For those of you who missed it, I was a guest on Michaelangelo Signorile's radio show this afternoon. I found Mr. Signorile intolerant of my views and unwilling to allow healthy conversation and debate. Like many pro-gay talk shows the agenda was more important than the guest. Below are some of the points that Mr. Signorile brought up that I didn't have time to affirm or comment on:
1). That the Christian community has made out homosexuality to be an issue and a sin that is worse than other issues or sins.
The word that comes to mind is hypocritical. For many years the Church has been hypocritical when it comes to condemning one sin and overlooking another. Homosexuality conjures up more anger and offense in some people than other sins do and that ought not be. Homosexuality is but one of many sexual sins running rampant in our world (and Church) today. God does not favor one sin over another nor would He have kept Jesus from dying for our sins if there hadn't ever been a homosexual. Jesus would have had to die anyway. It is true, there is sin in the Church and it needs to be addressed.
2). Exodus founders fell in love, left Exodus and are still together.
Two men who were apart of the original Exodus conference, one as a volunteer and the other as a true founder of what would become Exodus did meet, have an affair and leave their wives. They were together until one of them died of AIDS in the 1980's.
3). Exodus' forces it's opinion on people and that is hateful and causing people to kill themselves.
I was one of those gay teens who contemplated and attempted suicide on a number of occasions. I wanted to die after I was told that I had to be gay and that there was no alternative. Having no choices made me want to die. I wanted to change.
I hear people tell me all the time that I shouldn't be so hateful by saying that homosexuality is a sin. Well, then that means that I should not quote the Bible when it references such. And, if I shouldn't quote that part of the Bible then I shouldn't quote any of the Bible. Follow it to their logical conclusion and there is no basis for the Bible or Christianity or even God.
Truth hurts. No child wants to be told that they are in the wrong or that the shouldn't do something because it is wrong. There are many people who kill themselves because they just don't believe they can do whatever it is they think they should do (ie: lose weight, stop drinking or doing drugs, make good grades, etc.) But, does that mean that we should stop talking about the risks of obesity or alcoholism or drug addiction or that we should let our kids fail out of school? NO. We must always promote the highest standard and do so in the most truthful and loving ways.
Conclusion
Many homosexual people are bitter, angry and intolerant of Christians because they have been hurt, sometimes devastated, by them. More than ever before we, the Church, need to be quick to apologize for areas where we have fallen short, while standing firm on the word of God.
As I said above, truth hurts. Homosexuality is a sin and that truth needs to be told---but homosexuality does not deserve more condemnation than other sins. Most of all, we as Christians need to be promoting what God is for more than what He is against. If we spend all of our time talking about what is bad then what is good gets lost.
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