Gay Marriage and Homosexuality: Afraid For, Not Afraid Of
When God instituted marriage at the creation of the world, He intended marriage to be between one man and one woman. Since Adam and Eve fell into sin, mankind has caused the earth to skew into pathways God never intended for this earth. One such pathway is homosexuality. Men and women were created by God to emotionally and physically complete each other. This complementary relationship does not exist in a homosexual relationship. To put it crassly, the parts don't fit together.
What's this? Another Bible-thumping, right-wing extremist sticking his nose where it doesn't belong? Not exactly. It is true that I am a conservative traditionalist, but I'm not a neo-conservative bent on legislating morality. I take more of a balanced approach. Homosexuality is no worse than lying and no better than murder or treason. Sin is sin is sin in God's eyes. I'm no better than a gay person. I'm not a saint - far from it. That doesn't stop me from wanting to restore someone gently from their sins. (Galatians 6:1)
I am afraid for those who condone homosexuality. The apostle Paul warns the churches at Corinth and Rome about homosexuality. In his letter to the Romans, Paul writes about how men inflamed with desire have exchanged their natural sexual relations with unnatural ones. Later on in Romans, Paul urges his readers live their lives as a way of thanking God for what He has done for them in Christ.
How does this balance with what Jesus said about loving our neighbor as ourselves? Jesus didn't condemn the adulterous woman in the Gospel of John. He ate with tax collectors and sinners. How do Paul's words coincide with what Jesus did? Look at the full context of Scripture. When sin entered the world, God promised to send His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the world - even gays. A buffet-style approach to the Bible, taking the parts of Scripture people like and leaving the parts they don't, diminishes what God wants of His people and what Jesus has done for the world.
The reason I am afraid for homosexuals and their eternal welfare is because of their refusal to turn away from their sin and become either chaste or heterosexual. Refusal to acknowledge sin and turn away from it is tantamount to unbelief in God. God has made it crystal-clear that those who do not believe in Him shall perish for all eternity in Hell. I don't want that to happen to anyone - not to heterosexuals or homosexuals.
My two-fold prayer for this particular issue is for homosexuals to see what God really has to say in the full context of Scripture about their lifestyle and for people not to be afraid of gays, but to be afraid for them and their eternal spiritual welfare. Scare tactics don't work. They only exacerbate the problem. The solution is to speak the truth in love and let God work through His Word.
Published by Timothy Gray
I have a Masters of Divinity and served three congregations simultaneously in South Dakota from 2002-05. Burned out from the rigors of parish life, I opted to change careers to spend more time with my family... View profile
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3 Comments
Post a CommentI won't attack you here, you've shown a far more chrisitan motivation than most any other writer on the topic. However, there is much to be said about the eternal state of any person's soul (assuming there is one and christianity is correct.) In the Bible it says gays are dirty, that they're sinful, wrong, etc. But these statements must be seen and read with in the context of the time that the idealism came about. Yes, I realize that most "anit-gay" arguers will say that "the bible is meant for all times" or "that is only an interpretation" etc etc. The point of the matter is that the Bible is a book able to be interpreted in thousands of ways. However reading something within its context is neither an interpretation nor is it wrong. Marriage is not an institution of god but of man, and of the time the rules we find in the bible came about, the idealism was a convention of keeping humans going. Something we now, no longer have to worry about.
I'm sorry that you're "afraid for" those who have a different view than you, especially considering many people find that the Bible as originally written is not so anti-gay marriage, as if you have the right to judge them, Your religion doesn't being in politics. Our government has no religion, and it was designed that way by our forefathers to protect our people who are of many faiths from being commanded by the laws of the majority faith.
Your "God", is not everyones "God" - this should be abundantly clear to you from all of the various "Gods" throughout all of the various cultures on earth. Your perception of homophobia is incorrect by its definition. Homophobia directly breaks down into afraid of homosexuals by its composition with Latin reference, however the word itself has come to mean a hatred, or bigoted approach toward the LGBT community - it no longer has much to do with 'fear'. I hope you see "Gods" love, because I know I have, and if "God" really finds my love wrong, I gladly burn in hell; for if the "creator" does not understand how deep and real my love is through "his" voice in the scripture, than the "creator" is "wrong". (This leads me to believe man wrote these things)