Tags
assurance of pardon, confession, forgiveness of sin, homosexuality, repentance, sexuality, theology
Much of what passes as “Christian love” irks me…and worse yet, most of it is stuff I’ve done. From telling people ambiguous statements like, “Gay is a choice” to “Jesus is the answer,” the American evangelical church has made some colossal blunders in the past 70 years.
But the guys over at One Minute Apologist have done a video with renowned Christian apologist, Dr. Michael Brown, asking the question this post centers around: should the Church ask for forgiveness from gays? (Spoiler alert: the answer Dr. Brown gives is yes.
As the Church, we should apologize AND call to repentance…and do both in truth and love. We all know it does no good to call someone to repentance if they perceive we’ve sinned against them. So let’s admit our personal and corporate sins in the area of gay ministry. We don’t lose anything in the war on sin by telling the truth and being repentant. We might even gain some respect in the process.
Is our theology of the cross big enough to cover our sins, Church? Or do we need to find our own coverings–covering over our sins ourselves–in order to save face? What we do with this issue will show exactly how big our Jesus is…not in fuzzy inclusiveness, but in forgiveness of real sin.
Gay and Evangelical 
I just found this blog and I find it very interesting and have been reading through it. I’m a straight guy, so I can’t say that I relate to your struggles, but I do admire you nonetheless. I work in the music field (music composition, MM), so I’ve been in contact with a lot of gay individuals and have made very good friends with them, but I’ve always had the hardest time figuring out a way to witness to them. I always try to let them know that I don’t find want they are doing any worse than the sins I commit in my own life, and I try to ensure them that I won’t judge them, but I still think I never get any closer to leading them to Christ than they were before.
I’m really trying to change my perspective in the way I think about gay individuals. I am trying to figure out a way to stand up for their rights, stand up for them when they are bullied, etc without compromising my Biblical beliefs about them, but most of the time I can’t figure out how Jesus would have dealt with this in his day (as it really isn’t addressed).
Maybe you could give me some better insight on dealing with this?
God Bless.
Hey, Morgri! Glad you stopped by and commented. One post which seems to have been beneficial to some asking that question is here. Another which may help with how the church should respond to singleness and homosexuality is here. Check out the Pepperdine discussion with Justin Lee and Ron Belgau as well. I wouldn’t necessarily couch the entire discussion the way either of them do, but Ron is a friend and our beliefs overlap quite a bit.
Finally, check out Wesley Hill’s book, Washed and Waiting, probably the all-around best book I’ve read on the subject, which doubles as a biography of his own experience of being attracted to the same gender.
I’ll email you when my finals are over. It’s the busiest 2 weeks of the semester and I’ve got a bunch of things to accomplish before tomorrow morning.
Thanks so much for the reply! This is a subject I’ve really been thinking about for the past few months and I feel that, being in a field were there are many in the gay community, God can really use me to reach these guys. Good luck with finals (I can fully relate to you on that experience!), and I really look forward to hearing from you n the future.
Keep up the great work, my brother!