Homosexuality- how bad is it...

[ink_spot]

I am sick of the way many christians handle homosexuality. It just doesn't make sense to me. I know it's a sin. I know it's against God. I also know that many homosexuals never turn to God because they never feel welcome.

There is this perpetual feeling in many churches and the christian community that God is an all-loving God for everyone....but gays.

We put to much emphasis on the sin and not enough on the salvation aspect. To truly love and live with gays as, I believe, christ would have wanted would be to focus more on the persons need for christ and not so much on their stains.

The only people Jesus outright called out on their sins we're Pharisees. The other sinners, like tax collectors and prostitutes, he engaged in conversation with them...not about their sins but about the meaning of life and love and the fact that there is a loving God. He showed them respect while still showing them that there is a better life than the sinful one they were leading.

If you ran into a liar at church you wouldn't (hopefully) say that they are going to hell for lying and that they are living a sinful, evil life...even though they might be. No, you'd (hopefully) talk to them kindly, with respect and compassion. That is the kind of conversation that leads people closer to Christ.

Homosexuality in our eyes (including mine at times) has suddenly become this horrible sin. Which it is, but all sins are horrible. I used the liar example above, well in God's eyes telling a lie is just as bad as being gay, or stealing, or being disrespectful to your parents, or using God's name in vain, and the list goes on. It's a sin, but one of many. It's no worse or better than any other sin. And it shouldn't be treated as an extra horrible thing. If anything it should be handled more delicately with more respect and care for what that person must be feeling.

Edited December 23, 2005 by ink_spot

[chicagoburbite]

I too agree we should welcome gay friends... why? so we can be a model of Jesus' love!!!

THink of the woman at the well.. she was living with a man, and not married (another type

of sexual sin)... what did Jesus do? Did he scoff at her and turn his back? Heavens no.

We don't have to condone their sin, but we can befriend them! We don't have to become a

gay activist, but we can invite them to church, and make sure we go to a church that would

welcome ANY sinner.

Thanks for bringing up this issue.

Jenni

[Arthur Durnan]

Wrong! The FIRST words spoken to the five-times-married woman at the Well was quite to-the-point: "Where is your husband?" Note - "husband." Not "shack-up partner." Not "live-in lover." But "husband" - as (ridiculed today) in male and female. Also check Jesus' clear words in Matthew 19:4,5. Why overlook it? And where might the plague of jaundiced homosexuality stop? With polygamy? With polyandry? With necrophilia? Why allow one perversion but not others?

Our Lord always emphasized truth in love and morality above immorality. He called upon people to repent and to not continue in their sins. He underscored a new birth - a regeneration from on high - and not just a reformation of sorts. On top of this, His heavenly father actually referred to homosexuality as an "abomination," and never as an "alternative lifestyle" in an effeminate, third-gender age. Very interesting.

Every homosexual needs to understand that his/her disordered sexual lifestyle can find effective liberation in and thru the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul stated in reference to the "effeminate" and "the "abusers of themselves with mankind" that "such WERE (caps mine) some of you, but you are washed, sanctified....." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

http://exodusnorthamerica.org

Eye-opening beyond all words!

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[Arthur Durnan]

Gee whiz, our homosexual friends have actually co-opted exodusnorthamerica for their own nefarious purposes! How low could one possibly stoop?

How about though, http://narth.org

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[ink_spot]

Wrong! The FIRST words spoken to the five-times-married woman at the Well was quite to-the-point: "Where is your husband?" Note - "husband." Not "shack-up partner." Not "live-in lover." But "husband" - as (ridiculed today) in male and female. Also check Jesus' clear words in Matthew 19:4,5. Why overlook it? And where might the plague of jaundiced homosexuality stop? With polygamy? With polyandry? With necrophilia? Why allow one perversion but not others?

Our Lord always emphasized truth in love and morality above immorality. He called upon people to repent and to not continue in their sins. He underscored a new birth - a regeneration from on high - and not just a reformation of sorts. On top of this, His heavenly father actually referred to homosexuality as an "abomination," and never as an "alternative lifestyle" in an effeminate, third-gender age. Very interesting.

Every homosexual needs to understand that his/her disordered sexual lifestyle can find effective liberation in and thru the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul stated in reference to the "effeminate" and "the "abusers of themselves with mankind" that "such WERE (caps mine) some of you, but you are washed, sanctified....." 1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

I'm not saying to over look the sin...I'm simply saying to come about it a different way. God wants everyone to be saved, to know Him. When we treat gays like dirt or like they have the plague then what is the chance they'll want to listen to us talk about the God we claim to love and live like. If we call what they see as their entire lifestyle a "disordered lifestyle", even if it is, is not likely to feed that need they have for love and purpose. It's not about accepting the sin or supporting the lifestyle. It's about loving the people and bring them to God while showing some form of respect for how they feel.

Also (and I mean this for all Christians, including myself) before we pick at other people sins we need to examine our own.... Matthew 7:3- Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?

I tend to be judgemental so as a Christian this is a very important verse for me.

Edited December 23, 2005 by ink_spot

[chicagoburbite]

WOW where's this hostility coming from? I was simply saying Jesus did NOT turn his back on the woman at the well. Did he? I also said we are NOT to condone their behavior. Did you read something else into what I wrote??

[Arthur Durnan]

Well, to the contrary, our Lord calls us to love the sinner (including the homosexual) but to condemn the sin (including that of homosexuality). Unless one is biblically convinced that homosexuality is a grievous sin before the Lord, one easily falls into the lot of minimizing the abominable nature of homosexual sodomy. Be sure you know the perverted nature of the sin -only sinners need to be saved - then proceed to offer new life in Christ Jesus. Res ipsa loquitor!

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[chicagoburbite]

You didn't say anything wrong, my friend. Some people use a positive post like your's (encouraging us to love our neighbors) to spew their anger at certain radicals whom all still need our love and testimony.

[chicagoburbite]

"Contrary" lol you just restated exactly what Ink said! Love the sinner, hate the sin (to sum it up)

Please pay attention to what someone is actually saying in a post before you use a positive post to spew your propaganda.

[ink_spot]

Well, to the contrary, our Lord calls us to love the sinner (including the homosexual) but to condemn the sin (including that of homosexuality). Unless one is biblically convinced that homosexuality is a grievous sin before the Lord, one easily falls into the lot of minimizing the abominable nature of homosexual sodomy. Be sure you know the perverted nature of the sin -only sinners need to be saved - then proceed to offer new life in Christ Jesus. Res ipsa loquitor!

You do have a point there. God does condemn sins. But I don't think the best way to bring people to Christ is by showing them the perverted nature of the sin and then offer a new life in Christ. I think, in my expierience, that it should be the other way around...although there is no one-and-only-one-way to bring people to Christ.

I think we know we need Christ without nessicarily understanding how bad sin really is. In my expierience, at least, I've noticed that people are more likely to want God because of that feeling that they have. That need for a God that was built into us so long ago. We all know on some level that we need something more and we can show the unsaved that fullness.

After they accept and know God then their eyes will be opened to the sin. They will see for themselves that they are living against God. Then, because they have expierenced and loved God, they will want to change.

I don't think, gays at least, will see any other reason to change. By the world standards homosexuality is ok, whereas murder is not, that's why it's easier to show people the evil of murder vs. the wrongness of homosexuality. That's why I think we need God's help on that front. We need God to show them how wrong it is.

Edited December 23, 2005 by ink_spot