I've argued the same thing in various threads and have always been attacked for saying what you're saying. If the right people find this thread, you'll be accused of buying into the gay lifestyle merely by using the word "gay" instead of "pervert." Not only that, but your religious faith will be called into question because accepting a struggling gay somehow means that you are accepting their lifestyle.
I was involved peripherally in the music industry when I was younger (I played keyboards in a band) and got to know a lot of gays. Almost all were miserable in their lifestyle and every single one who opened up to me had either been molested as a child or had a real or perceived lack of emotional or physical relationship with their father when they were growing up. I've heard some very, very sad stories.
Every church should be reaching out to gays and should especially be reaching out to those with AIDs. Not only that, we should help them with their struggle and not require them to become perfect before letting them into the church. Almost everyone has struggled with some besetting sin yet, for some reason, many churches will help people struggling with any sin except for the sin of homosexuality. People will rush in to help anyone struggling with alcohol, drug addiction, past abortions, marital infidelity, or pornography. Yet those same people will run from someone struggling with homosexuality.
It's important, though, that the church be very clear where it stands. I had the misfortune for about a year to attend a United Methodist church that, in defiance of its Book of Discipline, bent over backwards in affirming gays and their lifestyle.
They had a "strategic" planning session and announced they were "not going to be ministering to the needs of traditional families." One of the angry lesbians was pressuring for changes actually to the liturgy to "include" GBLT "expression."
The female pastor (the male pastor was a closeted gay man married to a lesbian) did get hauled up for a trial by the church leadership over a book she wrote claiming that God is a female, and she lost, but she was able to continue in ministry and whine about it from the pulpit.
It took me awhile to uncover what lay beneath the surface of the public hypocrisies. We left; but what a tragedy for the long-time families who had given their lives and treasure in membership there. And what a disgrace to the memory of John and Susannah Wesley.
Those with homosexual desires do belong in church, but only if they are there repentant and desiring change; and the church community needs to be supportive yet firm in their commitment to Biblical truth.
Amen. I think I would flee any church which did not actively “seek and save the lost.” Unfortunately, many churches are just social clubs these days.