Do I feel some false sense of responsibility because I gave him someone's interperetation of the bible that clashed with his own worldview? Not really. I think my old friend made a series of decisions that led him to the conclusion that God doesn't exist based on a series of circumstantial events (rejection, bad sexual experiences, isolation, depression, etc) that he had pinned on the God he served. Many would argue that he was never a Christian in the first place and that is assuming that one could actually "become" a christian at all but that's another post entirely. That's not what this is about. This is about making blanket statements about things to big to be covered with a blanket and basically calling that good. "If you DO this, then it WILL yield THIS result. Or if you DON'T do THAT then THIS is the consequence." In my life experience, it's never been as cut and dry as that. My life has been "Here is a list of hundreds of things that CAN possibly happen if you pursue This option and the same thing if you choose THIS option but there is NO way of gaging what THIS outcome will be."
Let's go back to my gay friend, I was told by a spiritual authority that if I had given him hell, fire & brimstone accompanied with the message of Grace & Forgiveness that he might not respond today to "God's call" on his life but one day he would thank me for "speaking the truth in love." He never did and he probably never will. Mainly because it's too paradoxical an ideology that eternal torment and damnation works hand and hand with grace unabounding, no matter what context it is communicated in. At the very core of my discussion with my friend, he wanted to know if God would accept him, even if he was gay and there was nothing he could do about that, and my answer to him was, "No!"
I want to make it clear that I'm not merely writing about homosexuality as a sin, nor am I making an argument for or against the "christian homosexual" (maybe I will in the near future). What I am pursuing is a discussion on how we arrive at such a mass generalization or judgement of pieces of our culture that will never experience God because "believers" have in large part excluded them not really from the community but rather from the grace that we claim to partake in. Rather we declare war on the deepest parts of humanity. Are we ok with that? I'm not sure if I am.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hi Ezekiel,I believe God would accept him as having homosexual tendencies because God accepts us as sinners.Jesus was the friend of sinners and got into trouble with the religious people for being friends with them-prostitutes etc.
ReplyDeleteThough God accepts us as sinners He does not want us to stay there. Even Paul, after being a Christian for about 30 years wrote that he was still not perfect and in Romans 7 he declared himself as 'a wretch' and that it was only Christ who could help him.We therefore should be compassionate with those we seek to reach.
One thing for sure we have not the power within ourselves to resist the temptations that satan often throws at us.It is only Christ and Christ alone who can save us. Your friend must throw himself on Christ and cry out 'Have mercy on me a sinner'.
God accepts you with all your sins and forgives you, will he not also accept a weak sinner also and through his grace help him in his time of need?
Kenny,
ReplyDeleteI think you may have missed the point. I think first we'd have to agree to define the basic idea of homosexuality (the being sexually attracted to persons of your own gender) as a sin or something a person has control of, anymore than you or I have control over being attracted to the opposite sex. I'm not so sure that ALL homosexual behavior is learned, which is a position most contemporary conservative christendom holds.
Yes, I do know the scripture and I believe it to be true. The big idea is not about God's relationship to my friend, because I believe regardless of the things I foolishly spoke all those years ago, Jesus loved him and made him a christian. What I am particularly talking about is the greater community of believers that call themselves "Christians" and how they reach these conclusions based on very little information. It's about very broad assumptions made about very complex issues in culture and then the stamping of these assumptions as truth.
Yes, Jesus was friends with prostitutes, thieves and many other social deviants but when was the last time you hung out with a prostitute and pursued a time of showing her pure brotherly love and grace? I don't know you, so I'm not going to assume anything, but my guess is that has, at best, been awhile.
Thanks for your comments.