To be honest I was fighting this. I didn’t really want to comment on this subject because its basically become a no win. Your either an immoral pro LGBT pastor who is now also a heretic or a bigot republican who hates all people and secretly apart of the KKK. Now I know that is a bit of an exaggeration but its honestly how it feels.
I feel as a pastor I am constantly put in a no win situation and when I have conversations with someone who is apart of the LGBT community I find myself wondering if they are judging me and condemning me because that is the highly publicized view point of that community and how they feel like the Christian community views them. PAUSE….(huge run on sentence I know).
So lets get a few things straight before I share my viewpoint. I am not a theologian who has spent hours upon hours studying the Word to determine exactly how God feels about homosexuality. I am not solidified on my point of view. It takes but one moment of revelation from the Holy Spirit to help me recognize another perspective or side to this and or some great insight and wisdom from readers with Biblical backing. And I do mean Biblical not the common taken out of text and manipulated scripture. So here goes….
The real issue with LGBT is that they are deviating from Gods plan and purpose from their lives. God created a man and woman in His image for procreation, for fun because sex is awesome and because that was His plan. So the idea of being LGBT is denying who God has called you to be to selfishly choose what you want and who you want to be. Now how many times in our lives have many of us Christians made the same decision. Lets start with Jonah, evading the call of God so severely he nearly killed everyone on the boat with him. How bout Elijah after the whole Mt. Carmel incident he went and hid from Jezzabel. Or how bout me when I stepped out of ministry out of anger, bitterness and resentment to live a sinful lifestyle. I was not living nor was Jonah or Elijah living to their God designated purpose in life. I think this really becomes the root issue that many believers take up with the LGBT lifestyle. From saying your attracted to the same sex which is in opposition to how we were created to be. To dressing as the opposite sex and carrying on as that gender, it comes down to being someone God didn’t create you to be. I know the arguments that people feel they were born this way and the supposed gene. I have seen just as much argument backed by science to refute those claims as well. Concerning this point I believe the Bible tells us that we are ALL sinners saved by the love, grace and mercy embodied in the action of Christ dying on the cross. If God loves you then he loves everyone in the LGBT community. Because lets be honest, if God counted sins I know and have known some people in the church and its leadership that have more points in the sin column then those in the LGBT community. The pastors and people in churches who are cheating on their wives or husbands with someone else, pornography or just in their lustful thoughts are all just as willfully engaging in sin as the LGBT community (coming from the Christian perspective). On a certain level I have more respect for someone who comes out and embraces their chosen lifestyle than someone who hides it in the shadows. Im referring to people who are willfully choosing that lifestyle opposed to people who are willfully working towards making a change.
The fruit of this root is openly celebrating a sinful lifestyle. But lets be real, there are websites and groups dedicated to celebrating pedophilia and many other heinous activities. Not that Im in any way comparing pedophilia and homosexuality. This blatant celebration of sinful activity is just as dangerous as the way Hollywood has been slowly building the bridge between what we watch and pornography. So why are we so quick to get up in arms about LGBT and not Hollywood. Probably because there is more of us engaging in pedophilia and pornography than are engaging in homosexuality. But because we aren’t doing it we can then be against it because Gods mercy and grace doesn’t apply to the LGBT.
Now lets address the second issue that everyone is taking issue with, marriage. Bottom line I think this is a two part issue. The first being that the Christians don’t like the word “marriage” being used. And the second being the LGBT agenda wanting to infiltrate the everyday language of people regardless of its founding in Christian beliefs or morals. To be honest from what Ive seen I believe there is a contingent in the leadership of the LGBT community with a full on bulls eye on the Christian community. But lets get back to the issue. I believe that just like a husband addicted to pornography who is daily cheating on his wife and destroying his marriage should have benefits so should any other person living in sin. The LGBT community should have access to benefits and legal rights just like everyone else. What I believe should have been done is that there should have been a renewing of the domestic partnership rule that would give all people in longterm unions the benefits and rights of those married. Now I know to the super LGBT community partner this is a declaration of difference and is still not equality. Well last time I checked Im an American and instead Im labeled in a new sub-group called “obese”. You don’t see me getting up in arms that they don’t make plane seats bigger to accommodate me, instead they make me buy two seats. Or how about the fact that being 6’8 everything in this world is made for shorter people and leaves me feeling as if I’m in a perpetual pre-school with short counters. The US has 35.7% of its people who are clinically obese and only 3.5% of its people are LGBT. Where is the fat people rights!!!!
Heres what Im getting at, that there needs to be a compromise. And instead of compromise its feels like the LGBT agenda, again a core of its leaders not all its people, have this desire to infiltrate the Christian community and force itself in a community that it will never be able to fit into. At its core the Christian community is based on the Word of God, its our infallible truth. Its not going to change and true Christians are never going to disavow the Word of God to be politically correct, regardless of how bigoted they are made out to be or how unpopular it is. Its almost as if a fish is trying to fight for the rights to be a lion, something it will never be. To coexist is the answer not to force the lion to take swimming lessons because its insensitive to the fish that the lion walks around all day but doesn’t swim.
Now let me take a moment and say this to any of the LGBT community that happens to read this. I am so sorry for the hate and cruel treatment you have been subjected to because of ignorant, and I say this loosely, Christians. You should have the rights afforded to every person because you are people and some of the most caring, thoughtful, creative and fashionable people ever. However this is not going to change what I believe and what I have committed my life to. But more than I have committed my life to living sinless I have committed to loving people. And my love, Gods love for me and everyone is not dependent on whether or not I agree with what your doing.
In summation, (super fun word right there) I think everyone needs to relax first off. Take ten deep breathes and release slow. Then I think we need to come to a place where we stop forcing our beliefs on one another regardless of how right or wrong we think we are or the other is. Then start focusing on living life together loving one another for our uniqueness and differences. Jesus never denied anyone because they were different or had different morals than He did, woman at the well y’all. Christians if we are honest enough the divorce rate of the church and the world is the same, we are not doing so hot with marriage ourselves. Regardless of who does it marriage is a covenant between a man and woman in the sight of God. But, Gods love for ALL people would never desire for anyone to be treated with inequality.
Now I could end there but I do have one more thing to address. The schools being required to teach about homosexuality. Let me be very clear after a decade of student ministries, your kids are barely learning the curriculum and learning so much more in the bathroom during lunch and from your actions as a parent. We now exist in a society where a man can marry a man and women can marry a women. Teach your children to love all people but not to tolerate sin in the church. If you teach them not to tolerate sin period you will develop a pious religious spirited child who will grow to be the next generation of Christians who hate everyone but themselves. Rather we need to teach our kids to not tolerate sin in our own lives first, by leading the example, and then teach them not to tolerate sin in the body of Christ. Meaning people running around calling themselves Christians yet sinning like the rest of the world. Its because of those hypocritical people we end up with a group like the LGBT having issues with the Christian community. Mind you Christians who are actively trying, meaning acting out, to be more Christ like are not hypocrites.
Well I know Ive covered a lot in this but I felt like I was stirred enough to share my response. I know many will have opinions and that is fine that is what we are given as a freedom in our great country. However this is not and will not be a forum for arguments. We can discuss all day every day, but when it turns aggressive and hate filled it will be removed. My desire is to build a bridge for both communities to respect and love each other in spite of their differences.