Scandalous

Occasionally a couple of my friends and myself will have controversial conversations about current events or "trending" topics. Today one of them started off with the following link (click here). To understand this post you must first read the link, if you just read this with out reading that... well you might be confused.

A Christian university that has an LGBT group, how does that translate according to biblical standards/principles? Here is my take on it, and a few quotes of theirs.

Biblically homosexuality is a sin, so is sex before marriage, taking God's name in vain, dishonoring one's parents, and the list keeps going. These things are "normal" and accepted in our world today. Scripture says we are born into sin (Psalm 51:5 "Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."). We are not born Christians. We are born with a desire to be sinful. We want to rebel against our parents and other authority; we want to swear and drink and have premarital sex... Everything we aren't supposed to do is what we want to do. It literally takes an act of God to change us. People are tempted in different ways. Jesus, for example, fasted for 40 days. Satan tempted Him with turning a rock into bread to meet His physical needs (Matthew 4:1-11). Satan tempted Him in His weakest moment. When we are hungry or desperate for something we will do almost anything to get that thing, whatever "it" is. In 1991 a woman hired a hit man to kill her daughter's cheerleading rival to insure her own daughter would be on the cheerleading squad. Not all people's sin is that open, but when God comes in and truly changes someone's life, they are changed forever.

Think about it this way, if your co-worker/friend/spouse/etc runs in and says, "I'm so sorry I am late! I just got hit by a semi-truck and it took forever to get out of there." You would not believe him. Why is that? Because that person would look drastically different, and would possibly be dead. When someone is changed by God he will not appear the same. The physical appearance may not change but everything else about the person begins to change. If someone has homosexual tendencies and then comes to know the Lord that person will be changed. It may not be immediate, but change takes place in that person's life. The more this person spends time with the Lord the more the person sees that it is not spiritually natural to have that desire. Then the person will begin to seek God even more for Him to transform his heart. The person begins to want to desire what God desires. Christ's purpose was to spread the gospel and make His name known throughout the world. His second command to Adam and Eve was to be fruitful and multiply and fill the Earth. Why were they to do this? What was the point? It was to spread the name of the Lord. They knew what was good and evil. There were only two options, good and evil. It was not good and bad, rather good and evil.

Sin is evil. When we lie, that is evil. When we get drunk, that is evil. When we... do anything that goes against God's law, it is evil. God is perfectly forgiving. God is also perfectly just. Think about it this way, if a convicted murderer was called in by a judge and was told he was being set free. He was forgiven of his charges and was free to go. Everyone (and they mama) would be in an uproar. We would call that judge all sorts of crazy things. So why should we expect the same from God? God sent His Son to die for each of us so that we might have hope in Him. As a Christian/Follower of Christ we are to look different than the world. We are not to go out of our way to look different, but we are not to be of this world. We are just living in it temporarily until we are allowed to go "home". We are citizens of heaven, if we are followers of Christ. As a citizen of heaven our citizenship looks much different than those of the world. Homosexuality, sexual immorality, etc. fit into that category as well. Although we are not to participate in such, we are called to love them. There is a time to rebuke and a time to love. We can still love others while recognizing their actions are sinful. Many people believe that by thinking something is wrong we have to push our own agenda on others, even if we think that agenda is "the right one". Christ did not do that. He loved others and shared truth with them. He was the harshest on the religious people (read the New Testament to see more on this and what He said to the Pharisees).

I, like everyone else, am very sinful. Do people treat me like a leper or stand outside my house with signs and shouting things at me? No. Why should we be doing that to people who claim homosexuality? Shouldn't we show them love and respect? John 8:2-11 talks about the woman caught in adultery.

"Early in the morning He came again to the temple. All the people came to Him, and He sat down and tuaght them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to Him, 'Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?' This they said to test Him, that they might have some charge to bring against Him. Jesus bent down and wrote with His finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask Him, He stood up and said to them, 'Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.' And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground. But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before Him. Jesus stood up and said to her, 'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' She Said, 'No one, Lord.' And Jesus said, 'Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.'"


He did not condemn her, He loved her. In His love for her He let her go and told her to "sin no more". We do not have the authority to tell others "go and sin no more" but we have the ability to love and respect. I was not there so I cannot tell you the level of His compassion or the depth of His kindness. I can tell you that scripture shows that He loved her enough to protect her from the harm of others and the harm of herself. If we are called to be like Christ (Christian means little Christ), aren't we called to love like Christ? Aren't we called to respect? Aren't we called to tell others about Christ? Yes.

Recently there was an article published about a pastor in North Carolina. This particular pastor told his congregation if their children start showing signs of homosexuality they should "beat" them. This is not what God has called us to. Christ washed the feet of the man who would betray Him. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes. When was the last time you spoke to someone who was highly hated in your community? When was the last time you offered to eat a meal with a prostitute or someone society looks down upon?

In the community group I attend we spoke about lepers. Not just leprous people but people we consider outcasts in society. Think about who you consider an outcast and pray for them. Not just pray for them but take actions that show Christ love to them. Our community group leader asked us what do those around us begin to believe about us when we start reaching out to the "lepers" of our society? After thinking about it I said, "we become the lepers". We really do, it is not common practice to treat others with love and respect when we do not like what they are doing or when they are not doing what society approves of.

I dare you, reach out to your local leper. We are sinful, we are born into sin. So why not love the other sinners and treat them the way Christ did?