Christian Inclusiveness
I think Mark Roberts may have the most consistently interesting, understandable, and well thought-out blogs that I’ve come across. You may notice that I reference his posts fairly frequently. He is a Presbyterian pastor who has been commenting on the recent controversy within the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. over the inclusion of gay bishops. In today’s post, he references an old post from October 5, 2004 in which he discussed Christian inclusiveness and homosexuals in general.
We often hear how Jesus preached a gospel of acceptance, love, and inclusiveness. We are urged to stop being so judgmental and hateful and accept homosexuals as they are. His post is very helpful in clarifying the true Christian perspective in these areas. I quote his concluding points:
1. Whenever the Bible speaks positively about human sexuality, as it often does, this is always in the context of male-female sexuality. Clearly, God created sex as something to be shared between a man and a woman, and in this context it can be a very good thing.
2. Whenever the Bible speaks directly about same-sex practice of any kind, it always shows such practice to be wrong. One cannot point to a clearly “pro-homosexual†biblical text without reading between the lines so much that you can’t even make out what the original lines actually said.
3. There is no compelling argument from Scripture for the rightness of homosexual activity. At best there is a very spurious argument from silence, an argument which, by the way could also be used to defend sex between an adult and a child, or between a brother and a sister, etc. (Jesus explicitly didn’t condemn sex in these contexts either, as far as we can tell from the gospels.)
4. Homosexual activity is sinful, no matter what the context. Yes, even in a loving and committed relationship between people of the same sex, sexual activity is morally wrong. This fact doesn’t deny other good aspects of the relationship. It simply means that two people of the same sex should not engage in sexual intimacy together.
5. Christians are called to love all people, including those who engage in homosexual behavior. The behavior of many Christians towards homosexuals (unhelpfully called homophobia by gay advocates) often falls far short of the biblical ideal, or flatly contradicts it. This is truly tragic and just as sinful as homosexual behavior.
6. Yet just because many Christians have been unloving towards gay and lesbian persons, this does not mean that we should now love them by affirming their sexual behavior. From a biblical point of view, love never means saying that sin is okay. When a Christian brother or sister engages in sexual immorality of any kind – gay or straight – that person needs to hear God’s call to sexual holiness, as well as God’s offer of forgiveness and restoration. Love means telling this person the truth, even if it is difficult to say and to hear.