Fear not your fellow Christians!
From a recent discussion I had on Facebook:
I completely agree with Holli here: "Stop kicking broken people out of your churches. For real. You look like a complete and total ass for doing this and it doesn't help your church at all. I would dare to go so far as to say this angers God - Jesus spoke about the mistreatment of those He loves pretty harshly."
And I would also go so far as to say that another fear to guard against is not the world or what the world thinks, but what OTHER CHRISTIANS think. I'm so blasted sick of anti-homosexualists who spend their God given talents and energy in condemning, working against and judging gay people. And I am no longer afraid to stand up and say to my fellows, 'that's not OK and it's damaging people's spirits who might be greatly in need ((whether or not that pertains to their sexuality) of the love of Christ.' For me it's not an issue of whether homosexual behavior is a sin or not. I don't condemn churches for carrying this view - they have Biblical support for their argument. Churches have the right to decide the doctrines of their church and people can decide whether or not they want to support churches that hold homosexuals at arms length (as a side note I would want to ask those churches why **I** would be allowed full access to their church, without remediation, and I would be in most, as a divorced and re-married woman who committed premarital sex with her husband)...
What is NOT sanctioned by Christ is the awful treatment of homosexuals by Christian leaders and the followers who mimic what they hear from them. Recently a Christian leader advised parents of gay people to ostracize, reject and disallow their gay children to be a part of their lives...Another said that the 'stoning of gay people is not out of the realm of possibility' for how to deal with them. WHAT???? Do these people EVER read the words of Christ or His example? Or do they sit and lovingly caress the old testament laws and one single story of Jesus when he overturned tables and made a whip and think those represent the ministry and message of Jesus? In my opinion this is exactly what Jesus meant when he told the the Pharisees that they were turning people into 'more the sons sons of hell' than they were. The leader says 'stoning homosexuals is within the realm of possibility' and off go his followers to beat the crap out of a gay man walking home from work. It has happened and it will continue to happen to a community of people most of whom would simply like the opportunity to live peacefully, walk their journeys and work out their own salvation the same as the rest of us are allowed to do who were born into the privilege of heterosexuality.
I realize that my stance in this arena will draw scorn and myriad warnings from concerned fellow Christians who think I am on some road to hell by loving on and supporting gay people -- but I can only do what God has placed in my heart to do and follow the Spirit's lead in how to do it. I would not have chosen this particular battle if given a choice - I'd have picked something safer and less volatile like feeding the hungry, but, you know how it goes.
I completely agree with Holli here: "Stop kicking broken people out of your churches. For real. You look like a complete and total ass for doing this and it doesn't help your church at all. I would dare to go so far as to say this angers God - Jesus spoke about the mistreatment of those He loves pretty harshly."
And I would also go so far as to say that another fear to guard against is not the world or what the world thinks, but what OTHER CHRISTIANS think. I'm so blasted sick of anti-homosexualists who spend their God given talents and energy in condemning, working against and judging gay people. And I am no longer afraid to stand up and say to my fellows, 'that's not OK and it's damaging people's spirits who might be greatly in need ((whether or not that pertains to their sexuality) of the love of Christ.' For me it's not an issue of whether homosexual behavior is a sin or not. I don't condemn churches for carrying this view - they have Biblical support for their argument. Churches have the right to decide the doctrines of their church and people can decide whether or not they want to support churches that hold homosexuals at arms length (as a side note I would want to ask those churches why **I** would be allowed full access to their church, without remediation, and I would be in most, as a divorced and re-married woman who committed premarital sex with her husband)...
What is NOT sanctioned by Christ is the awful treatment of homosexuals by Christian leaders and the followers who mimic what they hear from them. Recently a Christian leader advised parents of gay people to ostracize, reject and disallow their gay children to be a part of their lives...Another said that the 'stoning of gay people is not out of the realm of possibility' for how to deal with them. WHAT???? Do these people EVER read the words of Christ or His example? Or do they sit and lovingly caress the old testament laws and one single story of Jesus when he overturned tables and made a whip and think those represent the ministry and message of Jesus? In my opinion this is exactly what Jesus meant when he told the the Pharisees that they were turning people into 'more the sons sons of hell' than they were. The leader says 'stoning homosexuals is within the realm of possibility' and off go his followers to beat the crap out of a gay man walking home from work. It has happened and it will continue to happen to a community of people most of whom would simply like the opportunity to live peacefully, walk their journeys and work out their own salvation the same as the rest of us are allowed to do who were born into the privilege of heterosexuality.
I realize that my stance in this arena will draw scorn and myriad warnings from concerned fellow Christians who think I am on some road to hell by loving on and supporting gay people -- but I can only do what God has placed in my heart to do and follow the Spirit's lead in how to do it. I would not have chosen this particular battle if given a choice - I'd have picked something safer and less volatile like feeding the hungry, but, you know how it goes.
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