Tolerating Gays

[Axxman]

1 John 4:7-8

Beloved let us LOVE ONE ANOTHER. For LOVE is of God. And anyone that LOVETH KNOWETH GOD. He that LOVETH NOT KNOWETH NOT GOD for God is love.

THis is the only way to reach anyone and I don't see where gays are excluded.

Telling everyone you know about their perverse lifestyle and trying to run them out of business is HATEFUL and anyone who acts this way does not know God. Plain and simple.

Ya know..this one hurts. I like you Artsylady, we agree on a lot of stuff, but for you to pull a random verse out of context and use it against me to imply that I don't know God...thats low!

1 John 4 actually paints a pretty clear picture and it has NOTHING, NADA, ZILCH to do with loving everybody in the world, let alone homosexuals. It is about loving our Brothers and Sisters in Christ. It is about recognizing our community through love. It has NOTHING to do with reaching out to sinful perverted lifestyles in love.

It is a complete absurdity to say that my intolerance of sin and sinful lifestyles (even in my own life) is somehow ungodly. I find VERY ironic that you would use a scripture totally devoted to loving your brothers and sisters in Christ to bash me and support your love for homosexuals.

[artsylady]

I have only read verses that have spoken of love to everyone, including enemies.

I missed the verses that said it was okay to act hatefully to homosexuals or try to cause them damage or strife.

I am not completely against picketing a porn shop, although I also don't see reference to this in scripture. We fight a spiritual battle and it's clear we are to pray, so I believe if everyone who picketed prayed instead, things would happen. We should follow God's instructions because they work the best.

[forrestkc]

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid shopping there, but if there was a Christian runned shop nearby I would shop their instead. That has nothing to do with the homosexual ownership though, I would shop at a Christian runned store over any other store if I could, homosexual-run or otherwise.

What if was a gay Christian couple running the store though?

[KeilanS]

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid shopping there, but if there was a Christian runned shop nearby I would shop their instead. That has nothing to do with the homosexual ownership though, I would shop at a Christian runned store over any other store if I could, homosexual-run or otherwise.

What if was a gay Christian couple running the store though?

That is a hard one. It depends a lot on the people. If they were not only gay but tended to take the liberal side of abortion and other major issues, and if they were really outspoken about homosexuality being okay, I would treat it like a store ran by athiests (I'd wouldn't go too much out of my way to not buy from them, but I wouldn't buy from them over a hetero Christian-run store). If they kept quiet about it, and realized it was a sin that they couldn't quite beat, I would buy from it just like a store run by any other Christians. If they were quiet about it, but didn't believe homosexuality was a sin, I would probably buy from it over a secular store, but if possibly buy from a store ran by heterosexual Christians.

[eric]

Forrestkc asks,

What if was a gay Christian couple running the store though?

No such thing, mate. that is an oxymoron.......gay christian?? Ya can't be both.

[sweetycakes]

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid shopping there, but if there was a Christian runned shop nearby I would shop their instead. That has nothing to do with the homosexual ownership though, I would shop at a Christian runned store over any other store if I could, homosexual-run or otherwise.

What if was a gay Christian couple running the store though?

I really don't see how there can be such a thing. This is a contradiction of terms, I think.

If you become born again, you cannot continue to be gay. Something has to change inside and you realize that your old way of life was wrong, however you felt about it before, or whatever your desires now. There can not be a continuation of belief that being gay is ok, or Christian.

But we should still treat gays with kindness and consideration, in my view, in order to try to persuade them about the truth of Christ.

[ayin jade]

I wouldn't go out of my way to avoid shopping there, but if there was a Christian runned shop nearby I would shop their instead. That has nothing to do with the homosexual ownership though, I would shop at a Christian runned store over any other store if I could, homosexual-run or otherwise.

What if was a gay Christian couple running the store though?

A gay Christian couple is an oxymoron. If they were Christian and struggling with being gay, then I would support them. If they were claiming to be Christian but openly and unrepentently gay, then I would not support them. There is a passage in the epistles that talks about casting out an unrepentent brother. Its clear that unrepentence isnt something to tolerate. I would not be hateful to them, but neither would I wish to condone their sin by giving them business.

[hebrews_beauty]

Not to but in here, but...

I think I would shop at the store with the lowest prices and not care much about who the owner was. A gallon of milk is still a gallon of milk whether a gay person sold it to me or a Christian did...who cares? Oh wait, a gallon of milk from a store owned by a gay person must be the milk of the devil...

[Iryssa]

I would shop at a gay person's store, talk to the gay person, treat them as any other person, basically. Why? Because to me, the gay person is quite simply a PERSON before they are a gay person, and, as such, we need to show them love.

Also, if you're going to boycott a gay person's business, you would be a hypocrite if you did not also boycott the businesses of everyone who has ever lied, or cheated, or taken the Lord's name in vain, or had lustful thoughts, or was prideful, etc. etc. etc. To do that, I think you'd have to just start your own self-sustaining colony. Which one of us (let alone those who are still of the world) has not committed at least one of the sins on that list?? ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, not some, not a few, not "homosexuals have sinned and fall short..." but ALL. We need grace as much as they need grace, and they're never going to want to approach God for that grace if we Christians give them the impression that God doesn't want them to join the fold.

"I have written you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people

[eric]

When discussing a topic such as this one, I tend to think that some people get a bit carried away, partiularly when when homosexuality is being compared with other sins. Cliches, like hate the sin and love the sinner is a regular.

Sodom and Gomorrah, were the first two cities that were destroyed, because of the depth of the sin being carried on there. God was so furious about it.

So to move on. This filthy practise, to me at any rate, is more than a sin, it's a threat that strikes at the very roots of christianity and the foundation of the church. Other sins such as, murder, rape paedaphilia, thuggery and theft and so on, are not flaunted about as being normal behaviour as some people treat homosexuals. Other sins don't get the media press and tele coverage that turn a blind on it. In fact homosexuality is or has become the enemy of christianity, where it will soon be a crime if you speak out about it publically. Other sinners don't have parades and madi gras where they flaunt their filth in front of children and decent living people.

Some of the youngsters, I admit, don't know what they are getting into, and yes, they do need good firm christian counselling about Christ and His love, but any christian that closes their eyes to it or condones their behavior and turns their back on it with a live and let live attitude, are as guilty as they are.

But I have said all this before.......so