Confronting the Homosexual Agenda while Loving Homosexuals

Christians concerned about the welfare, both physical and spiritual, of homosexual friends and family members must strike a balance between embracing and caring for gays and lesbians while still doing battle with homosexual activism in the public arena.

It is important for Christians to remember that homosexuality is not some unforgivable sin. God still loves and seeks fellowship with gays or lesbians, but homosexuality is still a sin. Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10; 1 Timothy 1:9-10 are examples of where and how the Bible condemns the practice. Furthermore, Christians are called to hate sin, and should, for the sake of the nation and of their children, combat the homosexual community’s leftist agenda in public and civil forums, but at the same time, Christians are called to love folks to Christ. So how can we, the collective evangelical Christian community, meet both of these requirements?

First, into the melee.

Christian leader Chuck Colson dishes out concise Christian philosophy in his business daily radio broadcasts called Breakpoint. In the April 24, 2007, installment of Breakpoint, Colson discussed a “fairy tale” read to Massachusetts first graders in the Lexington School District, about “a handsome young prince” who “when he grew up… began searching for a wife, but [this handsome prince] could not find a princess he wanted to marry. One day, he met another prince—and fell in love. The two men married and lived happily ever after,” Colson said. The “newly married ‘couple’” even kissed at the end of the story.

According to Colson, “two sets of parents sued the Lexington school district, claiming that district officials violated both state law and their civil rights by allowing a teacher to read to their 6-year-olds a book that normalizes homosexual love and marriage.

“Not surprisingly—this is Massachusetts, after all—federal judge Mark Wolf dismissed the lawsuit. Public schools, he wrote, are "entitled to teach anything that is reasonably related to the goals of preparing students to become engaged and productive citizens in our democracy."
“The real goal, of course,” Colson concluded, “is normalizing homosexuality.

Christians should not allow homosexuality or any other sin to be normalized in our society. Hey, the fact is that Christians have been complacent on other important issues like pornography, heterosexual adultery, abortion, etc. etc., so it is important that collectively Christians take on new challenges to civil unity while trying to win back ground on those other aforementioned issues, but that is an article of another time.

Here are some things to consider, first, civil law should be a reflection of natural law. There is a body of transcendent law which generally guides or even rules society and conscience (Russell Kirk, The Conservative Mind, Seventh Revised Edition, 1985 Washington D.C. page 8). This natural law can be seen in the success or failure of a nation. Look at those nations which set themselves up against the traditional moral standards of the Jewish and Christian faiths and you will find that in the process of tossing off the restraints of righteousness and honesty the have wrapped themselves in the chains of dishonesty and selfishness so as to have surrendered to the tyrant of self and of the “nanny” state which in order to protect one’s “right” to be depraved must crush, steamroll, and otherwise do away with all that we think of as traditional freedoms. This is seen in some current environmental rhetoric, like Sheryl Crows, half joking comment about toilet paper rationing to save the environment. And this can be seen in the homosexual movement.

According to the pro-gay group, Public Agenda, www.publicagenda.org, homosexual leaders are seeking “equality” on a number of issues, including “Protection against discrimination in employment, housing and immigration; an expansion of hate crime laws to specifically include sexual orientation; domestic partner benefits similar to those granted to married couples; the right to marry; the ability to serve in the military without hiding their sexuality.”
On the surface, these seem to be reasonable requests, but in fact that are not “rights” put usurpations of traditional freedom and natural law. Consider the second goal above, to expand “hate crime laws to specifically include sexual orientation.” While I am opposed to “gay bashing” and have written as much several times, I would not support the making it illegal to speak one’s mind about homosexuality. For example, would this article be considered hateful? What about if I wrote that heterosexual adultery undermined the moral fabric of our civil government –which it does- would that be hate speech? Why shouldn’t I be aloud to freely say that I believe homosexuality violates God’s law in the same way that I say unfaithfulness in marriage, or lying, etc. is a violation of God’s law? Would this proposed expansion of hate crime laws include the scriptures I referenced above?

There can be no expansion of “gay rights” without the contraction of some already established freedom which may even be based on natural law and, therefore, the natural order of the universe.

This is to say nothing of the homosexual marriage issues which has been such a hot topic in recent years. The so-called gay agenda openly seeks to create a law forcing states, nations, and even the world to recognize to union of two men or two women. Homosexual marriage would radically change the nature of the institution and fundamentally change what it means to be married.

“For more than 40 years,” wrote Focus on the Family’s Dr. James Dobson in a one of the organization’s monthly newsletters (quoted on April 24, 2007). “The homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family. The institution of marriage, along with an often weakened and impotent Church, is all that stands in the way of its achievement of every coveted aspiration. Those goals include universal acceptance of the gay lifestyle, discrediting of Scriptures that condemn homosexuality, muzzling of the clergy and Christian media, granting of special privileges and rights in the law, overturning laws prohibiting pedophilia, indoctrinating children and future generations through public education, and securing all the legal benefits of marriage for any two or more people who claim to have homosexual tendencies. These objectives that seemed unthinkable just a few years ago have largely been achieved or are now within reach. All that remains is for the movement and its friends in the media, the entertainment industry, the professions, the government and the military, to deliver the coup de grace to a beleaguered institution that was given to humanity by the Creator in the Garden of Eden. We in North America and Europe are not simply "slouching towards Gomorrah," as Judge Robert Bork warned in his best-selling book1; we are hurtling toward it.”

Christians must respond to any attack on natural law, on any attempt to muzzle the church, and on any attempt to indoctrinate Christian youth in the public schools. Christians must be willing to speak in public forums, openly speak about what they believe when asked at work, and they must demand action from their representatives, or become representatives themselves.
Christians must love homosexuals too.

But Christians must love homosexuals too. “Just because someone is a homosexual does not mean that we cannot love him (or her) or pray for him (her),” as the Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry web site puts it (quoted on April 24, 2007). “Homosexuality is a sin and like any other sin, it needs to be dealt with in the only way possible. It needs to be laid at the cross, repented of, and never done again.

“As a Christian, you should pray for the salvation of the homosexual the same you would any other person in sin. The homosexual is still made in the image of God -- even though he is in grave sin. Therefore, you should show him same dignity as anyone else you come in contact with. However, this does not mean that you are to approve of their sin. Don't compromise your witness for a socially acceptable opinion that is void of godliness.”

The bottom line is that one of the best ways to combat the homosexual agenda is to seek to say homosexuals. I want to be careful to add that I believe there are saved, in a Biblical sense saved, and born again homosexuals. In fact, I believe that I have a relative that is in that very situation. God, as near as I can tell, does his best to actively purge each and every one of us of sin. But I have rarely seen him do that all at once. He takes on a lot of the big public sins first and then works on our conscience to gradually make us more like Christ. For some folks the lessons are learned fast and dramatic changes, power changes take place. But other sins seem to linger. I could confess no less than a dozen ugly sins which still haunt me nearly six years after I accepted Christ.

Everyday, I struggle to break those pet sins and I no doubt sin without even know it in other areas of my life. I have written (or said if you like) all of this so that I can point out that Christians should not be too quick to judge homosexuals. There are certainly saved gays and lesbians, and there are certainly those which are seeking God and seeking some safety and security in their lives.

I fully believe that God wants homosexuals to come to know Christ and that through their relationship with Christ find the fulfillment they need.

In closing, I know that a lot of folks are going to disagree with what I have written here. I welcome any civil discussion on these points any encourage any reader to post comments.

Thank you for your time and consideration.