pay no attention to that hateful person behind the curtain

i am angry.  as a CHRISTian, i am angry.  and ashamed.  and embarrassed.  "why?" you ask?  well, i'll tell you.  up until now i have kept mostly silent about the whole "homosexual marriage" debate.  i have reasons for that, but mostly it has to do with casting my pearls before swine.  and my purpose behind writing this is not to address that debate.  my purpose is to address the reprehensible behaviour by those who call themselves followers of CHRIST in recent days.

as the debate swirled around our nation like a philosophical hurricane, it has swept up everyone from the president, to state governments, to celebrities, and to various members of faith groups including CHRISTianity, judaism, islam, etc.  and like a hurricane, it has caused astronomical amounts of damage on all sides.  nobody has been left untouched.  however, the damage i am concerned about is the damage caused by those i call my brothers and sisters in CHRIST.

if you look throughout history, you can usually pinpoint a particular vice or perceived sin (whether biblical or not) that people have focused on and attacked.  in the 1920's it was alcohol.  in the 1950's it was rock 'n' roll.  in the 1960's it was race.  in the 70's it was drugs.  in the 80's it was divorce.  in the 90's it was abortion.  now, that sin is homosexuality.

now, before you start accusing me of saying that homosexuality is ok, i must reassure you that i do believe fully what the Bible says about homosexuality.  let me clarify even further:  i believe what the Bible actually says about homosexuality, not what people think it says, nor what people twist it to say.  the Bible is a powerful weapon, and refers to itself as a two-edged sword, yet some who call themselves CHRISTians choose to use it more like a machete, wielding it with no skill and hacking away at whatever vice lost people are engaged in that they think needs a good clearing.  the problem with this approach is, it is not what the Bible was given to us for!  Scripture says it is to be used for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and for training in righteousness.  it never says that we are to use it as a flagrum, beating the lost into submission.  Scripture was given so the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly equipped for all good works.  get that?  Scripture is given to the man of God!  lost people, while under the condemnation of sin, are spiritually ignorant of Scripture, and unless the Holy Spirit moves in their soul, they will never comprehend it.  i've always said to expect lost people to act like lost people, so why should we be shocked when they do not adhere to our Scripture-based values?  so the Bible is to be used by us, for us, not to judge the lost.

however, those who call themselves CHRISTians engage in this targeting and think that they are somehow crusaders out to vanquish evil and to eradicate the infidels if they don't bow to our God or adhere to our values!  the issue is these same people are guilty of sin, many of sexual sin which places them in the same category as those who engage in homosexuality, yet they have the audacity to decry others who are guilty of the same sort of sins.  the whole concept of grace and mercy is foreign to them, making me wonder if they have ever experienced the grace and mercy of the Saviour themselves.

why do they do this?  i suspect that it either has something to do with helping them to feel better about their own shortcomings if they can target someone and make them out to be worse, or they feel like they are doing God a favor and legislating all of the evil away, as if they are God's version of "judge dredd".  their fires are further fueled by organizations such as afa, or american family activists as i like to call them.  they buy into the whole "get out and vote the evil away" mantra, and next thing you know we have a religious lynch mob attacking anyone who engages in their targeted sin and trying to beat them into submission with rallies and signs and laws.  what does this actually accomplish?  absolutely nothing.  oh, sure.  it may make them feel comfortable for the time being knowing they helped to put those evil people in their place, and if they win, then they don't have to have their comfort zones upset by seeing two people holding hands that are of the same gender.  and there you have the real reason for it.  nobody wants to be uncomfortable.  everyone wants to sit on their blessed assurance, get all dressed up in their sunday best, and go to church on sunday and have nothing but CHRISTians at their workplaces, where they don't have to interact with those sinners.  why?  because then they actually might have to start sharing their faith with someone they don't think deserves it.  many in the church today have the mentality of "get right and then you can become a CHRISTian".

THAT'S NOT THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST!!!

the message of CHRIST is love your neighbor as yourself.  it is to go into all the world and preach the gospel to everyone, whether you feel they deserve it or not.  that is the message of CHRIST, that God loves us despite our sin, and we are to do the same to others!  not go into all the world and condemn everyone!  we do not have the authority nor the right to condemn anyone!  we like to quote john 3:16, but we leave out 3:17.  "for God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him."  that's right.  Jesus did not come to condemn.  one day, all will stand before Him, and the condemnation will not come from Him, but from those who reject Him!  they are in essence condemning themselves!  so, instead of looking at those who engage in homosexuality as "perverts", look at them as people in need of a Saviour!   we are all born with the penchant for sin.  and we readily engage in that sin so we are all guilty before God.  the difference is, those of us who have been saved from our sins know the true meaning of grace, mercy, and forgiveness.  so we should not be like the man who was forgiven a large debt and then was ruthless in collecting debts from those who owed him.  instead of looking down our nose at those who do not behave as we think they should, perhaps we should follow our Master's example and actually get to know them.  spend time understanding why they choose to engage in the behaviour that they do, and then show them, not tell them, the godly way.  show them the Saviour.  but if they do not see CHRIST's mercy and forgiveness in your actions, then they will simply see you as a bigot who looks down on them, which quite frankly, you possibly are.  stop bringing reproach on CHRIST's name, and reach out to those He came to save.  we are His hands and feet, and if we don't tell them, through our words as well as through our actions, then we are condemning them to an eternity in hell.

(oh, and just for the record, i am not against voting your conscience.  i believe we should use the vote God has blessed us with to glorify Him!  but don't stop there.  that does not solve the problem.  you can outlaw the action, but unless the heart is changed, the action will always find a way to continue!)