Many churches have done a really bad job of defining Christ’s central message “I love you enough to die for you and nothing you do or can do will stop me loving you.” If we truly follow Jesus, we despise the sin, but love the sinner. When it comes to the whole spectrum of homo behavior, we have stated our positions poorly on the despising the sin side and not really even whispered that we love those that are broken in that way. There is enough condemnation to go around in the secular world without the church getting involved. There is also truly little love being showed from people that are commanded to love EVERYONE, especially their ‘enemies’.
Here’s another thing - it is definitely not helping that condemnation of homo marriage comes from churches with a significant number of their male members having their own issues with porn. Jesus was not lying when he told us to deal with the log in our own eye before dealing with the speck in the eye of our brother. Matthew 5:28 sets a pretty high bar and most men fall short.
Personally, I avoid wasting my time hanging out with a bunch of hypocrites or those that ignore passages in God’s Word, so I cannot blame the youth for leaving churches.
“Here’s another thing - it is definitely not helping that condemnation of homo marriage comes from churches with a significant number of their male members having their own issues with porn. Jesus was not lying when he told us to deal with the log in our own eye before dealing with the speck in the eye of our brother. Matthew 5:28 sets a pretty high bar and most men fall short.”
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I agree; things like porn and adultery, not to mention high divorce rate, make “Christians” feel they cannot afford to judge, or it is safer not to judge ....
“Personally, I avoid wasting my time hanging out with a bunch of hypocrites or those that ignore passages in God’s Word,”
So you choose to ignore the passage in God’s Word which instructs us to worship with others?
Church’s are made up of people and as you stated, people are not perfect. I agree that people don’t treat gays all that well. However, that is pretty much true of anyone who sets themselves apart from society in any way.
BTW, loving someone does not mean approving their behavior or allowing them to do things which place other people at a higher risk.
It is important we have a Biblical understanding of love, NOT a worldly understanding.
The only ones that truly loved me were the ones that took the time to correct me and set me on the right path. It didn't look like love at the time but it was the HIGHEST expression of it.
There is a big element of truth in the word love and it offends the world greatly.
—Many churches have done a really bad job of defining Christ’s central message “I love you enough to die for you and nothing you do or can do will stop me loving you.”—
I confess that since I moved to a dry county in Kentucky and go to a baptist church I have some challenges there. I’m a student of prohibition and what a travesty it was. Its impact is still being felt all over the country. In fact, where I live, it gave rise to the Cornbread Mafia. Look it up.
So my pastor, whom I know fairly well now, speaks of the sale of liquor as though Jesus himself condemned it and it is proof of how the country is falling away. Meanwhile, what he doesn’t know is that I’m joining in our town to make the town wet. I need to share that with him.
But this homosexual thing needs to be treated like all sins. I often will tell homosexuals that I treat HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR like any other sexual sin. i.e. it is a SIN and nothing to be proud of. And homosexual marriage is an oxymoron. Literally.