I don’t enjoy squirming, and watching people squirm really is annoying. When famous (insert dripping irony here) Christians come out and evade hard questions I am deeply disturbed. For the record, I never saw an instance in the Bible that Jesus did that.
Jesus answered questions from the crowd on point – yes, sometimes with a question, because the expectation was that you would find the answer yourself if you took a hard, practical look. He forced those around him to think. That is great leadership.
It would have been great if someone from the crowd yelled out, “Teacher, what about the gays?” I hope one day I will get e chance to ask him myself, because this is one issue that Jesus didn’t address. He went hard after the Pharisees and defended those who couldn’t defend themselves, but his summation of the Law was to love God and neighbor (with a great parable to define neighbor) with his only addendum being “as I have loved you.”
Parables, Jesus’s preferred way of communicating with the masses, force us to reconsider what is around us and apply our God given sense of reason, and in the Christian context, the Holy Spirit’s leading is paramount to understanding. Jesus doesn’t tell us what to think, he teaches us how with the Holy Spirit’s enablement.
So, at the risk of getting unFriended and unFollowed this morning, I am going “on the record” to say that God loves gays, and we are not equipped in the slightest to make the call on whether or not this is a lifestyle or a sin, or any of the other things that both sides of this debate. Christ called us to love as he did, unconditionally and sacrificially. Love and harsh judgement is a house divided, and Jesus teaches that a house divided will not stand.
Today, as Jesus commanded, I choose love. Not “loving the sinner, hating the sin”, just love. I’m reserving judgment of “sin” for the one true Judge.
I agree with you that God loves everyone, and that we are called to do the same. I am curious what your take is on I Corinthians 6:9-11. I’ve sometimes felt that Paul’s words contradict Christ’s in this passage, but I also believe that, ultimately, the Bible doesn’t contradict itself…
I think that passage illustrates exactly what I mean. It’s a pretty long list. A few dictionaries I’ve consulted note that the translation to the word homosexual may be driven by the need to illustrate certain belief systems. The AV translates the Greek word as “one who abuses himself with mankind.” I think most women I know can identify with that one! The original language implied sexual perversion, which was rampant in the Corinthian community.
It’s funny that you mention the length of the list because I was thinking about that this morning. People tend to focus on the sin of homosexuality as mentioned in that passage, but they more or less ignore the other, more “respectable” and commonplace sins that also make Paul’s list.