I received an e-mail from someone that has my hair on fire this morning. An excerpt for your understanding: “Please pray for our Supreme Court justices. Being gay is wrong and they’re bound for hell, but as Christians we should not want our society here on earth to be littered with sin.”
“As Christians…” That gets thrown around a little too much these days. It’s usually used as a preface of something we should actively we do as God’s people, but too often I’ve seen it used as a preface to a permission to hate or judge someone else. He went on to quote plenty of scripture in defense of his argument, so I decided to quote some back to him.
As Christians, we are told to keep our treasures (hopes, expectations, pride) in Heaven and not on Earth, because “where our treasures (again, things like hopes, expectations, and pride) are, there our hearts will be also.” (Matthew 6:19-21) If you’re against the right for same-sex couples to marry because you don’t want your experience at the bar to be uncomfortable or your office kitchen to be awkward, your treasures and priorities seem to be on earth.
As Christians, the greatest command we are given is to love. To single out someone based on their life choices, to belittle them in the public eye, or to publicly demean a group of people behind the anonymous safety of text on a screen is not love. Love creates time, space, and understanding. If you are not creating those things for the person you’re dating, you’re not loving them. In the same way, if you’re choosing to be a public hater of someone’s life choices…I wouldn’t call that love. (John 13:34)
As Christians, we “have all fallen short.” (Romans 3:23) What does this mean? We have all fallen short. We have all done bad things. We have all sinned. We have all done the exact opposite of what God would have us to do. Yes, that means you. And you. And you, too.
As Christians, we unfortunately live in a world that suggests certain sins are worse than others. Before you become so quick to criticize someone for ‘a lifestyle choice’, just think about all of the things you could be criticized for. What’s that one thing you hope no one ever finds out about? The one thing that would wash away your sandcastle? My sins are no better than yours. Your sins are no better than a murderer on death row…or the gay man at the bar. Before you go throwing stones at someone’s glass house, take a look through the windows. Let the one without sin throw the first rock. (John 8:7)
You’re an alcoholic, but “Gays at the bar bother me.” You’re a terrible father, but “Gays aren’t real parents.” You cheat on your wife, but “Gays shouldn’t be allowed to get married.”
STAHHHHHHHHHPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.
Freedom is the backbone of this country. I’m free to be Christian, you’re free to be an atheist. I’m free to like girls, and girls are free to do the same. I can have whatever job someone will give me and make as much money as they’re willing to pay me. The same value of freedom that the LGBT community is crying out to have in full is the SAME thing that ALLOWS you to live your life AS YOU CHOOSE. You can’t just choose when it applies. It can’t work that way.
Criticizing someone else for a sin they commit just because it doesn’t apply to you speaks more about you than it does them. Homosexuality has become an easy thing to pick on among Christian circles because it doesn’t apply to most of us. But we’re all different. We may be different, but we’re called to love everyone. Not just the people who like Ed Sheeran music. Not just the people who have never been divorced. Not just white people.
And not just straight people.
Nathan Hancock 