A tactic of many who oppose homosexual relationships is a twisted little sleight of hand where they enjoy their politically correct standing so as not to "offend" what is clearly an increasingly normative position in the prevailing culture. It is a sort of transference from their objection, condemnation, and judgment rendered that homosexuality is sinful, wrong, and worthy of hell or at least the destruction of society as we know it (or think we know). How it works is to say something like this:
I love homosexuals and welcome them into the church and have no problem with them in our society. However, marriage and sexuality is solely between a man and a woman and I stand by that.
This is a strange notion of love. I love you, but I reject the relationships that you desire. If you are heterosexual think for a second what this means. Would you in your right mind step into any organization that did not recognize the relationship you have with the person who is closest to your self as any human has ever been? Would you respect an organization that rejects the one to whom you have bonded yourself as "one flesh"? If the organization rejects your relationship, they are also rejecting you and your partner. So how then is this rejection…"love"? This is not an addiction, it is a relationship. The difference there is so obvious it's frankly stupid to debate.
The answer is that this is a conditional love. It is a love that can only be received if one meets certain social obligations in the ways that they conduct their self; in this case in terms of their relationality. Rather than bring up the debate of whether Jesus' love through his death and resurrection was unconditional or not (it must be conditional if you answer the question "yeah, but" which is a "no"), let's focus on people.
I have rather strong views on "what to do" with homosexuals. My answer is and always will be to love them as we do straight people, praise them for their successes and the beautiful children they raise, invite them without thought of sexuality into our communities, vote them into positions of political and economic power, let them marry, let them preach the Word of God to which they have been called by only God, etc. Most of all to stop calling homosexuals and trans-sexuals a "them." To hand over society to people regardless of sexual preference.
I am also a libertarian and I think that people who do not agree with homosexuality should be free to be hateful and express those views for the same freedom that should allow people to openly express their love for their partners and yes, have sex with them (gay people have sex and even orgasm!), is the same freedom that allows people to exercise their own prohibitions. I respect churches and religious people who cannot by their good conscience accept homosexuality within their social networks. I have a deeper respect for those with whom I can have a deep disagreement out the issue, but yet we can still understand that there is a struggle and a tension between love and purity. What counts is honesty and transparency in belief and the willingness to grow. That does not mean you have to capitualte to "my" understanding, but that one has the sense and awareness that they are incomplete and thus, so is their received understanding of God's revelation.
What I cannot tolerate is the "welcome but not affirm" attitude or Christians who say they "love" homosexuals and then behave with actions that are the polar opposite of love. On the one hand I understand that some with this disposition are working out a struggle and finding harmony between the idea of holiness in the abstract and the actions toward others that require acceptance. It is a tension. Admitting the struggle is fine. The problem is that saying that you love and then reject as you love looks very strange and frankly does not make sense (cue the alcoholism assertion which assumes that all homosexuals are destroying their lives which bears no evidence significantly different from minority heterosexual relationships – skip it). If you truly reject the relationship, the welcome you offer is a very shallow one to a homosexual couple. Stronger language would suggest that the "welcome" is a lie.
Cue the clip below which illustrates the case in point. In a clear act of transference and denial, the Sr. Pastor who clearly believes that homosexuality is demonic, also says that she apparently does not have a problem with homosexuality. It is not homosexuality, but the demon that incites that kind of behavior and thus the demon that is the source of rejection. She is lying or at least greatly misunderstands how her actions are indicative of her beliefs which are far from any notion of having no problem with homosexuals. Rather than say that she condemns homosexuality, she spins her wheels, goes for the politically correct, and pisses on homosexuals while telling us that it's raining. It's the lying I can't tolerate. Note how as she is pressed harder, she gets more frustrated. If she was honest to admit that she cannot really tolerate homosexuality, then let the court of public opinion render judgment, she might have peace. In the end all we get is absurdity and spiritual abuse as witnessed by the video.
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