Thursday, January 26, 2006
Homosexual Issue Follow-Up
On Tuesday, I took Bruce McLaren to task for his CT blog post on homosexuality. Between Two Worlds links to this post by Tom Ascol as an interesting counterpoint to McLaren, which it is. Ascol is recounting a telephone call he got from a "Christian" homosexual who had seen Al Mohler on Larry King the night before and thought the Southern Baptist Convention was "attacking" homosexuals.
There is no doubt in my mind that Christians that continue to stand on the sinfulness of homosexual practice will be cast as haters. But this is a perversion of love. Does not love wish what is best for its object? If the object of love is stuck in quicksand, is it love to say, "Well, if that is where they want to be, I'll leave them there without comment."
Our culture has developed some very twisted ideas about love. Consider those that supported the starving to death of Terri Schiavo, or so many others as happens every day, in the guise of love. How can love condemn someone to a cruel death? Is that not what we do when we leave the homosexual in their homosexual practice - condemn them to not knowing the real joy available Christ.
Related Tags: homosexuality, Christianity, SBC, Southern Baptists, sin, salvation
He told me that several homosexual rights groups are planning to picket local Southern Baptist churches with signs that say, "Don't let your children go inside this building. They will be taught hatred and bigotry."I'll take that as an "Amen" to my Tuesday post.
Rick said that he didn't want to see that happen but unless the "war" against homosexuals (specifically, the opposition of civil unions for gay people) stops, he fears such responses will become commonplace. By the time our conversation ended, we had come to a meeting of the minds. He acknowledged that my contention that he is unconverted and in need of salvation from Jesus Christ was not "hate speech," but in fact, very loving. I assured him that, as a Baptist, I would fight for his right to be wrong in his beliefs even while condemning those beliefs.
He said that our conversation had "opened his mind" to things he had never considered before. He also said that he had never had a conversation like that before--certainly not with a Southern Baptist pastor. I assured him that there are many such pastors who would take a similar view to my own and that, unfortunately, he simply had not come across any of them yet in his research. He even asked if he could give my phone number to several leaders of "gay rights organizations." I said, sure. Then he asked if he could quote me. Well, I have been misquoted enough to know how dangerous that is, so I agreed with the provision that he write down very specifically my statement.
Here is what I said: "You may say that Tom Ascol believes that homosexuality is a sin that will send people to hell, just like others sins will, such as adultery, fornication, theft, lying and murder. Tom Ascol also loves homosexuals and wants to see them come to know and love Jesus Christ as Lord through the power of the Gospel."
Those are true statements. All of us are sinners. It is foolish and very much unlike Christ to disdain someone because his sin is less culturally acceptable than your own. Sometimes we conservative evangelicals have sent the wrong message by the way that we have positioned ourselves on moral issues. It is as if we are saying that it is OK to be opposed to the living God (which all unbelievers are) as long as you are not opposed to God while being homosexual. We do not believe that and we must be careful that we do not miscommunicate that we do.
There is no doubt in my mind that Christians that continue to stand on the sinfulness of homosexual practice will be cast as haters. But this is a perversion of love. Does not love wish what is best for its object? If the object of love is stuck in quicksand, is it love to say, "Well, if that is where they want to be, I'll leave them there without comment."
Our culture has developed some very twisted ideas about love. Consider those that supported the starving to death of Terri Schiavo, or so many others as happens every day, in the guise of love. How can love condemn someone to a cruel death? Is that not what we do when we leave the homosexual in their homosexual practice - condemn them to not knowing the real joy available Christ.
Related Tags: homosexuality, Christianity, SBC, Southern Baptists, sin, salvation
