I recently ran into an old friend on Facebook (not old age, but old having known her almost 20 years. My friend, Misty, blogs about similar issues regarding Homosexuality and Christianity, plush she’s a hellalot smarter than me.
Anyways, she posted a link to this interesting article. In short, a church that almost split and lost their rental property because they allowed a Homosexual family to actively participate in their church. Here’s a link: Covenant Stories: No Right Answers
What makes this sad is that as a whole Evangelicals have no ideal what to do with God's children who are homosexual. We are consumed with purging the church of sin, instead of sharing the gospel. What God do we want to portray?
I feel bad for the pastor as he puts it, “It seemed clear to me that I was a symbol for her of the church that had turned them away.”
I keep mentioning to my critics to consider how Jesus dealt with the lost and sinners. He showed nothing but love and compassion. I defy anyone to show me a time where Jesus spoke harsh words of judgment when speaking to the lost, either in a crowd or individually.
On the other hand, every instance that Jesus had harsh words to say was too the religious leaders, especially when it came to legalism. By legalism, I mean coercing their flocks and followers to behave in “Godly” ways in order to maintain good standing before God and entrance into heaven.
One of the things that I learned at my popular conservative Christian seminary, was the with the exception of 1 John; anytime the writers (Jesus or the disciples) mentioned false religion, they always referred to Legalism as the false religion.
Nowhere in the Bible have I ever been commanded to stand at a corner with a sign condemning homosexuality or to ask homosexual visitors to leave or to “unfriend” them (using a Facebook term).
I was commanded to show love, compassion, share God’s sacrifice to the lost.
So again my evangelical friends, how does God want us to reach out and minister to the gay community.
1 comment:
I am shocked and amazed you wrote this Alan. IN A HUGELY GOOD WAY! I had given up hope that anyone entrenched in the evangelical world would see the Bible so clearly and speak of "the h word" in a way that wasn't drowned in hatred. Wow. Preach it brother! The truth shall set you free.
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