This is my contribution to today’s Bridging the Gap Synchroblog. Today, I’m proudly joining dozens of other Christian bloggers to talk about bridging the gap between Christians and the homosexual community. Please take a moment and check out the New Directions ministry.
I’ve been intentional in my blog about not addressing whether homosexuality is a sin or the spiritual state of homosexuals for two reasons. One, the debate can not be resolved easily nor will it be resolved anytime soon. Two, for the purposes of this blog, it’s irrelevant. Whether you believe it’s a sin or not, as Christians it’s not up to us to stand in judgment over the world and deny the rights of our fellow human beings. We were never given that authority by God.
I’ve always considered myself to be a good Conservative Christian. I did not grow up in a Christian family. I accepted the Lord in high school. When I turned 18, I became a Republican and voted for Ronald Reagan. I was an ardent supporter of ministries dealing with the family, such as “Focus on the Family.” I went to seminary where I converted from a fundamentalist to an evangelical (if that’s a change at all). All this to say that from the very beginning of my Christian walk, I was told that homosexuality was a sin. I would listen to Focus on the Family and hear them tell me how homosexual community is trying to destroy the family. I became a Christian in the 80’s at the start of the AIDS epidemic and was told that this is God’s judgment on homosexuals (which I never really believed). And as time passed, I was warned of the Gay Agenda to not only destroy the family but to directly attack Christian churches and my faith.
For the most part, I believed what I was being told. So what has changed?
As I read some of the blog of those participating today, we all share something in common. We all actually know people who are gay. In my other life, I perform improvisational comedy in San Diego. It was there that I befriended my first of many homosexual friends. Then I found that I have close family members who are gay. Every time I have an opportunity to be with one of my friends, I wonder what I have got offer as a Christian?
This brings me to today’s topic: Christians and Homophobia
I used to joke about this. “I’m not homophobic, I’m just afraid of gay people.” Soon this joke became very real to me. If there’s one thing that I can say to the Gay Community is that “we don’t hate you, we’re just afraid of you.”
So why are we afraid? I’ve was told on numerous occasions, that the last sin of a society before it falls is homosexuality. Then I’m pointed to Sodom and Rome. The truth is that they didn’t fall because they allowed same-sex couples to get married. They fell because they were a god-less society that used sex for god-less reasons, like rape and hedonistic pleasure. It’s a very different picture than two people of the same sex making a lifetime commitment to each other.
I was also told that the Gay Agenda seeks to destroy the family. That’s also not true. Whether or not, we allow same sex marriages to exist, my wife, daughter and myself will still be a family.
But why do we have to share marriage with the gay community? My answer is “Why Not?”
Schools will teach children that society accepts homosexuality as normal. Yeah, schools are teaching evolution and allowing kids to get abortions without parental notification. Why, as Christians, have we allowed the public school system to teach our children about values, when this is clearly our job as parents.
They are going to revoke tax exempt status, allow churches to be sued, shut down churches that speak out against homosexuality. Even if this is true and your church is being attacked because of your messages denouncing homosexuality, I have a question for you. Is this why your church exists? To end the scourge of homosexuality? If it is, I would challenge you to rethink your purpose as a church.
In a recent blog, I mentioned that the church has three real goals on earth. Matthew 22:36-40 – Love God and love your neighbor. Act 1:8 – Share the gospel to the world. Ironically, you’ll find an excellent explanation of these goals in Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Church.
I’ve always been bothered by the fact that the message is stop and put an end to the sin of Homosexuality, but never in that message do I hear love your neighbor or share the Gospel. How has it that we’ve drawn the line in the sand and made homosexuality the unpardonable sin? How is it that when we find out a person is gay, that we need to “speak the truth in love” and point out their sin and move no further until they repent. How is it that the evangelical Church has no strategy at all for reaching the Homosexual community with any kind of real plan for sharing the world?
We will risk our lives going into Muslim countries in the name of the Lord, but we won’t bother going into West Hollywood or Mission Hills.
I’ve found that interacting with my gay friends is no different interacting with my straight friends. They are all people with individual stories and with an emptiness that life just can’t fill. And I have a message that Christian is the living water to quench their thirst.
I take that back, there is a difference; I have no church that I can take a gay friend to without being judged or told to repent. Or where they are going to be stared at and in many cases not asked to come back unless they’re willing to repent (believe me if they’ll do it to my divorced friends, they do it to my gay ones).
My Challenge to the Evangelical Church. Let’s get back to what we’re called to do and come up with a real ministry to homosexual community. Let me start you off. Head into the homosexual community. Meet individuals. Talk to them. Listen to their stories. Share with them your story about how God changed your life. Let God speak through you. Let God do the rest. And finally, end the war.
