A response to "I Don't Care If Homosexuality is a 'Sin'"
This article feels well intentioned, but I have some fundamental issues with it. It starts off well, but falls off the rails pretty quickly for me.
Sin is indeed a rebellion against God.
The Bible does say in Romans, "for all have fallen short of the glory of God."
The Old Testament is full of examples of people who fell short of God.
God did introduce many rules to show that people can never measure up to God's standards.
I think it's true that some sin's do have more serious consequences than others.
And it's true, as sin born human beings, none of us will ever be good enough, yet God does love us.
Where his thoughts start to break down, for me, is here, "But let’s imagine for a minute that I am wrong. That homosexuality is in fact a bigger ‘no no’ than anything else. That God does care more. The truth is that it is still none of our business. People can lead their lives in anyway they like."
He goes on to say, "...stop judging others when you are just as bad or even worse. [...] where does any Christian get off criticising anybody’s life? Can any christian or indeed any person call themselves good enough to judge another?"
This is an incorrect assumption of what Christianity should look like.
We are called over and over again to look after one another.
"And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near." - Hebrews 10:24-25
"Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." - Proverbs 27:17
"Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." - Colossians 3:16
To admonish is to warn or reprimand someone firmly.
So if we're supposed to let people lead their lives in anyway they like, I wonder how does he justify that we're supposed to adomonish each other? There are verses, like in Romans 6:15, that specify, "Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!"
Christians are supposed to tell each other when they sin. Christians are supposed to be involved in each others lives to a point to where when you are knowingly, or unknowingly, choosing to rebel against God you are free to tell each other that they're wrong. They should gladly accept those comments and you should be able to discuss about ways to rectify that situation.
The picture that is painted in this article is such a shallow look at what Christianity is. Countless books written in the New Testament were letters that were written to the church in different regions to bring to light things that they were doing right, and wrong. If we're supposed to ignore each other, and just love, and just let each other lead their lives in anyway they like, then we're going directly against the very things that we're told to do in the Bible.
Which brings me to an even bigger issue.
"Ultimately none of us have a clue what God thinks about homosexuality and we should stop pretending we do or trying to guess. Instead we should be doing what God told us to do and love one another."
So, if we take this as true, then how do we make any judgement calls about anything in Christianity? You can indeed argue over and over again about what different verses dealing with homosexuality mean, but you can't argue about the theme of the family that is strewn throughout the Bible.
Also, we do have a limited view about what God thinks. This is in the Bible. We have a good portion of Jesus' life here on earth chronicled, we have the beginning life of the early church, and we have numerous accounts of God and his interactions with the Jews in the Old Testament.
So to say, we have no clue what God thinks, that's just plain false. We can't sit down and have a conversation like I can with my wife, or a friend, but we have some fairly clear examples given in what is God's Word, breathed by Him.
So while this article is probably well intentioned to try and stem some of the angst on both sides, I don't think arguing falsely helps at all.
Sin is sin, we have all sinned. We are continually sinning. God loves us enough to offer us a way out. That way out is by trusting in Jesus as our Lord, and Savior. Which means that we are giving our lives to him, and we are trusting that His sacrifice is sufficient to pay the debts against God that sin has created in our lives.
But God is a disruptive God. He doesn't come into our lives, offer us salvation and then leave us alone. He doesn't look at our lives, and say, "Oh that's a sin, but you're covered, just live however you want." Jesus constantly told people he encountered that to follow Him they needed to change. I don't see that that has changed today. Maybe our sins include homosexuality, adultery, drunkenness, gossip, or other more nuanced sins that distance us from God. The bottom line is that that sin doesn't prevent you from being saved, but God does want you to strive for change with His help.
Ultimately the author is talking out of both sides of his mouth. Homosexuality is a sin, but we have no idea what God thinks. What?















