Couple of thoughts on homosexuality.
Entry posted by Kalasin
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Some of you may know that I’m an evangelical Christian, and that I therefore believe that the Bible is infallible. Traditionally, evangelical Christians condemned homosexuality as a sin. Thus, I have wrestled with the issue of homosexuality for some time, because I’m a part of both the Christian sub-culture of New Zealand and the wider New Zealand culture, which often conflict over this issue.
Essentially, although I still haven’t ultimately made up my mind about this, I have been slowly coming to the conclusion that the act of homosexual sex is indeed wrong. This is for several reasons. I believe that men and women are equal yet complementary partners, and that this partnership is best suited to raising children. The problem is, we live in a fallen world, and thus there are many distortions in nature, which include homosexual attraction. However, this, in my view, is not the way that the Creator intended us to live. This is reflected by the rise in AIDS and other sexual diseases which came about because of the sexual revolution of the twentieth century, and the disproportionate rate of sexual diseases among homosexuals in comparison with heterosexuals. This, in itself, is reason enough to have serious questions about whether or not homosexuality is right or wrong.
The primary purpose of this little article is not actually to debate about whether or not homosexuality is sinful, however. It’s rather to make the point that there is a spectrum of people who hold that homosexuality is sinful. On the far end of the spectrum you have the Westboro Baptist Church, who apparently walk around in the southern United States with placards reading ‘God hates fags’ and the like (I don’t live in the US, so I don’t know how big they actually are.) In my opinion this is absolutely obscene. It’s so incredibly insensitive and unloving, and it’s totally contradictory to what Christ commanded. And here we reach the other end of the spectrum.
My own position is that every human being is ultimately equal, and equally loved by God, regardless of what their sexual orientation is or what they have done. Even if homosexuality is a sin, it doesn’t really make much difference, because ultimately everyone is equally filthy in God’s sight, and in equal need of forgiveness. Thus, the homosexual is no worse to anyone else. God’s love is unconditional. It’s not dependent on a person’s sexual orientation or anything else. This sort of love has nothing to do with liking anyone, it’s merely a deep care about a person and a desire for their welfare. Christ calls us to love everyone in this way, which admittedly I really struggle with, being a fallen human being myself. Being perfect is really hard lol! To take an example from CN, I found and continue to find it really difficult to love Cortath after the way he treated me, and I often slip up. This doesn’t disprove the validity of what I’m saying, though.
So essentially, I believe that we should love homosexuals, and treat them with gentleness and respect, while not accepting homosexual activity as right. It’s a difficult line to walk and inevitably there will be times when Christians will be insensitive and hurt people’s feelings, and that is cause for an apology. I don’t believe that my position is bigoted or homophobic, though. Those adjectives are bandied around far too widely. Use the term strictly for those who merit it.
And as one final aside, we need to love the Westboro Baptist Church lot too, even though they may be hateful and angry. Think about it.
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