I am agonizing over issues related to the sin of homosexuality. (And I am going to offer a disclaimer at the inception of this post: As a Christian I am instructed to speak the truth in love. You can't hear my voice to hear the love this is immersed in. It is not my goal to hurt - but I do know that the truth can hurt, even when spoken lovingly.)
Last fall a college friend sent me an email with a very cleverly written and performed u-tube video attached! If you want to see it yourself you can find it by typing in ‘2 roosters don’t make a chicken’ in your search engine. The one I opened was titled ‘Down on the Farm’.
Procreation isn't the only consideration when we broach the subject of homosexuality. Any sex outside marriage is sin according to the Bible, and marriage consists of a man and a woman. Pretty simple to figure out the rest.... It isn't the 'only' sin to be resisted, but it is one that definitely repulses God.... God made sex to be something very special between a married man and woman, and it has been perverted in many ways. Premarital sex is sin. Extra-marital sex is sin. Sex with animals is sin. Sex with someone of the same sex is sin, and it is one of many sins God addresses clearly and definitively.
Sadly, some people think that believing what God's Word says about homosexuality means I am homophobic. I’m certainly not. I can love the sinner and hate the sin. I have 3 dear friends who have children who are living in committed adult relationships with a person of their same sex. Two of the referenced offspring are male; one is female (joined in an out-of-state ceremony to her partner, they are moms to twins). I had one of the young men in youth group all through his Junior High and High School years. I love him dearly! I can love him and still not agree with his choice to follow his inclination. But, on a personal level, I do not address the issue. I love the person, hate the sin, and leave it between him and God.
On a general level, I find I must address the issue. There are two critical areas where the vocal minority on this issue have crossed the line: ministry and marriage.
I was part of the Presbyterian Church for 38 years. I began attending regularly in 1971. I love the church – both the denomination and the people – and the growth I experienced during those years. However, I did not join the church right away, with the biggest issue being that the accepting of homosexuals into leadership roles kept coming up in General Assembly year after year. It was a vocal minority. (I believe everyone should be welcomed at the level of attending, should be loved and well-cared for, but that only people who choose to live in fidelity within God’s laws should be in leadership, and that covers a lot more than just sexual issues!)
It was important to a new pastor who came that I officially join the church. I had taught Sunday School, been the Sunday School Superintendent, been active in numerous other ways – but I wasn’t a ‘member’. I expressed my concern over that one issue – and told him that if they ever voted to allow homosexuals in leadership and ministry roles, I would leave the church – but I would leave loudly. He assured me that what I was concerned about would never happen – but that if it did, he promised me that he would be right behind me. So, I joined. That was almost 30 years ago.
As it turned out, I left my denomination 3 ½ years ago over theological error of another sort – with the specific church I was attending promoting that there could be other ways to God except through Jesus…but in the spring of 2011 the dreaded vote happened, and homosexuals were welcomed into leadership and ministry in the PCUSA, subject to the vote of individual presbyteries and churches.
This fall I heard that the elders of the church I previously attended for 30 years voted unanimously to leave the denomination over the ruling of allowing homosexuals to be in leadership in the denomination. Last week I was told that the church I left 3 ½ years ago over errant theology has now hired a lesbian as their youth leader. And last night, just before I left to go to church for First Wednesday Prayer Meeting, my state’s governor, Christine Gregoire, announced that she is going to introduce the bill to allow same-sex marriages in Washington state. That was what tipped the scales and compels me to write.
This particular sin is thrust on us daily, with the outcry that we must accept it as acceptable behavior. God doesn't. Neither should we. On a personal level I can adopt a 'live and let live' attitude, allowing for the reality that what happens between consenting adults is none of my business, but that doesn't mean I approve. Sin breaks God's heart. All sin. And when a church I love and a state I love become complicit in trying to normalize sin by voting to legitimize it, it is time to speak up.
People can be tempted with all sorts of sin – but being tempted isn’t sin! It's succumbing to the temptation that is sin. I feel great compassion for people who feel trapped in a body that generates thoughts and desires that violate God's laws – but the sin is not the thought, it is the act that is the sin. Whatever that temptation is, no matter what the indulgence or over-indulgence is, it is only in acting on it that it becomes sin. (I could argue that savoring it in one’s thought life could also be sin.)
The bottom line is that the Bible is my plumb line. God is very clear how He feels about this issue. God loves the sinner and hates the sin.
And why, why, why do people who do not want to honor God’s design want to borrow His terminology for their relationships? Marriage is God’s design. Marriage is God’s word. Marriage only describes a relationship between a man and a woman in God’s definition. Calling something marriage that isn’t doesn’t normalize or legitimize it in God’s eyes!
Washington state already honors domestic partnerships. In a purely politically correct sense, that allows people who care for each other the rights and privileges of relationship. Those relationship privileges are thereby extended when it comes to things such as sitting with a loved one at their death bed, which was one issue that came up when one member of a lesbian couple was not allowed to be with her partner at her hospital deathbed because she was not ‘next of kin.’ Denying them those last moments together was wrong – and ‘domestic partnership’ covers that contingency.
Governor Gregoire says it is time to pass the bill allowing same-sex marriage. I disagree, and I fear for the results to our state. Defying God is not a good idea!
Lord, teach me how to navigate the rough waters ahead – to be faithful to Your Word, and loving to my neighbor – even when we disagree….. Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a light on my path. You love the sinner and hate sin. I am called to do the same. You cleanse people from sin and forgive sins. All sins.
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