Homosexuality – out of the frying pan and into the Fire.

Homosexuality – out of the frying pan and into the Fire.

Matthew 7.1-5; 1 Corinthians 5.12

It is with heart in my hands, and a lump in my throat that I write this briefing.  Please read it and hear it with grace, and know that I have sought the wisdom and grace of God to compose it.

The discussion has been on Matthew 7, particularly verse one, where Jesus said, ‘Do not judge, so that you will not be judged,’ with the next four verses directing Christ followers to first examine themselves before making any moral judgments about the behaviors of other Christians.  As for non-Christians, those who do not profess to follow Jesus—Paul made it quite clear that God handles those folks, not us.¹ (‘Got that?  We are not to judge those who are not professing followers of Jesus Christ.  God’s got that; he does not need your help.)  In the last briefing, I wrote, “there are some issues revolving around key Christian beliefs, such as ‘Jesus is the only way to God,’ and issues of morality, including what constitutes sin and what does not, where there are schisms a mile wide.  

The elephant in the room:  homosexuality.”²

Why would I risk talking about homosexuality?  Why would I risk criticism, losing readers, and well, judgment??  Because the subject is here, and it is not going away.  There are more and more self-identifying homosexuals and transgender-individuals than ever before in the Western world.  We Christians must do a much better job in discussing sexuality in general, I believe--but in particular, homosexuality.

At the recent Q Conference³ I attended in Boston, it was called ‘The Church’s Gay Dilemma’.  A Boston Globe article captured the topic with “Can the Evangelical Church Embrace Gay Couples?”  There was the book The Bible and Homosexual Practice, the Chick-Fil-A flap over same sex marriage, when CEO, Dan Cathy came out with public statements disapproving of gay marriage.  Then in the last two decades, there are the four large mainline protestant churches⁴ who have moved to allow gay clergy and welcome openly LGBT members.  In two of the four old denominations, they have actually sanctioned same-sex marriages.⁵ I could go on, but you get the point—

Here is what is at stake: the souls of human beings.  That’s why having a right disposition is critical; the stakes could never be higher.

What I know:  there are three specific texts in the New Testament that clearly address homosexuality: Romans 1.24-27, where Paul talks about homosexuality as unnatural and perverse; 1 Corinthians 6.9-11, and 1 Timothy 1.10.  From these verses, God’s view is clearly presented, that homosexual behavior is one among many other sins.

Here is what else I know:  Good people, even godly people, have personal stories of knowing that from the time they were little children, they were different—that they were attracted to individuals of the same sex, which was not the ‘way it was supposed to be’.  They were told it was wrong, they were told it was sinful, and so they felt shame, they felt judged, and like Adam and Eve did, they hid. 

And the most judgmental people of all have been and are those who claim the name of Jesus Christ. In fact, the gay issue has become the ‘big one’, the negative image likely to be intertwined with Christianity’s reputation.⁶

I do believe the above statements are true.  Yes, I know and I hear you saying ‘God made me this way, and God doesn’t make mistakes, you know?!’ I believe you, and I can only imagine your disparaging pain, and yet I also do not think God made mistakes in the Bible; I truly believe it is the inspired Word of God.  In fact, I think timeless

truths and principles are captured and codified in God’s word⁷ and I’m personally committed to those truths, even though I fall short of the standards.

However, I know others feel very different from that and I respect their opinion;  here’s what I am hoping for—that they will also respect my beliefs and convictions—for I love them just as they are, as that is what Jesus has called me to do, and I hope they will love me too.  I know how it feels to love someone on the other side of divide, who decided that she could not love me if I believed God’s Word—didn’t matter how I had loved and treated her.

Yet it is ours to love one another.  It is ours to respect one another, despite our differences.  Let’s do a better job of it.

Christine 

PastorWoman.com

1 – 1 Corinthians 5.12-13

2 – www.pastorwoman.com - click on tab, Powerful Bible Teaching,

Morning Briefings, and topic is “Judgment, Condemnation or Discernment?”

3 – www.qideas.org - find Julie Rodgers, Freedom through Constraint – what do you think?

4 – www.pewresearch.org/.../where-christian-churches-stand

5 - The Episcopal Church, the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)

6 -  from UnChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, p. 92

7 - influenced by Dan Cathy, The Atlanta Journal Constitution – March 14, 2014