Justice and Respect Essays
God Loves Gays
by Dr. Gene Chase
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Justice and Respect Essays
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How the love of God for gays gives us a pattern
for how we are to love as well...
An enemy is not just someone against whom we hold enmity, but usually someone who regards us as an enemy. Jesus tell us to love those who don't love us back, to greet those who don't pay attention to us, to be perfect-in the same way as our Father God does for us, giving us the love we don't deserve, holding back the justice we do deserve (Matthew 5:43-48).
How do I love gays? I am gentle. "Gentle" is from gens meaning "family." I treat gays as I would my own family. If you have a gay family member, treat them like family. I spend a lot of time listening. I seek to be humble. I may in fact be wrong about my Scriptural interpretation! It's the Bible that's infallible, not my interpretation of it. There are some folks whose spiritual welfare God has entrusted to me--my family for sure, and the local church of which I am a member. Others I have the freedom to disagree with, without judgmentalism. St. Paul says don't judge[1] those outside the church (I Cor 5:11-13).
I am grace-full. Paul calls homosexuality "unnatural," but I'm encouraging you to do an unnatural[2] act--to be graceful. Gays want justice (equality, distributive justice); the radical right wants justice (penalty for sin, retributive justice). Who is going to offer grace? Paul says "speak the truth in love" (Eph 4:15). Jesus modeled that for us, being "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14).
I don't rant. That is, I don't lash out against gays. As Martin Marty reminds us, I Corinthians 6:9-10 says that ranters and men-bedders will not inherit the Kingdom. If we rant against gays, these verses put us in the company of the very ones we hate, and so we become like our emotional focus. The passages that I assigned for homework on Week 1 (Gen 19, Lev 18 & 20, Rom 1, I Cor 6:9-11, I Tim 1:10, Jude 7) are called the "clobber" passages by gays because of the way in which Christians have used them against gays. The most egregious example of this is The Rev. Fred Phelps (see his website). When I talk to gays, I try to share a comparable experience from my own life. Paul, who called himself the chief of sinners, said that we are to comfort others with the comfort that we have received (II Cor 1:4).
How can the Church at large love gays? Offer positive same-sex role modeling to help those who have been wounded in personal relationships. Who is willing to "reparent" those whose wounds have been in relating to family members? "God is a Father to the fatherless," sings King David (Psa 68:5). Value singleness. A church should not be so couple-oriented as to exclude folding singles into deep friendships. "God sets the solitary in families," David says in the next verse.
Don't major on minors. You will have to decide for yourself whether you think that homosexuality is a "salvation issue." But there are many other byways that can distract gays from hearing the Gospel. Gays stereotype conservative Christians as being anti-woman, ascetic, uptight, and legalistic. If possible, agree where you can on side issues. If the person is not a Christian, then everything is a side issue apart from one: What will you do with Jesus' offer of life?
Avoid offensive vocabulary as much as possible. Since what is offensive changes from time to time, you can't avoid all offense, but consider these red flags: "Gay lifestyle" (What is a heterosexual lifestyle like?). "Choice" ("No one in their right mind would have chosen this," say some. Others are proud that they have chosen. Don't presume you are talking with the latter.). "I love the sinner but I hate the sin" (Avoid this cliché. Avoid all clichés!). Gays take offense at blanket statements that do not respect their individual differences. Avoid overgeneralization. Gays [sometimes] make blanket statements that are contradicted by the research literature ("10% of the population are gay"; "75% of teen suicides are gay teens"). We should not. Not all gays are effeminate; not all gays reject God; not all gays are a threat to children.
Is there a place for a prophetic voice in the church today calling people away from homosexuality? Yes. But the venue for disagreement is the public square. Even there our words should be sweet. Bitter words reflect more on the speaker than on the topic. Jesus' harshest words are for religious leaders, not those who sin sexually.
At two web sites Christians are working on these issues. Bridges Across is moderated by Maggie Heineman of Philadelphia. Maggie is a new Christian, just a few months old in the Lord, and still a pro-gay activist. Email discussion lists at her site are entitled Faith, Journeys, Science, and Politics. The purpose of her site is to promote working together on projects that concern both gays and ex-gays, such as violence in school against teens thought to be gay. Justice and Respect is the project [originally conceived by] Steve Calverley of Toronto. Steve is an ex-gay with the Exodus ministry New Direction for Life, in Toronto. The purpose of [this] site is to encourage conservative Christians to reflect the love of Christ in dialoguing with gays.
Summary of Lessons. In Week 1 of this study we saw truth as biblical. What are the commands of God? In Week 2 we saw truth as personal. What is my testimony about God's power to do what He says? This week, Week 3, I want you to see truth as requiring a high commitment to action.
How do the saints in Revelation 12:11 overcome Satan? By all three of these aspects of truth. They appeal to the objective act of God in history, Jesus' crucifixion. They appeal to their own subjective experience, the word of their testimony. They are committed to love God more than their own lives, and so put truth to action. Here is one example. John Wesley was criticized by fellow Christians because Methodists took up the cause of a homosexual prisoner, but Wesley was willing to be misunderstood in order to do what was right. One of Wesley's biographers says, [T]here was much talk in Oxford of Wesley's lack of discretion in taking up so eagerly the cause of young Blair, as unpopular with his fellow prisoners as with the townsfolk, who was accused of homosexuality. "Mr Horn and I had rather a warm dispute about the Methodists taking the part of Blair who was found guilty of Sodomitical Practices and fined 20 marks by the Recorder," Thomas Wilson wrote in his diary. "Whether the man is innocent or no, they were not the proper judges; it was better he should suffer than such a scandal given on countenancing a man whom the whole town think guilty of such an enormous crime. Whatever good they [the Methodists] pretend, it was highly imprudent and has given the occasion of terrible reflections." [3]
Will you like Wesley, or like Jesus himself, be a "friend of sinners"? (Matt 11:19)
Copyright © 1998. Gene B. Chase. All rights reserved.Endnotes
"Judge" is the general word /krino/, not the more precise "discern" or "judge thoroughly," /anakrino/ or /diakrino/. Elsewhere we are called to discern, never to judge. [return]
credit for this observation Philip Yancey's fine new book, What's So Great About Grace? [return]
V. H. H. Green. John Wesley. London: Nelson, 1964. [return]
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"Reprinted" by permission on 01-03-2001. Last
updated 01-03-2001.