Nothing wrong with warning
"I think there is nothing wrong with telling people that they are in a bad place. If someone is about to get hit by a bus, you would push them out of the way, yell, shout, whatever you could. As a Christian believer the importance of heaven vs. hell is exponentially more important, and therefore requires action." Jeremiah Spoon
On the surface I agree with this. Who wouldn't? I mean it's just a warning, right?
Yet, it isn't ever just a warning. We know this because when we reject the warning in good faith with statistics, personal testimony, and expert opinions we are labeled liars, perverts, pedophiles, etc. In short, if we exert our right to disagree the person never stops the warning they just get louder.
Evidence of this is rampant in the media. Take the following question and answer with Maggie Gallagher, the founder of the anti-gay group National Organization for Marriage, talking about the fallout of the Supreme court's decision on DOMA:
"KATHRYN JEAN LOPEZ: Are last week’s rulings on marriage as monumental, with the staying power, of Roe v. Wade?
MAGGIE GALLAGHER: What you are really asking is: Will we concede the legitimacy of Kennedy’s fatwa against us, or will we respond with a sustained opposition — legal, political, cultural, and of the moral imagination?" - The ROE of MarriageThe Supreme court made a very clear and concise ruling that DOMA had caused real and sustained harm to same sex married couples. This it found was unconstitutional. Kennedy's "fatwa" (holy war) was in fact just that. A ruling.
So now, the people that just want to give a warning had made a law and when that law was found illegal and unjust they accuse the JUDGE of wrong doing and promise to keep fighting.
It's like a smoke detector that won't shut off even when you pull the batteries.
That in turn becomes harassment. Which is what we face now. Harassment.
There is nothing wrong with warning someone in danger but what if they say "I understand what you are saying but I think this is the right thing to do, you don't have to participate"?
1 Corinthians 10:23-24
23 “I have the right to do anything,” you say—but not everything is beneficial. “I have the right to do anything”—but not everything is constructive. 24 No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.
When LGBT people make their case at a personal level they can and usually do bring out scientific research and professional opinions that show the many ways that being out and open helps improve the outcomes for them.
When we are criticized for being LGBT that evidence is swept aside and ignored, our testimony is swept aside and we are called liars, and when we show that conversion therapy for the faithful is an abject failure we are told we just didn't pray enough or have enough conviction. In short we are told we were sinners because of who we are.
I don't know ONE LGBT Christian that hasn't wrestled with who they are before the world and before God. At some point we end up disagreeing we stand up one at a time all by ourselves before our friends, family, and churches and say "No, this is part of WHO I AM and God loves me and I love him".
What do those good Christians who just want to sound the alarms do then?
At that point I was told by the pastor of one church that I am worse than a murder because I was an unrepentant sinner. Just because I think God made me this way and that it was past time for me to be myself instead of trying to be something that I so clearly wasn't comfortable with.
If I wanted to be a active full participant in that church I was told effectively that I had to say something that I believed with every ounce of who I am to be false. I was in short told to lie. Instead, I left. I didn't leave God. I left that church because for me GOD was not in it. A mighty sad thought for the 2-3k members.
I think in that moment that church gravely sinned against me and it's not just me that faces this. Almost every LGBT person of faith faces this. It's a completely rational reaction to this to FLEE the faith and test EVERY tenant of it. Statisticly, we know by comparing the number of Christians at large to the number of LGBT people that identify as Christian that around 30% of the people who were planted are lost. The are lost because the soil became hostile. It dried up. Jesus talked about this.
What's even worse, we know that a good portion of non-LGBT non-Christians CITE how the church treats people with this ISSUE alone being a leading cause of their disillusionment. These are the people that look around and see what happened as wrong. That's dry useless soil.
If what people want is to throw out stumbling blocks....this is it. It's effective. It kills peoples relationship with God yet that is the OPPOSITE of what we are supposed to do.
Yet, many in the church will rationalize it...because someone hears that message and turns around in utter defeat and is welcomed back in is then lifted up as an example. This is the person that is the one that everyone goes to....because they "overcame" it.
Of course, they really didn't...or they probably really haven't....they just shoved that piece of themselves back in the closet. So then we get these "godly examples" that fall through the floor when someday their natural attractions and needs overtake their commitment to God. (Hey, it happens to widows and it happens to ex-gays)
Nearly every ex-gay leader ends up repenting of it eventually. Just look at Exodus. However, the repentance is long after they have done their stint and become twice the slave to it doing so much more damage than would have been done if they had just been honest.
I have news for those against LGBT people getting married. Gay people do get married all the time inside of straight heterosexual marriages and what happens is so often a travesty where one person ends up in pain suffering for who they are until they assert their identity at which point everyone else in the family gets to suffer too.
See I don't have a problem with LGBT people being themselves...who will they hurt? I have a problem with the fact that LGBT people feeling like they have to lie about who they are. I am WISE enough to see not just the damage to LGBT people but the collateral damage to those that are not.
It's not just a bad recipe for LGBT people....it's a bad recipe for EVERYONE.
This is why I fight. I don't need approval...I don't care if I am loved for myself. I care because I love others.
I oppose the view it is sinful. I cite the evidence. I offer testimony. I appeal to emotion and reason.
So what do we do at this impasse? Must there be a winner and a loser? Is it really losing to break bread in your church with someone you think is wrong?
I don't think so. I'm happy to break bread with any other sinners and worship God.
