So many people have so many perspectives...

I don't think I have experienced so many emotions as a result of internet browsing in quite a long time. The recent Supreme Court decision to legally recognize gay marriage in all 50 states has produced the largest mixture of reactions that you could imagine. And unfortunately, a lot of it has gotten ugly, especially on the internet.

You have people saying what they feel, what they think, what they think they should think, and stuff that they don't even really know much about. It's like people have no filter when it comes to what they say online, in posts, in comments, and in direct messages even! And in the midst of all the proverbial dust that is getting kicked up, somehow we have begun to see so many different types of people saying all sorts of different things to other people "in Jesus name." And as I look through all these comments, it is obvious that Jesus couldn't have said all of those things, and most likely wouldn't say most of it. At least not the Jesus I read about in the Bible. And as a result of these kind of people, Jesus is made to sound a lot like a judgmental, cold-hearted, hateful person who pushes others away when he doesn't like them. And who is going to listen to or follow someone like that?

So I was super happy when my wife began to write down her thoughts on this complex issue. And with her permission, I would love for you to soak up her God-inspired wisdom.

                                                            

Since when has our culture come to a point where you have to be perfect to be accepted in a church? If this is the case then, somewhere along the line, we have interpreted the Bible incorrectly. We have not gotten past the Old Testament to see the good news in the New Testament. Mark 2:15-17 recounts the dialogue Jesus had with the Jewish religious leaders. All they said was “How could he stand it, to eat with such scum?” (The Living Bible). Jesus replied by saying, “Sick people need the doctor, not the healthy ones.” But yet the Christian culture has been acting a whole lot like the religious leaders who condemned “such scum.”

I was raised in a Baptist church and background. I don’t have anything against Baptists except the fact that I feel like they taught me to condemn the sinner and not the sin. I still cringe when I hear that somebody is gay or has gotten a divorce. But what I have been learning is that Jesus would never do that. He would love them first. Brant always says that all we ever do is to get people to change their behavior before they ever know Jesus, and they die without Jesus, all we have done is sent them to Hell better behaved than before. We must focus on showing them the love of Jesus before we ever try to change their behavior.

I have also learned that a denomination should not define you. We are followers of Christ. No matter what church you come from, we should all work towards the same goal and that’s to bring lost souls to Christ with love. I can see that our culture is changing a lot but I also see the church changing. Christians are starting to realize that we need to end our bad reputation of hurting people and instead love people for who they are.

Now to understand love you need to know God. Did you realize that if there were no God, there would be no understanding of love? “God is love” is what we hear but for some reason I didn’t ever take it seriously. Real love is not the conditional kind – “If you do this for me then I will love you.” Real love is the sacrificial kind where no matter if they take it or ignore it, you still love them. Maybe all of the divorces and all the hurt in our world are because people don’t know what love really means.

I want to encourage you to take one step as a Christian and love somebody without knowing his or her background. That should mean that we treat everybody the same no matter what. And maybe…just maybe that will change how people view Christians, and in turn bring people to Christ.

PLEASE READ THIS ENTIRE ARTICLE BEFORE MAKING ANY JUDGMENTS.

Yesterday, my beloved Chicago Fire took on the Red Bulls of New York in Major League Soccer. To my delight, they won their fourth game of the season (in contrast to their 13 ties...). If you want, you can catch the highlights here. However, to my disappointment, that night at Toyota Park was the 3rd Annual LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender) Pride Night. And the motto that Pride Night was pushing was "Love Is Louder," or more specifically, "Love Is Louder Than Homophobia"... (Translation: "It is unloving to openly disagree with a lifestyle that is proud to be homosexual." Obviously, I have some issues with this slogan.)

It was one of those games that I am glad that I watched on TV instead of going to the stadium. It would be hard to believe the Bible, claim to follow the God of the Bible, and give my cheers to open and public sin. What I see in the Bible is that God's design for marriage is: one man and one woman for life. According to Romans 1:24-27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9, there is no question about whether or not God approves of homosexuality. He doesn't. And neither do I.

But (and this is a VERY BIG BUT), while homosexuality is clearly a sin, so is porn, divorce, and polygamy. In fact, these are all the same kind of sin: they are all distortions of God's beautiful design for marriage. Porn is just as much a distortion of God's beautiful design for marriage as living a lesbian lifestyle is; while a lesbian distorts it in a homosexual way, a porn-addict distorts it in a heterosexual way. With this in mind, I would avoid an LGBT Pride Night at Toyota Park just as much as I would a Porn Pride or Divorce Pride or Polygamy Pride night. This is not because I hate people who have committed such sins, and not because I think I am better (because I am the first to say that I am not), but because I cannot support open celebrations of clearly defined sin.

Let's stop for a moment.

This is what I NOT saying: I hate gay people, OR God hates gay people, OR it is wrong to openly accept gay people, OR I will never show love to a gay person, OR divorce is always avoidable. I am not saying that at all.

This is what I AM saying: an open celebration of any kind of sin is wrong, AND I will not openly support homosexuality, or porn, or divorce, or polygamy, AND though it is sometimes unavoidable, divorce is still a distortion of God's design for marriage.

Are you catching the distinction? Good.

The reason that I had such issues with Pride Night at Toyota Park was that I do not believe that it was the correct or helpful way to love people who are hurting (Yes, hurting. Remember that every choice is a result of previous circumstances.), or who are proud of their sins. They do not need encouragement to keep doing what they are doing, they need encouragement to run to Jesus. But unfortunately, Jesus is the last place they think to run because so often they are not loved by the church. In the church, we are so good at knowing who is wrong and who is right, but so bad at loving people regardless.

No, we shouldn't openly support the LGBT agenda, but yes, we should individually love each person who claims to be gay. Why? Because everybody struggles with sin. As Dr. Christopher Yuan, a former homosexual, so elegantly put it, "The opposite of homosexuality is not heterosexuality; the opposite of homosexuality is purity." And purity is something that even heterosexual people struggle with.

I long for the day when a gay person feels just as welcome to come into the walls of a church a divorced person does. I long for the day when the church will show individualized and intentional love to a gay person just as much as they will to a porn-addict.

I end with this challenge from John 8:1-11. When a woman caught in sin of a sexual nature was brought before Jesus, he responded to all the fierce accusations and pleas for her stoning with one line that will ring through the ages: "He who is without sin among you, cast the first stone." Then he said to her, when no one stood up to condemn her anymore, "Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." It is this same challenge that I challenge you to ponder. Whoever is reading this who has never lusted after a woman or man, has never been divorced, has never been given over to gluttony, or has never been consumed with their own image can be the first to judge a gay person. But if no one stands up, we must accept the truth that our love for people who claim to be gay will always be louder than our theology, robust as it may be.

Love will always be louder than our theology because you cannot argue with the fact that Jesus died for you while you were still a sinner (Romans 5:8) and that Jesus will be happier with more people in heaven than how many people were correct about some points of theological minutia.