Responses

I had several interesting, thoughtful responses to “The First Question.”  In this post relating to homosexuality, I tried to explain how confusing and difficult it is to deal with this topic. I had such misgivings about writing about it that I wrote it once but deleted the whole thing. Since it was this month’s most popular post, I think a lot of you are confused about this too.  Some people talked to me in person or on FB chat about relationships that they have with members of their own family.  Here are some of the written responses I received. 

“I don't have the answers for all the questions, but I know that God's Word doesn't change with our changing mindset.  It is convenient for us to look at the Bible in a new way to make our lifestyle work.  I'm thinking right now about homosexuality.  God calls it sin.  I believe it still is.  He made man and woman to "fit" together.  His perfect plan has not changed.  I believe that that's what the truth of God's Word is.  I don't hate homosexuals.  I'm not going to picket against them.  I would love to win some to Christ, but I would have to encourage them to leave their lifestyle once they accepted Christ.”

“The question is not whether homosexuality is a sin but whether a homosexual is automatically "out." Does it disqualify them from a relationship with Christ? Do they have to agree to fix this before they can come to Christ? Can they be saved in spite of their sin? This happens when we view one sin as worse than another. There are many sins that we give people a pass on such as gluttony, laziness, greed, etc. Homosexuality is not one of those. We have held these people at arms length and will not embrace them and often keep them from coming to the grace of God. One of the main principles of the Kingdom is that we are not to judge. We make poor judges. Jesus illustrated it twice in Matt 13. We are poor judges of who is in and out so leave that to God. When we try to judge, we make a mess of things.

My position is to treat them as any other. I want them to become followers of Christ. Then I want Christ to change them. It doesn't always happen.”

“I could talk to you in great depths about all of this. Will there be any answers? I’m not sure if you will ever make any sense of it all. It’s taken me a lifetime. I don’t think we have to have all the answers. But you will have more compassion for me. I will have more compassion for you. Maybe I can help you understand the gays :) And you can help me understand the Christians. Either way, we’ll all become closer and have a better understanding of each other. And that is a place of love...a place where God is.

Send out your blog, ask questions, raise eyebrows, but most importantly, rise above. You come from a place of love. Thank you for listening and learning instead of judging. And thanks for reaching out to me.  I hope this is the beginning of many philosophical conversations we can have together.”

I appreciated each one of these responses.  They all came from people I care about, and who care about me.  I took something good from each one.  I hope they help you too.