We must redefine how we talk about identity, love, homophobia and equality. Such words have been redefined and other concepts have been imported into them.
- Identity: Our desires do not define us. We are more than our desires. In fact we are created in God's image and find out identity ultimately in him. Freedom from slavery to sinful desires is what we were created for.
- Love: To love is to want what is best for people, to help them with their biggest needs. To be saved from judgement is peoples biggest need. To love them is to warn them and urge them from this.
- Homophobia: As Christians we must not be afraid of Homosexuals. That being said this is not what people mean generally
- Gay: There is no scientific evidence that people are born gay. This does not become peoples identity. yes some are same sex tempted but they are more than this, and can live without letting these desires rule them.
- Equality: Without the basis fo men and women being created equal in the image of GOd there is not equality. You can be different and be equal.
As Christians we must model such qualities. We must be a friend of sinners and have a heart for peoples souls. For this is what Jesus is on about
Christians are called to love homosexuals
Jesus spent time with tax collectors & prostitutes, was hated by many, and eventually ended up giving his life in love to save such people therefore we must love homosexuals.
What does constitute an act of love is befriending the homosexual while withholding approval of homosexual behavior, working in the true interests of the homosexual despite one's personal repugnance for same-sex intercourse, pursuing in love the homosexual while bearing the abuse that will inevitably come with opposing homosexual practice. It is the harder road to travel. It is too hard for many people to live within that holy tension. Yet it is the road that leads to life and true reconciliation; it is the calling of the church in the world.
Not accepting homosexual practice is not hateful.
God saves People from their destructive sinful lifestyles because He loves them. It would be unloving for Him to leave His people in them and accept them as they are. John Piper explains how the character of God and His savings purposes should be reflected in His people:
“Therefore, it would contradict love and contradict the gospel of Jesus to approve homosexual practice, whether by silence, or by endorsing so-called same-sex marriage.... Hate does not want people to be saved. Hate does not want people to join the family. Hate wants to destroy. And sin does destroy. If homosexual practice (and greed and idolatry and reviling and drunkenness) leads to exclusion from the kingdom of God — as the word of God says it does — then love warns. Love pleads. Love comes alongside and does all it can to help a person live — forever.” (Sermon: Let marriage be held in honour by all”, 2012)
Scripture has always been the bedrock of truth, and it alone must guide the church
During the reformation where the protestants broke away from the Roman Catholic church, Martin Luther, when asked to recant spoke these words:
"Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Holy Scriptures or by evident reason [I will not recant]...I consider myself convicted by the testimony of Holy Scripture, which is my basis; my conscience is captive to the Word of God. Thus I cannot and will not recant, because acting against one's conscience is neither safe nor sound. God help me. Amen."
In 2003 Matthew Perris wrote an article against the ordination of gay bishops published in the Times Magazine, as a homosexual atheist his words His with surprising truth:
"“Inclusive”, ”moderate”, or “sensible” Christianity is inching its way up a philosophical cul-de-sac. The Church stands for revealed truth and divine inspiration or it stands for nothing. Belief grounded in everyday experience alone is not belief. Like the changes to Church teaching on divorce or Sunday observance, the new tolerance gains its force within the Anglican Communion from a fear of becoming isolated from changing public morals. Is that a reason for a Christian to modify his own morality? I cannot recall that Moses took this view of golden calf worship. Whispering beneath the modernisers’ soft aspirational language of love and tolerance, I hear an insistent “When in Rome, we must do as the Romans do. Time has changed.” Gays in particular should be very wary of that message; some of us remember when it was used against us, and such a time may come again. A religion needs a compass. Logic alone does not point the way and religion adds to the general stock of human reasonableness a new directional needle- if it adds anything at all. I cannot read the Gospels in any way other than as declaring that this was revealed to man by God through Jesus. Revelation, therefore, not logic, must lie at the core of the Church’s message. You cannot pick and choose from revealed truth. The path to which the compass points may be a stony one, but this should not matter to a believer. The teachings of the early Church looked unattractive to the Romans. Revelation pointed the way, and only Revelation can point the way now.”
Christians cannot afford to compromise on this issue.
If we allow different views and practices on this issue to exist in the church, we are essentially admitting that both views are right. But that is all same sex advocates want- at least until they attain majority control, and then the conservative view is not allowed.
The plea that we should allow different views and practices to exist in the church is essentially a plea to stop saying that the liberal revisionist view is wrong and contrary to Scripture. But if we are convinced that its wrong and that it is contrary to Scripture, then we cannot support any policy that says we should allow both views and practices to exist in church and just get along with our differences.
This issue involves a specific rejection of the authority of Scripture and effects how our church functions. Either the bible endorses homosexual practice or it does not. You cannot have it both ways. If a few practicing homosexuals can be declared to be Christian or become ministers then this action would establish the validity of practicing homosexuals being Christians and being able to become ministers. The pattern is that liberals first gain acceptance for their view and then promote it by requiring all candidates for ordination to agree that they would participate in the ordination of homosexuals and force out the conservatives who still differ with them.
When people say we should “Stop fighting,” it implies that conservative Christians are doing something wrong when we criticize same sex marriage advocates. But people who promote false doctrine will always say, “Let’s stop fighting about this topic,” because they want to stop the criticism. (Wayne Grudem, Evangelical Feminism and biblical Truth, 2004)
Christians have a responsibility to vote for the common good
Deciding what actions will be made legal or illegal through civil law is a moral activity aiming at the public good and informed by the worldview of each participant. Christians believe it is immoral to to steal therefore we seek to pass laws against stealing. Laws exist to preserve and enhance the public good. Which means that all laws are based on some conception of what is good for us. Which means that all legislation and all voting is a moral activity.
It is based on choices about what is good for the public. And those choices are always informed by a world view. And in that worldview — whether conscious or not — there are views of ultimate reality that determine what a person thinks the public good is. Which means that all legislation is the legislation of morality. Someone’s view of what is good — what is moral — wins the minds of the majority and carries the day.
The recognition of so-called same-sex marriage would be a clear social statement that motherhood or fatherhood or both are negligible in the public good of raising children. Two men adopting children cannot provide motherhood. And two women adopting children cannot provide fatherhood. But God ordained from the beginning that children grow up with a mother and a father, and said, “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus 20:12). Pretending that it can exist between people of the same sex will send ripple effects of dysfunction and destruction in every direction, most of which are now unforeseen.
Marriage is the most fundamental institution among humans. It’s origin is in the mind of God, and its beginning was at the beginning of the creation of humankind. It’s connections with all other parts of society are innumerable. (John Piper, Sermon: Let marriage be held in honour by all”, 2012)
Conclusion
We take a stand because legitimizing homosexual marriage:
- destroy the very fabric of heterosexual marriages
- sets a precedent that paves the way for the legitimization of polygamy, incest and paedophilia
- we are legalizing an upbringing that deprives children of the role models of fatherhood and motherhood that every child needs
- It undermines the authority of scripture
- Homosexual practice like all unrepentant sin prevents people from entering the kingdom of heaven and experience eternal joy with God
- We make it almost impossible to ever return to the goodness of marriage as an institution and a foundation that have benefitted almost every culture for the past 6 thousand years.
- It is unloving as it makes it harder for those who live a homosexual lifestyle to accept it as wrong and desire change
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