We’ve Got It Wrong – Part Two

By Justin

If you are just joining me, you should go back and read We’ve Got It Wrong.  It really lays out the foundation of how this has developed.  The second part of my opinion is how the conservative branch of the Christian church is doing far more harm than good in the debate over homosexuality.

I am going to start with this.  I am going to attempt to withhold my closely held beliefs on this topic and instead focus on what I see as a great misunderstanding and injustice being served by the more conservative parts of the Christian denominations.

In being emphatically driven to shout how wrong homosexual relationships are, we have become that which we work our lives not to be: judgmental, unloving hypocrites.  We have decided to let people scream at the top of their lungs the evils of this behavior and preach condemnation from the pulpit. But let’s take a look at our universal example of how we should deal with these issues, Jesus.

Jesus lived in times of active and accepted homosexuality by the roman rulers of the day.  While the Jews did not practice and condemned it, Jesus spoke out on issues of Roman and Jewish natures.  I find it telling that not once in his recorded ministry did Jesus condemn homosexuality.  Now he did reaffirm the biblical concepts of creation and of Adam and Eve’s union, but he stopped short of same sex condemnation. 

Instead Jesus focused on support, love and openness.  He saw sin, confronted it, forgave it and invited the individual to walk with him.  So if we go to the least possible situation, at the most homosexuality could be classified as unrepentant sin.  Jesus confronted this with the women caught in prostitution.  What was his reaction to the crowd that was going to stone this woman?  Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.  Then him, being the only one able to cast a stone, went to her and forgave her.  Then invited her to go and walk in a new life.

If we were to model our view of homosexuality after this model, how could it be different?  I think we’d be surprised how wrong we have gotten it.

On the other end of the spectrum is that homosexuality isn’t a sin at all.  That God made all people and all things for one and only one purpose to love and cherish him.  We should live our lives honoring and fulfilling that which he created us to do.  If we’d understand that our purpose on this earth has less to do with who someone is in a relationship with and more to do with the condition of their relationship with God, I think this whole mess would be solved.

I think we should all just shut up and love one another.  We should follow the commandments of our Lord and God to love the Lord your God and to Love your Neighbor as yourself.  Our churches are filled with unrepentant sin, if in fact homosexuality is a sin, why do we have to treat it any different?