By Mason Bennett · Contributing Writer
There is an epidemic of people who call themselves Christians while simultaneously supporting the LGBTQ lifestyle. Scripture clearly condemns homosexuality. Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:26-28 and 1 Timothy 1:8-11 explicitly forbid same-sex relations. It’s not up for debate. Anyone who claims that Scripture approves of homosexuality is willfully ignorant.
In her article, “Friendliness should not be conditional,” Madelyn Braho suggests that Christians should be “friendly” to all people. There is some truth to this claim. As Christians, we have a duty to extend kindness, graciousness and love to everyone. Scripture teaches us that all people are made in the image of God and are therefore entitled to some level of respect, regardless of how their sin has degraded that image. Later in her article, Braho claims that this friendliness and love is worth nothing if it is not extended to “our brothers and sisters in Christ who are queer.”
At first, I was perplexed by her claim. After all, “queer Christians” do not exist. Queerness and Christianity are fundamentally incompatible.
There are certainly Christians who struggle with homosexual desires. There are certainly Christians who have a homosexual past of which they have repented. But when people claim to be queer, they are celebrating their sin and taking pride in their homosexual desires, actions, identity and lifestyle.
This celebration of sin is fundamentally at odds with Christianity.
A relationship with God does not require perfection, but it does require repentance. When Jesus offered the adulteress forgiveness, he told her to “Go, and sin no more.” He didn’t tell her to celebrate her sin. He certainly didn’t tell her to make it her identity. Instead, Jesus commanded her to leave her sin behind and to pursue life in Him.
Repentance is a necessary condition for a relationship with Christ. Anyone who celebrates, takes pride in or identifies with their sin has not repented of it and therefore cannot be a true follower of Christ.
There are plenty of Christians who struggle with homosexual desires, have repented of them and have a genuine relationship with Christ. But no one who glorifies, affirms and continues to participate in a homosexual lifestyle can honestly claim to be a true follower of Christ.
Even more alarming is Braho’s claim that our tolerance towards people should not be conditional on their trying to “erase part of themselves.” As Christians, we should never tolerate or accept sin. Jesus certainly didn’t. Christ commands us to cut off the sinful parts of ourselves.
Matthew 18:9 states, “And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire.”
As Christians we must encourage members of the LGBTQ community to erase the sinful parts of their identity and lifestyle. In order to genuinely love someone, we must desire the good for them. The greatest good for all people is union with God. But it is impossible to be in union with God while knowingly participating in and affirming a sinful lifestyle.
Therefore, in order to love the LGBTQ community, we must not tolerate their sin (nor should they). In fact, tolerating their sin is the least loving thing we could do for them.
If we accept their sinful lifestyle and identity, we are implicitly encouraging them to live in a way that leads to eternal separation from God.
Instead, if we truly love them, we must urge them to repent from their sin and turn towards Christ.
