Homophobia

Of all the things I’ve struggled with over the last few years, homosexuality is at the forefront. Not that I myself am struggling with it - I’m not - it’s more about the position the church has taken on the issue and whether it’s the right position or not.

As with many things, I think the modern church is out-of-touch on this issue.

First of all, one of the things I’ve heard from church leaders (both local and national) is that homosexuals are corrupt and that a large number of them are child-molesters.  But, then I see several studies that show that most child-molesters are actually not gay, but straight. I’ve also heard church leaders say that most homosexuals come from broken homes and have terrible relationships with their parents, but mostly with their father. But, then I befriend several gay men during my career and come to find out that not only do they not have bad relationships with their parents, they have better relationships with their fathers than I do. Oh irony of ironies.

Then, even more evidence piles up that suggests that the brains of homosexuals are physically different than those of straight people. Evidence strongly suggests that - at the very least - the predisposition to be a homosexual is indeed influenced by physical differences in the brain. I hear Christians proclaim that “God would never create a human to be inherently sinful.” Well, would a loving God create people with birth or brain defects? If you haven’t noticed, people are born that way every single day. Something isn’t making sense here.

In the midst of all this, I hear the vomit-inducing phrase “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” It’s akin to giving yourself permission to judge the sin in other peoples lives but still being a “loving Christian.”

For me, though, the words of Jesus keep echoing in my brain reminding me of His take on all of this. In Matthew 7:3, He tells those listening “Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” In other words, before I begin looking at what is sin in another person’s life, I should turn an eye to my own. For the standard by which I judge others is the same standard I will be judged by. The simple act of identifying sin is something He suggested we not even bother with. I think He knew that it was easy for us to do, a fixation we would be trapped by.

So, do I believe homosexuality is a sin? The simple answer is this: It doesn’t matter what I think. Only God establishes what is sin or not. Some say that’s a cop-out, I say it’s the Biblical standard. The only thing that matters is whether a person is truly pursuing God. If I know of things in my life that are preventing that, then what ever “that” is can be identified as sin. Whether it’s pornography, alcohol, movies, drugs, women or my own self-gratification through whatever means - whatever breaks and hurts my relationship with God is sin. I find it amazingly ironic that Christians can justify murder (whether it’s war or the death penalty) when it’s directly addressed in the Ten Commandments, but they’ll be the first to condemn homosexuality when it is barely even addressed throughout the entire Bible. In fact, some of the verses that address homosexuality could be subject to reinterpretation based on the timeframes they were written in (think the book of Romans, and the practice of taking young, male sex-slaves by Roman men during that day). But, that’s another topic for another day.

I’m not saying there’s a free pass for everyone. But, rather than focusing on the things that are easily identifiable, we should be focusing on ourselves and what we are pursuing. As for me, I’m still working on the Giant Oak in my left and right eye.

This entry was posted on August 31, 2007 at 11:13 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.