Don't Ask, Don't Tell

The topic of the week is homosexuality.  I imagine that we are all aware that there are people from a “church” in Kansas that have been picketing funerals, spewing hate and discontent, claiming that the death of U.S. soldiers and Marines is the direct result of God’s wrath at the U.S. for its leniency towards homosexuality.  They, of course, refer to Scriptures that describe homosexuality as an abomination.  There are other Scriptures that refer to eating shellfish as abomination.  Somehow, neither of these abominations made it into the top ten list of sins, however.  Now, a case could be made that the dietary restrictions of the Old Testament were done away with in Acts 10, when God told Peter, “What I have cleansed, call not thou unclean.”  To be honest, though, in context, it seems pretty clear that, although Peter’s vision involved food, it really wasn’t food that God was talking about.  I certainly hope that we are not mistaken in thinking that we are no longer subject to the dietary restrictions of Old Testament Law, since we are not under the Law, but under Grace, because I really enjoy a good lobster tail. 

I have never actually heard anyone say this, but some of these people act as though they believe that homosexuality is the worst sin of all.  Jesus said that the first commandment of all was to love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind and strength.  He said that the second is like unto it, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  If I were the type of person to relegate sins to different levels, that passage would lead me to believe that the worst sin of all is to be an atheist.  For whatever reason, though, we as a society tend to be considerably more tolerant of atheists than of homosexuals.  I am sure that there are atheists that would disagree with me on that, but when was the last time you saw someone picketing a funeral with a sign that said, “God Hates Atheists?”

            John 3:16 says that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.  I don’t see anything there that discriminates based on sexual orientation.  Unless I am reading that incorrectly, God loves everybody, and made a way for anybody to be saved, no matter what their sin.  In point of fact, James makes a point of mentioning that, in God’s eyes, sin is sin.  It doesn’t really matter what sin you have committed, you need it to be forgiven, and God has made a way for it to be forgiven.

            I also feel that I need to talk a little bit, at least, about the difference between thoughts and actions.  Jesus said that if a man looketh upon a woman to lust after her, he hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Of course, we can extrapolate that if a man looks after another man to lust after him, he has committed just as grievous a sin (particularly considering that, in God’s eyes, sin is sin).  At the same time, there is a difference between having a thought, or even an urge, and having lust.  There is a difference between finding someone attractive, and fantasizing about that person.  By the same token, if you feel an urge to do something that you know is wrong, whether it involves a person of the same gender as yourself, or someone who is married to someone else, that urge is not sin.  If you let it become more, then it can become sin, but the urge itself is not sin.

            So, in conclusion, although there are some people that say that God hates gay people, that view is simply not supported by Scripture.  It is true that homosexual acts are sin, but all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.  Those of us who are sinners saved by Grace have no business looking down our noses at people who are really just other sinners.