Gay Christians

This blog is intended to mostly be about conservative politics. However, for a conservative Christian like myself, I find that politics and my faith are quite interrelated. The following blog post takes the basis for its logic from the Christian faith. I don't plan on doing this often but every so often, religious items will need to be addressed and I will address them from the standpoint of the Christian faith.

It’s becoming increasingly acceptable, even in the Christian community for someone to label themselves a “gay Christian.”

Is this possible? Certainly: the same way it’s possible to be a “liar Christian,” a “thief Christian,” or an “adulterous Christian.” The reality is the Bible makes quite clear that homosexuality is a sin (1 Cor. 6:9). And to be clear on our terms, I reject on its face the idea that one is a homosexual but rather, I cleave to the idea that one practices homosexuality.

The Bible also makes another important thing very clear: “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Frankly, every Christian (and every human, for that matter) struggles with sin. For some, it’s sins of the mind. For others, it’s sexual sins. For still others, perhaps they steal or defraud.

Jesus said that the most important of all the Commandments is the one where God requires that “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me (Matt. 22:36-40).” We might not realize it, but this is also the Commandment most often broken.

That Commandment generally spurs images of idols in our minds but when we commit a sin — any sin — we have put that “god” before Him.  All too often, however, rather than seeking forgiveness and reconciling with our Father, we attempt instead to rationalize the sin and ignore God because we can’t live in sin and have a good relationship with Him simultaneously.

If you wronged your friend and refused to apologize, would you expect that relationship to continue as though nothing happened? Particularly if you kept doing whatever action hurt them in the first place? Certainly not.

How then, could a Christian living in sin — any sin — expect to not only maintain but further their relationship with God? It doesn’t make sense. So can a person who engages in homosexual activity be a Christian? Yes. But no church should ever make the mistake of doing anything except pointing that person to the only person that can help them: Jesus Christ.

For those of us that have accepted Christ as our savior, we have done so in spite of ourselves. To those who seek to excuse behavior due to genetic predisposition, I say that we were, indeed, "born that way" — as sinners. We are all broken but Jesus wants to make us new.

But we simply cannot ignore scripture in an attempt to spare people's feelings. That being said, we must remember the words of Jesus: "do not judge lest ye be judged (Matt 7:1)." We know that "all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)." All of us.

So I do not condem homosexuals on an individual basis (I do condem homosexuality itself). In fact, I am good friends with several people who openly practice homosexuality. They know that I believe they are wrong but they also know that I love them none the less. If I didn't love them, how could I expect to point them to Christ?

To cite an overused expression, "love the sinner, hate the sin" and the conservative Christian does just that.