I have the mouth of a sailor. ☮

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unkaglen:

About two or three times a week I get asked about how to respond when people bring up the subject of homosexuality, so I present to you, for your reblogging pleasure:

The complete Christian guide on how to respond to people on the subject of homosexuality without sounding like a big fat jerk:

1) Say the following loud and clear: “God loves homosexuals, and make no mistake, so do I”.

2) When people respond with, “yeah , but you think it’s a sin, and they’re all going to Hell”. You respond with the following: “I’m sorry that you’ve been misinformed as to what Christianity is. It is emphatically NOT a set of rules that must be obeyed in order to get into Heaven. 

I can see why that would be confusing, because there’s a bit of the Old Testament where we lived under a covenant with God that sounded pretty much like that, but we haven’t lived under that covenant for the last two thousand years or so since Jesus came along. It was a big deal, it made all the papers.”

Romans 7:6 says: “we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.” This means that Christians develop a relationship with God, and He leads them in a path of righteousness. Following Him, and leaving behind what we must, is righteousness, sin is everything else.

3) You should acknowledge that a certain small, confused, and bigoted group of people who are a vocal minority of those who claim to be Christian have violated the very heart of the faith, and have grieved the heart of God Himself by selecting homosexuals out for prejudicial mistreatment. Jesus did, during His earthly ministry, harshly rebuke some people. Not homosexuals, not the Romans, not the tax collectors, not even the Samaritans. 

These stinging rebukes were for the religious leaders who preached hate, intolerance, and blind rule following. He rebuked those who refused to show mercy, love, and a concern for the outcast.

4) Ministering to one another is not about condemning sin, it’s about exhorting people towards righteousness. A LOT of Christians get this wrong. A lot. Some people just love rebuking their sin and punishing themselves, and they love rebuking other people’s sin in the same way. 

The religious leaders of Jesus’s day liked rebuking sin as well, and they kept trying to get Jesus to join in. “Here is a woman caught in the act of adultery. Adultery is a sin. You can’t say it isn’t. You can’t ignore it. If you don’t rebuke it, that means you’re okay with it!” 

But Jesus just said, “he who is without sin cast the first stone”. Likewise, when people try to corner you into condemning a sin, it’s fine and good to say that it’s not your place to judge, but that you hope that everyone develops a personal and intimate relationship with the Lord, and that they let God tell them how to live their lives. Not weirdos who don’t understand the words: love, grace, or Good News.

5) Apologize. It’s not your fault, but say you’re sorry anyway. Someone should, and why not you? Build a bridge. Speak up and let it be known that Christianity is about love, and you’ve got love in your heart for anybody that’s being mistreated.

Speaking up also includes those times when Christians say ugly things behind the backs of homosexual people. You may not realize it, but probably any sizable roomful of people will include someone who was molested by someone of the same sex, and they wonder if that makes them gay, and if that means that God hates them. Speak up. Prejudice has no place in the church. 

Preach uncle, preach! ♥