I saw a disturbing Phoenix news story on TV last week. It started off saying that two groups of people were picketing against each other, “one was a message of love” [cut to images of scantly clad gay people holding up signs], “and one a message of hate” [cut to a bunch of redneck Baptist screamers holding signs that say things like “God hates you” and “We hate fags” and “God hates America”].

The news crew interviewed some of the picketers and one of the Baptist picketers said something like, “We don’t actually intend to change anyone’s minds here today. We’re not trying to influence anybody. We just want to express how strongly we feel, how much we hate fags.”

At this point I want to reach the conclusion that these people surely can’t be real. Surely they are actors, trying to make us “normal” people who have an opinion that homosexuality is indeed a sin look really bad. I just cannot understand what chain of thinking or influence would lead people to be so blatantly harmful to mankind. It’s really hard for me to see http://www.godhatesfags.com/ as anything different from http://www.landoverbaptist.org/ – an ugly satire site that makes fun of Christianity.

But then I realize that as clear it is to me that homosexuals have managed to convince themselves that their behavior patterns are natural, and their empathizers simply don’t want to be “preached at”, the same is clearly true of these haters. They, too, have managed to carry themselves into a chain of thinking and behavior that has led them to a life of sin and travesty.

Here’s where I stand with this whole thing. I am a believing Christian. I believe that God created us, and that He doesn’t make mistakes. I also believe that, setting nature in motion, some things that should not be, are, and that doesn’t make them right or God wrong, it simply makes life hard sometimes. Some children are born retarded, or aren’t born at all. Sometimes God’s creation harms or destroys other creation—people murder people, for example.

God is responsible. His name is YHWH, which in ancient Hebrew means “I Am”, which simply means that all things exist within him and through him. God created everything, both light and darkness, and all blessing and disaster exist through him. It’s not that He is the propagator of evil; it is that evil exists within His existence. Ultimately it’s all under His control. We just get impatient and want him to attack evil now rather than in His own time. We blame God when disasters strike when the fact is that He feels our pain and has long-term plans, rather than short-term plans, in mind for all of us.

God is love. Among Christians, the message should be clear. Love itself is of God, and everyone who loves loves God and knows God. He who doesn’t love, doesn’t know God, because God is love.

God hates some things. The same Bible that says that God is love also says that God hates some things. God loves us, but that means that He also hates the things that harm us.  Such things are synonymous with the simple word evil. In fact the Bible explicitly states, “You who love I Am, hate evil.” What are the things that He hates because they harm us? Prov 6:17-19…

1. (Rom 1:22) A proud look (the behavior of people who disdain everyone and everything), as that causes harm to people and to one’s relationship with God. Constantly being spiteful of everybody because everyone’s a hypocrite (etc) is one of the worst places a Christian can be. I’ve lived like this before. It’s actually not particularly fun.
2. (Heb 6:18) Chronic lying; if none of us were reliable to tell the truth we couldn’t communicate with each other at all and that would cause harm to all of our relationships with each other and with God.
3. (Gen 9:6) Murder (the shedding of innocent blood – not to be confused with capital punishment or wartime fighting whereby those who die are not innocent). Obviously murder doesn’t exactly help our relationships or society.
4. A heart that devises wicked imaginations. Sitting around imaging and particularly planning on doing things that are clearly wrong, such behavior is hated by God.
5. A constant tendency to engage in mischief. The chronic thief / cheater / liar, who runs around acting like there are no consequences for anything. Clearly, that brings harm to people.
6. Lying about other people. The worst of this is in falsely saying someone else did some serious wrongdoing. People have been given life sentences in prison because of false testimonies. Clearly, that brings harm to people.
7. A divisive “spirit” or attitude. Constantly complaining or gossiping about those who are close to you or who are close to those who are close to you. Self-check .. I’ve played this out, too. This doesn’t help society; generally, it wreaks havoc in the flows of relations and of society.

These things said, I still believe homosexuality falls under #4 and #5. I do believe that God hates homosexuality, and so should we. But I also believe that God loves homosexuals, and so should we.

What does this mean? It means that we continue to say homosexuality is a state of mind, not a gender or a race. It means that when homosexuals want to be among us for everyday activities, we do not treat them harshly or bitterly. But it also means that we stand firm on the biological reality of the illogical (if obviously sensual) foolishness that homosexuality is. It means that we respect people for having an opposing opinion and their right to have it, even if we do not and cannot respect their opinion itself.

And on that last point, let’s consider such facts. People regularly ask, “What if there was a gene that scientists uncovered that proved that homosexuality is a trait they were born with?” Then at that point I’d see it the same as Down’s syndrome. While it’s okay to be compassionate, it doesn’t change the fact that an adult child who has Down’s who goes around doing evil things must still be placed under control or else treated as a wrongdoer.

And if I may be frank? When you take two men, what are you going to do with them, without causing physical harm to each other? Like God, I hate any behavior that causes harm to people, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have sincere compassion for those who have fooled themselves into thinking that it’s somehow “natural”. For that matter, I have similar compassion and sadness for the murderer who has forgotten the sanctity of human life.

But, frankly, there are other things to worry about than this. If two consenting adults want to cause harm to each other because they each have passionate feelings for each other, while I don’t think it’s right for them, I do think it’s their right to do it if they so choose. And I think that God will judge them however He sees fit; it’s not for us to judge. However, I think that when homosexuals attempt to be involved in Christian circles, it’s okay for them to make friends, to attend, to learn, and even for them to be allowed to sing and to pray, because these are the activities that bring them closer to the spirit of God who teaches them explicitly that a homosexual lifestyle is not natural and it is actually quite ugly in God’s eyes. However, I also believe that they are automatically disqualified from leadership in Christian circles. And I believe that the same is true for any chronic sin. It’s not that they are not worthy, it’s that chronic sin shows a lack of surrender to the spirit of God.