cannot change his eye color or add
muscle mass, any more than he can add testosterone to where instead he has
perhaps been given estrogen, and as much as the violence and hatred has made
him desire to, he cannot change how his body involuntarily responds, or doesn't
respond, to men and women. He refers to himself as someone society would
describe as a gay man. I know nothing about whether he is a practicing
homosexual, nor did I ask him. If he had asked me, I would have had to
confess to him that I have practiced things in the past which would exclude me
from Christian participation, and so, I spared him the wayward question.
He describes himself as an evangelical Christian, and, he is, he is
"in" (that is, in the Kingdom, in my opinion). I know it.
Christ says we are able to see Him in others, and I see Him. And it is
beautiful, as one would expect of Christ. He testified faithfully about
His knowledge and love for the Lord, and in my opinion, he's a shoo-in. But
when I judge myself using the same criteria I use to know that he is accepted
by God, I conclude that I may be in trouble. I felt ashamed, and here's
why. He, and I, and two other staff were talking 'shop' in the med room of the
group home we all work in. One of the young ladies was repeatedly adding
the expletive "God damned" in the middle of just about every point
she was making (I capitalize it because we all knew to which God she was
referring). The homosexual spoke up and said, "You know, I have a
real problem with that." She said, "What?", and he said,
"with using God's name like that", and I sat there. The
homosexual's idea of loving the Lord was to stand up in defense of His name,
and mine was to . . . sit there. Which one of us is "in", and
which one of us . . . should be concerned? This is a man whom, if many of
us Christians met on the street, would be identified and labeled negatively as
an effeminate man, probably, we would think, a homosexual. Some of us
might even warn him that if he doesn't change - it doesn't matter what he does
(practices or doesn't practice), he's on his way to hell. And some of us
need to be concerned if we meet him, because, Christ is there, in Him, watching
. . . us. I work with this guy and love Him more and more as time goes
on. Christ makes it easy. It is one of the few Christian
relationships I have had thus far that have not faltered in disappointment.
If Jesus were alive today, I would
desire, if He would allow, to lay my head on his breast like John did.
But given much of what seems to be mainstream Christian mentality today I would
be reluctant to take such a chance due to the condemnation that would likely
follow.
I wrote this because I had to give
an explanation for all of this hypocrisy to my daughter - poor, fortunate
her. If we must hate (and I do), then we are supposed to hate unjust
gain, evil, doing violence, even our own lives if they don't include Him.
And without these directives, we (particularly, I) would find reason to hate
everything different than myself. Even science has exposed human nature
as individuals having the tendency to show partiality to those similar to
themselves, which, if unchecked by reason (that, both all are similar, and all
are different) has been shown to lead to a downward spiral into fear,
prejudice, and hatred. Just as God has found it necessary to instruct us
to love one another, we need to be instructed not to hate - hate comes
naturally if we let it. We can't choose who we are, or how we were
made - very few of us would have chosen to be like we are - but we can chose
how we responding to how we were made. If we are following God, the we
can't choose who to love and who to hate. Nor can we condemn anyone, but
ourselves.
Take care