At this time, I am a Christian in the upward calling of Jesus Christ for a homosexual. Celibate for twenty-five years, I have been secretly fighting these forbidden desires in my heart. My struggle has been intense and painful and dark.

I feel trapped between a rock and a hard place. On one side are unrepentant homosexuals warring against those who have come into the Light. On the other side, Christians are angry at a “life-style choice” and fearful of contamination of the church and their country.

The root of homosexuality, indeed the root of all sin, is abandoning the glory of God revealed for the darkness of rebellion and idolatry. In the end, all sin is love of self rather than love for God and other people.

You will never know the struggles to openly confess my sin to other Christians. Twice previously I have confessed to pastors and elders; but, the responses have not been a balance of God’s holiness and grace. Unfortunately, many Christians have adopted the modern language—secular and political—of homosexual orientation and life style choice. And, I fear much of the evangelical church in America can no longer address sins which do so easily beset us.

A safe church will never compromise the purity and holiness and righteousness of God; and, would also never fail to compromise, nor fail to proclaim, the grace and forgiveness of God through Jesus Christ our Savior.

In all of us who battle with sin, we need the church. We need teachers to help me understand Scripture, intercessors to pray for us, and preachers to point us toward Jesus. We need Christian men and women to remind us of God’s grace and blessings, to help use recognize foolish decisions, and to remind us everything God said is true in Jesus Christ our Lord.

Richard

And I myself have gotten out quite a bit and seen the world (this Eastern Kentucky guy’s gotten a pretty good education, thank you very much) and will say that many evangelicals hate gay people because they think they’re gross. Not all evangelicals are so ugly and inarticulate, and many are, and they seem to make the most noise.

Those of us on the “traditionalist” side of the debate on sexual ethics have to be really careful talking about it, because what people have been trained to hear is that we hate them.

And as far as I can tell from Romans 1 and my limited knowledge of ancient civilizations, this sin has been around just as long as adultery as been around. It has been around at least since 1400 BC, because it is in the Law. It was around (in its presesnt form) in New Testament times because Paul uses two words to describe it, one for the dominant male member of the relationship, and one for the submissive member. Wherever the knowledge of God is resisted, it creeps in. It has been around in Europe* and America longer than we have “emphasized” it, it has just become aggressive lately since we teach kids from a young age “express yourself” and “be true to yourself” and that if anybody disrespects you, yell as loud as you can to get your rights.

*1890’s England, 1920’s Weimar Republic Germany, many medieval English and French kings, the Anglo-Saxons, many Pirates in the 16th-18th centuries, the Greeks, the Romans, the Macedonians

I agree with your position on personal treatment Michael, and I believe that Jesus personally would act the same. But it is not that easy (and I know you know this, I am not assuming you don’t). We have denominational conflict at administrative levels about “inclusion”. The main reason evangelicals are caught in the headlights over this issue is because the fight is not over whether or not we will have lunch with a practicing homosexual, it is whether or not we will sit under the preaching of the said person. And if we will not sit under that preaching, we are said to be bigots. Church outreach and lunch policy will not solve that issue. I’m sure Jesus would eat with many people whom He would not appoint as an elder. And there are many who are disgusted at their own heterosexual lust and are dying to part with it, just as there are many who seek Christ to be free from homosexuality and struggle with it. And there are those who love their sin and think its really not that bad….but we don’t preach as hard against comfortable “lusters” like we do the other camp. Many of accepted “lusters” occupy a pulpit and saturate our minds with “bad food” but there is no battle over “their” entry into the fold because its fine with us…I don’t mind being in a locker room with a “similar” sinner…and that should change.

JFred….maybe you should ask Jesus what to do when you are treated like that.

And I’ve been in PCUSA presbytery meetings, and in sessions with angry GAY parents. You don’t know me, sir.

Michael — Because you live in a very provincial part of America where Christianity is dominated by fundamentalism, I wonder if you aren’t guilty of having a skewed perception of the gay debate in the church and the culture in general?

As much as I appreciate your views on the hypocrisy and self-righteousness in some evangelical quarters, I’m afraid that you’re now becoming even more self-righteous when it comes to beating this drum.

Let’s face it, you aren’t going to see many gay weddings in Eastern Kentucky and you probably don’t have to worry about your child being indoctrinated in the public schools to accept the gay “lifestyle.” But you’re simply naive if you don’t think it’s happening throughout this country.

I suggest to you that the PCUSA church where you ministered for so long did not give you an accurate picture of what is happening in that denomination. Nearly three years ago, when delegates came to Richmond for the general assembly, a loud, large group of gay activists (all PCUSA members of course) greeted attendees in drag, beating drums and chanting slogans.

Just before the General Assembly, I served as the committe chair on our pastor nominating committee. Not one of the candidates we interviewed from the top seminaries in the PCUSA would say that they thought homosexuality was a sin.

So, is it any wonder that the denominational gathering is hijacked by radical gay activists, who finally succeeded last summer in paving the way for gay ordination.

Michael, this is not a fight WE picked. Evangelicals did not just wake up one day and say, “lets go out and condemn homosexuals.” They want to be affirmed in their sin, and at least in the PCUSA, they have been. They brought the fight to us. I can tell you’ve never had to confront militant gay activism or been called a fascists for daring to challenge them.

I ask you, is this something we should not be concerned about? What am I to tell my five year old son when the local PCUSA church celebrates the wedding of Joe and Tom?

Tim Hardaway’s comments are in no way reflective of the evangelicals I know. The hate mongers you cite do not speak for the majority of us.

Perhaps you would benefit from getting out of Eastern Kentucky more often.

Jesus sat down and dined with Tax collectors… and yet preached against greed. He dined with prostitutes… and preached against adultery.

Le Batard was critical of his remarks, labelling them as bigoted. Hardaway responded with, “Well, you know, I hate people who commit adultery. I let it be known I don’t like adulterous people. I don’t like to be around adulterers. It shouldn’t be in the world, in the United States, I don’t like it.”

>non-celibate, homosexual Christians who believe that God gave them their sexual orientation

As you know, I do not accept this as a viable option. That others do is their life, not mine, and they stand before God for their choice.

I want it to be clear that I do not believe one can read scripture and endorse the position of sex outside of marriage for any reason whatsoever.