Hello from America to my Chinese friends! My name is John Shore (or, in Chinese, 蕭約翰). I am 54 years of age. I reside in the large city of San Diego, in the state of California. I am a heterosexual. I have been married to my beautiful wife for thirty-one years. This is me:
I am a Christian. I believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of all mankind. I believe that, because of the divine sacrifice of Jesus Christ, I will one day stand blameless before God. I have no concern for changing people who are not Christian into Christians. I think religion and ideas about God are a private matter for each person to decide for themselves. But I am glad that I am a Christian.
I have a friend in Taiwan who writes the Chinese-language blog Love Has No Boundaries. She is a lesbian. She told me that many Chinese people who are gay believe that being gay is a sin. She asked me to write this to you. She will translate it into Chinese and then publish it on her blog. (She did it! It is here.) She will also publish it on a new blog that she will soon launch on Chinese servers. We are hopeful this will allow us to reach as many Chinese gay people as possible.
I do not believe that being gay is a sin. I believe that it is okay with God if Christian people are homosexual. I believe that God smiles upon good gay relationships the same way He smiles upon good heterosexual relationships. God made some people gay, some people straight, and some people in between the two. All are equal in His loving eyes.
There is nothing wrong with being gay. It is natural, the same way it is natural to be straight. Being gay is not a sin.
Millions of Christians in America agree that being gay is not a sin. And every day more and more Christians in America and around the world are deciding the same thing. It is really amazing how fast the traditional Christian opinion of homosexuality is changing.
If you are gay and Christian, I and my many American Christian friends send our love to you. And we want to share with you the truth that we know, which is that in the eyes of God you are not unworthy. You are all right being gay. God loves you the same as He does any heterosexual person. Maybe he loves you even more, because He knows how often gay people have to suffer due to the many wrong and hurtful things people say about homosexuality in His name.
On my blog I have written a lot of posts about why and how it is okay with God if Christians are gay. My Taiwanese friend has translated two of those posts into Chinese. Her translation of my post The Best Case for the Bible Not Condemning Homosexuality is 聖經並未譴責同性戀的最佳例證. Her translation of my post Wings on a Pig is （硬把罪加在同性戀身上）就像豬身上的翅膀.
I am grateful to you for reading this. God bless you.
Your friend in America,
John Shore
(蕭約翰)
The illustration at the top of this article is “The Risen Lord,” painted by the incomparable Chinese Christian artist He Qi.
P.S. If you write a blog that is not in English, I encourage you to translate this post into your language (making, of course, the appropriate changes) and post it on your blog. If you do that, please send me the link. Thank you.
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