My friend on Facebook recently posted the picture to the left on her FB page as her main photo. Being a Christian she received basically two hate messages because of her decision to support gay marriage. This broke my heart and compelled me to make a post on my blog about this topic.
I have so many gay friends and they are wonderful people that I love. I feel like I've come to a point in my life where I can honestly say that I support their choice to want to be married. Being a Christian it has always been hard to be 'okay' with the whole 'gay' topic. So many Christians are vehemently opposed to it and see it as sin. But nowhere in the Bible does it say anything about gay marriage or what stance we're supposed to take on it and I believe its because God knew He wanted to give us a choice on what to choose. You think that God's surprised that gay marriage is trying to be a social norm? Absolutely NOT! I can imagine it now. God's in heaven and says to Jesus, "Wow, I never saw that coming! Why don't we tell Christians to stand up for 'their rights' as our personal vindicators so that they can stop all of this sin thats happening that we Never knew was going to happen in the first place. Phew, good thing we have self-righteous Christians down on earth to defend our name! Otherwise we wouldn't be able to defend ourselves." Yeah. I somehow don't think thats how it went down.
The problem with all of this is how certain people are treating this topic. Christians don't realize when they take such a hard stance that really they are judging others which turns to anger and then to hate. The thing is we don't see people getting this mad at 'sins' like 'jealousy' or 'anger' or 'judging' or 'hatred' or 'pride' or 'gossip' -- Sin is sin, so why do people decide to put a level on it? Christians can somehow love people with those sins listed but when it comes to the 'gay sin' it's sooooo taboo.
On the internet there are pictures like these:
I the think one could substitute the words 'homosexuals' and 'gay marriage' for the words like 'haters' and "judgmental people" and honestly ANY sin that a person commits could be substituted. The sign would read, "Haters, judgmental people, jealous people, angry people, envious people, prideful people, fearful people...etc...are possessed by demons and deserve to be hanged." Sounds awesome doesn't it? Sounds WRONG doesn't it? Honestly, who would ever feel right putting someone else's sins or their own sins on a sign and persecuting themselves or other people for it? Oh wait...we don't do that, BUT it's okay to signpost the 'gay sin' and bash people because it's a sin that's WORSE than other the other sins people deal with. News flash everyone: God DOES NOT put a measure on sin because when He looks at us He sees us ALL the same -- SINNERS. We are all sinners and anyone would hate to have their sin put on a signpost so why do it? Oh yeah...because we're operating out of a 'right' to defend God and out of pride and fear. Awesome. NOT.
Is being gay really a sin? Does it say somewhere in the Bible, "thou shall not be gay"? If it does, please tell me because that would be news to me. And being an abomination as the 3rd picture depicts is something that God has judged and will deal with when He feels its right to deal with it. And HE is the ONLY one who has a RIGHT to deal with it -- NOT us. So why are Christians trying to be God when it comes to this topic? He never gave us the right to play God and judge people. So why are Christians doing this? Oh...that's right...pride and fear. God also NEVER said take these old laws and persecute people with them. Besides Leviticus is under the OLD covenant not the NEW covenant. I think people need to refresh their Bible knowledge and seek their real answers in the New Testament. Show me a verse in the NT that talks about the 'gay sin' and I'd love to talk it over with you. Not debate it, but rather discuss it.
We were never called to hate/judge people to Jesus so why do Christians pick something out like gay marriage and do the opposite of what the Bible says? I dont think I remember anywhere in the Bible where it EVEN says that being gay or lesbian is a sin. Oh sure I know what Romans says (and it does NOT say being gay is a sin) but what the Bible DOES say is that we're called to LOVE our neighbors as Jesus did and gays and lesbians ARE our neighbors. If Jesus went around with an opinion about every sin and vocalized it to everyone and gossiped about it (which is what people are doing about this topic via social media and in their homes, public and private places, and even in church congregations) He would have NEVER won anyone over or healed them or saved them. So I wish everyone would stop judging and start loving.
Either the Bible is Truth or it's false. It's funny how people pick and choose what "they want" to follow in the Bible and in doing so they are really just contradicting their belief system because they are only following what they want to believe and not ALL of the Bible and honestly it's what makes them hypocrites. And this is exactly what Jesus hated and detested. Sadly many Christians have become Pharisees and Saducees without even realizing it. We are so quick to cast the first stone or rather put up the signpost or post an opinion on social media instead of doing what Christ called us to do: Love the sinner. And hating/judging these types of Christians who are hating/judging people for their uniqueness or choice of lifestyle is just as bad. I know because the Holy Spirit convicted me for persecuting the haters and it taught me a valuable lesson--we can't hate/judge people to the TRUTH; we can only LOVE people to the truth. I was hating on haters that detested gay marriage and I realized that I was judging the haters and those who were judging. It was all a vicious cycle and it all comes down to misunderstanding. Christians don't understand gays and lesbians so they persecute them. Other Christians, gays, and lesbians persecute the Christians that persecute them. It's all just a big fucked up mess if you ask me.
Where does it say in the Bible to hate/judge those who choose to support gay marriage or to hate/judge those who choose NOT to support gay marriage? Oh thats right...it doesn't say that anywhere. Now what was that whole thing on love? Oh, Christ calls us to LOVE people exactly where they are. If you don't agree with gay marriage - don't vote for it. And if you do support it - vote for it! Plain and simple as that. But please STOP hating and STOP judging and STOP vocalizing your opinion of hate, judgment, or anger. It's honestly just hypocritical and not very Christ like at all. And that goes for both sides.
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| A friend off my FB posted the above picture on his "Do's" and "Don't's" regarding the topic of gay marriage |
The problem is that people think they have a RIGHT to stand up for Christ and 'their belief system' but that's exactly the WHOLE problem. Christ doesn't need anyone to stand up for Him; His TRUTH defends Himself and His LOVE wins people over. He NEVER asked us to defend Him anywhere in the Bible. He NEVER said to take up in His Name a cause like fighting and giving an angry judgmental opinion on gay marriage. So the problem isn't Jesus Christ; the problem is 'your belief system.' What is your belief system founded on? If it's the Bible, I encourage you to read it again. I encourage you to know what your fighting for and against. Because honestly you just MIGHT be fighting for 'your' belief system and not for Gods.
I don't know about you but I'm on Jesus' side. The side where He calls us to LOVE. The side where He says not to Judge. The side where He says not to hate. The side where He says hate in the heart is the same thing as murder. The side where He says love thy [gay] neighbor as thyself. The side where He says love conquers all.
One day you'll see...we're all on the same side - so why are you fighting so hard to be right? It sounds like a heart issue to me. People usually oppose an idea for one of two reasons: pride or fear. So my question is, which one are you? If its pride, or fear, or both -- there's lots of verses in the Bible for both those issues. God calls us to not operate out of pride or fear, so whats your excuse? Isn't it interesting that there's not really any verses or any at all on the topic of gays and lesbians but there are a ton of verses to help those who are persecuting others for their differences (pride and fear)? Hmmmm...God must have known this was all going to happen and that is exactly why He sent His only Son to die on the cross. So that ALL of us sinners who are sinning over this topic (on either side) would be forgiven so we could learn to understand each other, hopefully forgive each other, leave it up to our own personal decisions, and move on.
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| 2nd part to friends post |
Jesus Christ is big enough to defend Himself and all that He has called us to do is love one another. He has also called us to set the captives free, heal the sick, take care of the widows and orphans, raise the dead and to do more miracles than He even did. Now thats a whole other topic, but if all we do is sit here and debate, judge, give opinions, and hate on gays/lesbians or on the haters then how can we have time to do that other stuff? Yeah, you know...the stuff Christ actually called us to do. Come on people. Lets put our big girl and big boy pants on and start acting a little bit more mature. Because honestly...all this arguing and taking sides just reminds me of high school all over again. Lets grow up, be mature and STOP doing what the Bible tells us NOT to do and START doing the things we're called to do: set the captives free, heal the sick, take care of the widows and orphans, raise the dead, do more miracles than Jesus did and LOVE one another as Christ LOVED such a sinner as us.
I hope you'll join me in the cause to love gays/lesbians and any other person we don't understand including all the haters. When we stop concentrating on all the judgmental attitudes, anger, and hate we can actually START to heal our broken world.
