Homosexuality and the church

My youth pastor shared a somewhat controversial topic in service last Sunday - she talked about homosexuality. Of course, being the flamboyant pastor that she is, she got a bunch of youngsters on the spot to act out a scene from Genesis 19, where all the men of Sodom and Gomorrah demanded Lot to send out his two male visitors (who were actually angels) to have sex with them. Instead, Lot offered his virgin daughters to satisfy them. Fortunately, the men rejected the daughters and insisted on the male visitors.

Personally, I think offering your own daughters to be gang-raped is far more evil than consensual homosexual relationships. Although the pastor said that homosexuality is clearly a sin according to the Bible, she reminded us to be open-hearted but not open-minded. A gay man had told her that she needed to be open-minded as we live in a modern world. Well, homosexuality has been around and was acceptable even during ancient Greek times. But, there is a distinction between loving people unconditionally as Christ did and standing firm by your convictions. She said that we need to be open-hearted in accepting all gay people into the church, but we should not be open-minded in the sense of agreeing with everything people do without question.

After that, she called me to come up and offer an alternative view (she likes calling me up without warning). So, I just said that there are genetic factors involved in homosexuality. Although I believe that homosexuality is a sin, churches should not condemn or persecute them. All of us are sinners; cheating on your partner or even looking at someone else lustfully is sin. We aren't any better than gay people, so there's no need to give a holier-than-thou attitude. Instead of forcing people to change, we should demonstrate Christ's love to them first. Once they have accepted Christ, the Holy Spirit will convict them.

The church is meant to reflect Christ's love and acceptance to all people; Jesus Christ was a revolutionary in His time. He broke all social conventions and went against the sexist and racist Pharisees by reaching out to the poor, prostitutes, tax collectors, Samaritans, thieves etc. He never condemned anyone, although He was firm in identifying their sin and leading them to repentance.

By condemning sex workers, beggars or gay people in the church, we are no better than the hypocritical Pharisees. All of us are sinners saved by grace. My pastor shared a story where she brought a beggar to church after cleaning her up. The beggar woman did not smell although it was plain to see that she was a beggar. Everyone avoided her; no one welcomed her. In fact, one neighboring person even drew her chair away from her. The sex workers that my pastor ministered to said that they would not go to church as they did not feel welcome.

If Jesus Christ, the Son of God, could love the outcasts of society unconditionally, how much more should we show such love being sinners ourselves! It is through our Christ-like love that will draw people to God. God does not desire our sacrifices, but our obedience. And the second commandment that Christ gave us was to love others as ourselves.