"Does God Hate Homosexuals?"

I recently read a blog that caught my ear big time. I do not know the author but to get this you need to read what he wrote, exactly as it was blogged: “You have Christians today who protest and preach against homosexuality in such an offensive way. Holding up signs that read God Hates Fags! Does He? The word fag is abusive and offensive. It is hate speech. Turn off. So why do so many Christians use the word fag or faggot? Does God hate homosexuals? What did Jesus say on the subject of homosexuality? Do you think it is interesting that he never addresses the subject at all? Why didn't he talk about homosexuality during his ministry if he new the Church and his followers would be focusing or addressing the topic? What is the attitude that we should have as Christians towards homosexuals? Do Christians view gossip, lying, the same as homosexuality? Is there big sins and little sins? Or is sin, sin in the eyes of God? Can you be a homosexual and be a Christian? Are their people who struggle with greed, gossip, lying, lust, or other sins and who are Christian? What is the difference?Is there a difference? Are people born homosexual? Is it a choice? If people are born homosexual that what does that say about God? How should the church treat homosexuals? How does your church treat homosexuals?”

First off, can you read that without hearing a slant toward accepting homosexuality? The author is “leading the witness.” Asking questions in such a way as to make one feel bad, to make the church look bad. The sad thing is this is often effective. The dangerous thing is it could lead us to compromise what God has said because someone has made us feel like we are “mean and unloving.”   I fear that language like what I read above is causing some to lean into this sin.

Let’s answer a few of these lines:

• “You have Christians today who protest and preach against homosexuality in such an offensive way. Holding up signs that read God Hates Fags!” I am not sure where the concept of protesting comes from. And while I have never held a picket sign I also have at times tried to make my voice heard in opposition to sin.  My concern is that it appears that some Christians seem to believe that they will change this sinful old world through political might!  And that is not how it works.  Trying to accomplish in a political manner the Lord’s Work is backward.  God works from the inside.  Every where pure Christianity grows evil diminishes. The principles of Christianity destroy the practices of slavery, abortion, homosexuality, the mistreatment of women, etc. But the only sword that needs be drawn is the Sword of the Spirit.  Read the last verse of Romans 1. It provides a challenging balance.
• “...Holding up signs that read God Hates Fags! Does He?” No. He gave Himself so that this sin and others would not separate them from Him. Read Romans 5:6-9.  Don't take the purpose out of Jesus' coming to earth, he "came to seek and save that which was lost" (Luke 19:10).
• Listen up folks! Speaking against something does not in any way mean I hate the person who is practicing such sins. This is a false assumption. I am to love the homosexual.  The fact is sometimes speaking up actually means I love them! I know it may seem trite but if my grandson was playing in the middle of a busy street and I just let him and didn’t try to get him out at most any cost it would actually show I don’t love him!  I love the church but at times I mention things that need to be changed in the local setting.
• By the way I hate “that” word too. I don’t, haven’t and don’t intend to use hate speech against the person practicing any sin.  I would mention that the meaning of words and the context of them does change at times.  The word “gay” is a good example of that.
• “What did Jesus say on the subject of homosexuality? Do you think it is interesting that he never addresses the subject at all? Why didn't he talk about homosexuality during his ministry if he new the Church and his followers would be focusing or addressing the topic?” This stuff about Jesus not addressing homosexuality is a croc:
• First of all I’d suggest He did pretty directly in Matthew 19 “for this cause shall a man leave his mother and father and be joined to his wife.”
• This takes the populist concept that only the “words in red” have authority.  Of course some would like that but it belies Jesus’ own teaching that He would send the Spirit who would guide the disciples into all truth. If their words have no authority we have the promise of the church and that death for the church but no church. We have the death of Jesus but NO teaching of how to appropriate that death!  But if we chose to accept Him then we must chose to accept the apostles as well. The Bible could not be clearer: Romans 1:20b-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10 - homosexuality is condemned.
• But more to the point if we think we can never condemn anything Jesus didn’t directly condemn we can’t condemn the practice of sodomy and many other sins that are and have been practiced through the years.

• “Are their people who struggle with greed, gossip, lying, lust, or other sins and who are Christian? What is the difference?” Yes, there are people who struggle with greed, gossip, lying, lust, etc. The problem is not the struggle. The problem is how the struggle is struggled with!  To say “I’m just a gossip” and not try to conquer your tongue is sin just as to say you are a homosexual and not try to correct that lifestyle.  We are all sinners and ultimately it is not sin that will send us to hell but in not accepting Jesus and striving to live for Him as He instructs in the Word. We are all sinners. Some are redeemed and trying to live as He instructs.
• “Do Christians view gossip, lying, the same as homosexuality?” I doubt we do.  Maybe we should. But I have a harder time dealing with one who is practicing the sin of drunkenness because my brother-in-law was killed by a drunk driver.
• “Is there big sins and little sins? Or is sin, sin in the eyes of God?” This one is challenging in ways I cannot get my mind around but God does categorize some sins. Read Leviticus 18 and you will see that. Read Proverbs 6:16-19 and you will see it with other sins.  God calls this sin an abomination.  If the unrepented of sin of being a “false witness” will cause a person to be lost so will the unrepented of sin of homosexuality.  I don’t purport to know the mind of God (Romans 11:34) but maybe He “feels” so strongly about some sins because of what it does to those who practice that sin or to society or to His foundational institution the home.
• “If people are born homosexual that what does that say about God?” Well, that’s a popular argument but I’ll let you ask that one of God. Here’s the sad thing. Those promoting the homosexual agenda have so pushed a study or two they commissioned that it has become normal for people to say they were made this way. I’ll assume you are all adults reading this - don’t be stupid. All one has to do is look at the equipment God gave us to KNOW that males and females fit together and that males and males and females and females do not. The media accepts what it likes (truth is most folks do). So it’s latched on to these studies and ignored the overwhelming and latest studies that show this is a lifestyle, a decision, a practice not a genetic issue.  The “I was born that way” is an argument that easily manipulates our minds.  I mean if one was born that way. The sad thing is that some Christians would hate God so much that they think He would create someone to live in a way that they could not help and then send them to hell for living that way.  The truth is God made us with the right to choice. We can chose to live for Him or against Him.
• I can’t answer all of the questions asked, there were 20 of them if I counted correctly.  Which is also a ploy of the blogger. I can hear him now: “I didn’t say I accepted homosexuality, all I did was ask some questions.”  No, I can’t answer every question that can be brought about homosexuality but just because I can’t answer a question doesn’t mean that I am wrong. Just because there are some things I cannot know does not mean that I can’t know some things.

What I see...

I see a future (and present for some) when the church is afraid to address homosexuality because of legal, political or social pressures. I preached against the practice not to many years ago and an older brother said he wanted to get security to protect me that week.  What? This is akin to churches not practicing church discipline lest they be sued. We must do right for the sake of right regardless of earthly consequences. What is talked about in the morning paper is what we must address with the Ancient Paper.

I see a future where young people are going to be confused because of its acceptance in society, it being virtually shoved down our throats by the media and the church not saying anything.

I see a future where more and more will practice this sin.  Again, read Romans 1, homosexuality is progressive in it’s influence.  Face it young boys scared to death of young girls because they are different sometimes experiment with that which is known.  If they are then told that it is natural, which it is not, and pushed toward that which was only an experiment it will lead to a warped lifestyle.

I see a future where we must love the sinner who is practicing the sin we hate.  This is not easy from any side. I have to love the drunk, the murderer and the person practicing the sin that makes me sick.  If not I will never reach them and aid in rescuing them from satan (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).  We must never stop striving to love like God loves.