unChristian: Antihomosexual

Over the years, I have had to confront my own homophobic comments and secret thoughts. The one who called me out?

The Lord.

Yep. Not bad for a God who is often accused of “hating fags and dikes.” But of course God does not hate any of us but rather loves us ferociously, so much that He gave His Son for us.

unChristian pulls no punches with this touchy topic and shouldn’t. For too long, the church has hid behind the cross of Jesus Christ and thrown rocks with dirty hands at others involved in sexual sin (in this case, homosexuality) while some of the rock throwers were struggling with their own sexual brokenness (adultery, pornography addiction, lust).

God hates our hypocrisy and judgmentalism against gay and lesbian folks as much as he hates the sin of homosexuality.

Instead of shoving picket signs in their faces like that false prophet Fred Phelps (I refuse to post a link because frankly his site doesn’t deserve the hits), we need to build meaningful relationships with gay and lesbians based not on their sexuality but on their humanity. They too are created in the image of God just like us.

Shayne Wheeler, pastor of All Souls Fellowship in Decatur, Georgia offered a powerful dose of biblical reality in his response to the chapter on homosexuality:

“The Bible is clear: homosexual practice is inconsistent with Christian discipleship. But there is not a special judgment for homosexuals, and there is not a special righteousness for heterosexuals. For all of us, our only hope for the fracture in our souls is the cross of Christ” (111).

SIDENOTE:
A few years ago, I posted about homosexuality and how the church should handle it after my former pastor preached a controversial sermon on the subject.