Hey, Christians, Hey: Gay Rights
You know, this is crazy, but I started this project/blog as a voice against what I took to be the wrong Christian stance against gay people. Now, my fellow Christians will tell you that they are acting out of love and reject the sin (gay sex), but not the people. The problem with that, as I noted in my video from Friday, is that these Christians start lumping together sex and people, making gay people nothing more than the sex they may or may not be having. Thus, I feel the need to write an open letter to Christians about gay rights.
Hey, Christians, hey:
Man, you had a rough week last week, huh? Gays came in and took away so much of the America you know and love, even though that’s been ebbing away since 1789. In church on Sunday, my pastor asked how we got “here” where same-sex marriage is allowed nationwide and will probably become Federal law soon, abortions are available “on-demand,” and how teachers are fired for talking about Jesus or the Bible in public school, but can teach kids all about witchcraft and other religions without a complaint raised. He said that it’s the church’s fault that we’re “here” as a nation because we took prayer out of public schools and forgot God in public life. We got so wrapped up our own “rightness” and legalese as a church that we lost influence as we gained arrogance and were brought down hard.
He’s right about all of that. BUT I think it’s more the last thing – losing the love in the message and manipulating people to get your own, controlled ends from their behavior and actions. Power, control, etc.
He said that political action (Christians politicians, advocacy groups, etc.) are not enough to effect the change that’s necessary to revive this country. I agree. He said we need to minister to people’s hearts. I agree. That should have been the focus all along, but when you gain political power and make things “easy” for yourselves, you forget the kiln in which the church got started and stayed as they were persecuted around the world. There was a focus on love and truth, not just truth spewing from the mouths of people who acted as if they had no sin, Pharisees.
As Mark Chappelle stated on his blog, it’s not the end of the world, but you would do a lot better living the way you feel is best before God so that others can see Him in you versus trying to take away the rights of others and lamenting where we are as a nation. You serve a loving, forgiving, unrelenting God who never gives up on you. It’s actually quite Christian to want gay people to have the same rights and protections that heterosexual married couples do when you consider things like estates, hospital visitations, death benefits, etc., if they only have each other. It’s not your place to deny rights just because someone lives in conflict with the way you believe life should be lived.
What should you do, then? Love gay people and minister to their hearts! Their salvation doesn’t hinge on their sexual orientation changing, either. Stop presenting Jesus that way! Everyone has a litany of sins that Jesus saves them from, not just one, and you have to live with the fact that 99% of gay people are just gay and can’t/won’t change their orientation, even if they die trying.
Just ask these people. They even admitted they were wrong in their approach and hurt countless people. They also had, like, a 95% failure rate and even one of their leaders went back to men and divorced his wife. And listen, the sex that went on at these ex-gay conferences? Man, listen…
Also, stop using gay people as your punching bags and decrying legal protections for them as an attack on your free speech. Why is our religion’s success set upon openly attacking a group of people? Think about it – you’re equating your evangelism, which is supposed to be about unconditional love and the need for a Savior, with the freedom to verbally attack anyone by calling them everything but a child of God. Meanwhile, continue silently enjoy your gambling away your rent money, gluttony/obesity, laziness, stealing office supplies, gossip, divorces, and more.
So, moving forward, I would encourage you to not view this as the end of the world. Except for heavy rains, DC seems to be doing fine weather-wise; not a brimstone in sight. We’ll make it another day, Lord willing.
Just love gay people. Love them as hard as you do yourselves. I would also urge you to research why it has to be legal marriage and why it cannot be a civil union to grant gays the same rights. You could also look into the difference between God’s view of marriage versus America’s view of marriage from a legal standpoint. It wouldn’t hurt to also note the differences between lustful sex and genuine love. Even if you walk away still disagreeing with what’s going on, at least your mind has been opened and you have a better understanding, and you’ll know how some stuff just isn’t fair. We need to minister to people’s hearts to effect the necessary change to change this nation. Some things will change and others won’t, but we can be on a better path. The poverty and poor education increases alone are scaring me more than two dudes getting married. Laws won’t change heart issues and that’s the lazy approach that has now backfired on you.
Congrats! Now you’ve got real work to do. Get crackin’!
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Category: Christianity, Gay, Politics
