I must say this at the beginning. Parts of this blog seem offensive, but you need to read the whole thing because it all makes sense in the end. I plead with you to read the entire thing. No matter how much I seem to offend you and point my finger at you, do realize that every time I seem to be pointing out a problem in your life, I’m pointing out the crisis in mine. If anything, this blog helps me to realize that I need to do a better job at living for Christ. Also, I must assume that my readers believe in the Bible and everything it rightly and truly (not distortedly) affirms. Our pastor preached on homosexuality, and I must admit that it was quite mind-opening. He said the issue that tears apart the church the most is homosexuality, and I must again say that he is right. Christians are more likely to disagree with homosexuality that any other issue in the American culture. One thing I think people forget is how prominent homosexuality has become to the culture, and also in the church. Some denominations ordain homosexual pastors/bishops/insert-your-own-title-here, wish only the best for homosexual couples. Other churches go to the other extreme. Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas believes that the reason soldiers are dying in Iraq is because God hates America because of how we have accepted homosexuality. Fred Phelps, the pastor at Westboro Baptist, believes that the reason things go wrong in the world is because of the hateful God who sits in heaven and pours nothing but wrath onto those who turn away from him. God is anything but that. Christianity has been stigmatized and given a very generous brushstroke with the words “We hate gays and lesbians” on our foreheads. Whenever homosexuality is brought up in a church, it is most likely to be followed by screams of hatred and damnation. The problem with this view is that when Christians state their views on homosexuality, they become known as bigots and close-minded people. Christians become the bad guys, the people who are out to do away with anything that has to do with homosexuality. The domino affect then takes place, and homosexuals and Christians find themselves in a war, though neither side knows who fired the first shot. As always, for the truth about Christianity, I must go to the Bible to show what it really has to say about this issue that has divided people more than racism. Now, I must say that I myself don’t always like what the Bible says. There are times when I wish I wasn’t looking in the mirror of my life, and seeing what kind of person I’ve become and how far away that is from what I want to be. I must, however, pray that I will be given a soft heart to accept what God is trying to say to me, and only then do I find myself able to live my life to the fullest. The Bible mentions homosexuality six times, and the first few times, the stories are disturbing no matter how you slice it. The first time is in Genesis. A man named Lot was allowed to host two angels for the night. During the evening, before they went to sleep, “all the men in the town, young and old” (as the Bible records) showed up at the door and pleaded with Lot to allow the angels to come out so the mob could have sex with them. Lot knew that sodomy was a sin, so he suggested that the mob be given his two virgin daughters instead of the angels. I must say that Lot is the epitome of hypocrisy. While he knows that homosexuality is a sin, he somehow rationalizes in his mind that giving his two daughters to the mob to be gang raped is better, or at least less sinful. Here is where Christians go way wrong. We somehow rationalize in our minds that God winks at our sin, but sends all homosexuals to hell, neither of which are true. We believe, because we have received the gift of forgiveness from the blood of Jesus, that God no longer cares how we treat other people, and he allows us to sin as much as we want. After all, we’re going to heaven right? We have our fire insurance...Homosexuals have every right to point out Christians’ hypocrisy, and Christians (myself included) need to do a better job of living rightly. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is stretched too far and is blown way out of proportion. Christians use this example to support the crazy idea that the only sin in Sodom was homosexuality, and it had gotten so bad that God could not help but rain fire from the sky. It is also not a story that promotes hospitality, saying that we must be hospitable, or else God will strike us dead. Instead, Jude gives the real reason. The story is written down to say that God can save us through anything (Lot and his family escaped) by the blood of Jesus. Sodom and Gomorrah, along with the neighboring towns, were recorded to have every kind of sexual perversion. Jude pleads with us to live in the grace God offers. We are told not to cheapen the price that was paid for our lives on Cavalry Ten times out of ten, when Christians start talking about homosexuality, they mention Leviticus 20:13, the second passage. “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” In essence, the penalty for homosexuality in the Old Testament was death through stoning. We forget, however, to read the rest of the chapter. If a son was rebellious and was constantly doing what his parents had told him not to, that was also redeemable through a stoning of the rebellious son. This is just one example that I’m sure everyone can relate to The thing Christians forget about the Old Testament Law (given in Leviticus) is that every sin a person committed was redeemable through death. Theft, murder, adultery, homosexuality, deception, dishonoring one’s parents, it all falls into the same boat. This is, again, pointing the finger at me. I am a sinner and I deserve to die. Period. One thing that we must remember is that the entire Law points to Jesus as the only one who can forgive our sins and completely do away with them. The Law shows how pathetic we are as human beings, are sinful and separated we are from God, but that’s what it shows, and it’s only there to show. The Law is a mirror to show how dirty our faces are; it’s not the washcloth to wash our faces with. The Law is there so we can say, “Yes I am a sinner, and I deserve to die. But, Jesus did away with my sin through his death, so I don’t have to worry about the past or what I’ve done before. Jesus forgave it; it’s time for me to live right.” The third passage is very similar to the story of Lot. A man is traveling with his mistress and he spends the night at another man’s house. Again, “all the men in the town, young and old” came to the door and asked to have sex with the man’s guest. (On a complete side note, as my pastor was preaching on this, he made the comment, “This seems to have been a problem back then!” Very funny!) This time, the man, instead of giving his guest to the mob, again offers his virgin daughter, but instead sends out his guest’s mistress and she is gang raped by the mob. She eventually dies with her hand on the door of the house, serving as a warning for the rest of humanity. This passage is highlighted by a beginning phrase: “During this time, Israel had no king.” There was no leader to bring Israel into right relationship with God, and the people went crazy with perversions. Not only was the mob in the wrong, but also the man and his guest. Again, this passage point at homosexuals and Christians, asking both how they are living. The last three passages go hand in hand, so read the entire thing, and it all makes sense. In Romans, the New Testament and the fourth passage, Paul, the author, is painting a picture. He is explaining that there is nothing that we do or don’t do that gets us into heaven. We can’t not commit this sin or that sin and get into heaven; neither can we pay so much money or pray for so many hours to get into heaven. Paul is saying that God’s acceptance is only given through the free gift of grace; nothing we could give would ever amount up to what God offers. Paul starts with the world around us. We all see the beautiful creation the world has to offer, and that speaks of someone who created it. Because we humans know that there is something that controls the world and our fate, we feel compelled to worship something. Instead, however, of worshiping the creator of all, we worship the things around us and our desires. “So God abandoned them,” Paul writes, “to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did violent, degrading things with each others bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie, and so they worshiped and served the things God created instead of the creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise, amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. “Even the women turned against the natural way to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. And the men, instead of having normal sexual relations with women, burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of the sin, they suffer within themselves the penalty that they deserve.” Here is where all Christians stop. Nobody goes on and reads the rest of the chapter. You must remember that Paul didn’t write in verse numbers or write in where chapters should begin or end; that came later. The passage goes on to say why else God abandoned man. “Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do the things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness and sin: greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, gossip. They’re backstabbers; they’re haters of God; insolent, proud, boastful; they invent new ways of sinning; they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand; they break their promises; they’re heartless and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do those things deserve to die yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage other to do them too.” This passage goes hand-in-hand with another passage in I Timothy, the fifth passage. “We know that the Law is good when it is used correctly. Don’t wield the Law as a sword, as a weapon. The Law is an arrow that points to Jesus and shows us how much we need him. For the Law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred, and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. The law is for those who are sexually immoral or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, or liars or promise-breakers, or do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the glorious good news entrusted to me (Paul) by our glorious God.” The sixth passage goes along with the passage above. I Corinthians again lists the sins of the world, of which all Christians are a part of. “Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourself. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, who commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality or are thieves, or greedy people, drunkards, or abusive people, or cheat people: none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.” “None of these.” Read that again: “None of these.” This next verse says it all. “Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy. You were made right with God by calling on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God.” Paul knew that all people can change, whether they are willing to admit it or not. We all can change and be made right with God. Drunks can change. Disobedient children can change. Crack addicts can change. Greedy people can change. EVERY SINGLE PERSON CAN CHANGE!!!!!!! It all depends on whether or not we accept God’s forgiveness. Though the Bible is clear on the fact that homosexuality is a sin, it is also very clear point by the way it is mentioned. When Paul writes about the sin of homosexuality, he doesn’t say, “I will list the sins of the world, starting with the greatest: homosexuality…” nor does he say, “I will list the sins of the world, starting with the minor sins and working to the greatest: lying, stealing…..and finally, homosexuality.” Paul knows that homosexuality is as bad of a sin as telling a white lie. God does not rank sins; he doesn’t look down from heaven and say, “Oh my word! That sin is terrible! That’s definitely the worst. Oh please, you’re worried about that little sin? Don’t worry about it; it’s not that big of a deal.” No, we’re all sinners. We’ve all done wrong, and one sin is enough to separate us from God forever. So, what does this mean for Christians? We follow the example of Christ. Jesus hung out with prostitutes, drunks, tax collectors, the most hated people in all of Israel. He accepted them for who he knew God had created them to be, not the masks that they wore or the sins they hid behind. We need to communicate God’s truth with grace. So many times we tell the truth, but it comes across as condescending or condemning. Other times, we give so much grace that we almost seem to say that sin is okay and God doesn’t care if we sin or not. We must make it very clear that God looks at homosexuality the same way he does lying or gossiping, and we all have done that. Truth without grace is like trying to pound a nail to hang a picture up with a sledge hammer; it will blow through the wall. Truth with too much grace is like trying to pound the nail in with a sponge; the job will never be done. Paul goes on to say that “all have fallen short of God’s glorious standard of living.” Though Paul mentions homosexuality, it is on the very bottom of a list of numbered sins about heterosexual sins. Lying, breaking promises, and being a gossip are sins listed way more than homosexuality, and yet we make a much bigger deal about it. I was separated from God before. I lived on the outside of His amazing blessings and I know what it’s like to feel rejected by God, like you’re being cast out. I then realized that God does not hate people, but he loves us all with an unfair, jealous love. He will fight for our heart; he wants nothing less than for us to be raptured away in the beauty of his love. He knows that we cannot live out life as he wants on our own, so he shows us his grace by giving us his unfair love. His love is not limited by successes or failures; it is only limited when we refuse to accept it because we feel that we’re too good for God or we can’t understand why he would do something so amazing. We must simply accept it, and he will do the rest.