Dialogue On Homosexuality Part 1

I have been asked by several to re-post my conversations that I had with my friend almost a year ago on philshepherd.com which now is my professional site with my resume and speaking examples hangout. So, as requested I am re-posting my dialogues on homosexuality that I had with my good friend Dave who I grew up with in Alaska. I would like to remind everyone that I love Dave, but we have agreed to disagree on this topic and have gone on with our lives. So, without further a do he is the first part of my dialogue with Dave.

Phil –
First of all, I have a couple of people who I consider very good friends one of whom is a lesbian (she has a strong faith in Christ – she left her husband and children to be with this woman) and another whose 26ish year old son is gay, the father is a cop and loves and has accepted his son. My own fathers sister (aunt) is a lesbian. These are the closest people to me who are gay, additionally I worked at the HS as a cop and there were a couple of gay students that I developed a relationship with.

That is a bit of background, ps -I admire these people greatly – I think there are some incredible talents and gifts amongst them and I would invite them into my home, give them the shirt off my back any day!

That said, I believe they are living in sin. That is a tough statement for me because I have worked so closely with the gal and the “dad” in the second paragraph, but in some ways it’s no different than working with any other “Christian” because we all have sin in some capacity in our lives. The difference between loving the sinner and hating the sin applies here for me. I do not say that lightly because I am the worst of these.

I look at it as though I had a friend with a gambling problem or someone who was cheating on his spouse. I could still love the person but in good conscience I cannot look the other way and say “aw shucks” and just tell them they are a good guy/gal and leave it. Now THAT said, I have not called my coworker out with my crimson robe and said “You are a sinner doomed for the bowels of hades!” I just appreciate her and love her, when the topic comes up I let her know where I stand and why.

Here is my why. I don’t mean to talk down and there is no sarcasm in my heart, so please don’t take any of this poorly – type eliminates some expression… : I believe in God, I believe he made the earth and all in it and I believe that he gave us His word in the form of the scripture. I understand when others who don’t believe in the word decide to support gay marriage, etc. because without the bible why not? I personally could not care less who married, dated or slept with who. But the bible has several verses that deal with the subject of homosexuality specifically.

First in Gen 19:5 – Lot has the men of Sodom come to his house and ask to have sex with the men who have come into his home. He asks them to take his daughters and not do this “wicked” thing. Now maybe in this case he is referring to the nonconsensual nature of the sex rather than the homosexuality, but either way, it’s there.

Leviticus 18:22 – I paraphrase – Don’t lie with a man (to a man) that is “detestable.”

Lev. 20:13 – He uses the word detestable again and says they must be put to death. (I know – old covenant)

Romans 1:27 – Men committed indecent acts with other men and received due penalty for their “perversion.”

1 Corinthians 6:9-20 – …”homosexual offenders” will not inherit the kingdom of God. (the rest of the chapter talks about sexual immorality in general – how other sins are outside the body, etc.)

God dosen’t use sugar coated terms to describe homosexuality. “Detestable, perversion, offenders, etc.” So again, I don’t have a dog in this fight, I personally wouldn’t care, but apparently God does. I default to his call on that. I also am not going to take white out on my bible and tell God that even though he says don’t that Joe and Jack are just such incredible guys and maybe God just missed something on this one, because if he knew them as well as I did he would understand and “tolerate.”

My opinion, no scripture to back it up time, I believe that this issue will one day be a key issue that will help make the church begin to become an enemy of the state. Following a horrible sequence of attacks on homosexual people, I think that in the name of tolerance, Christians will be called on to renounce all or parts of the bible or face a hate crime status for preaching it. I am not in fear of this, the bible tells us persecution will come, it simply is what it is. I am not stocking up canned goods in the basement and buying property in the hills, I just see this issue as an impass down the road. (Part of the whole end times are a coming whenever they do thing)

Now I know that Olbermann as many others have passionately and articulately called for us to “do unto others” well I pray that I will. If I am “stepping on it” and messing up – I hope someone will call me on it. For those who don’t know the Lord, they aren’t going to understand my reasons for my views – so I need to love them as Jesus does and ask God for opportunities to speak with them all the while remembering that I am NO better than them. But there is only so much room we have left in this country to push God out of. It will be a dangerous place when we are a completely atheistic country.

I think that God is not tolerant. He is ALL loving, he will forgive anything, he is desperate for us ALL OF US to be in a close, personal relationship with him, but if we are in sin and unrepentant, he will not and cannot “tolerate” it. It is also not lost on me that when God promised to never destroy the earth again he used a rainbow as a symbol of his promise. How interesting, in my opinion, that Satan would have people who struggle with this particular sin, waive that symbol under God’s nose as a mocking reminder to him of “remember what you said!” God is smarter than I am and I don’t think he will be mocked. (BUT I know that he wants everyone of those people to come to him)

Lastly, wow – thanks for reading my essay! This last year has been a tremendous year of revelation for me. I have watched politics VERY closely since 92 when Clinton v Bush ran and it was the first time that I noticed this thing called bias in the media. Now I know that it is overstated sometimes, but I rest assured that if we wrestle not against flesh and blood but principalities, then those principalities want to be in control of what influences the way people think. The media is the king of that. Whether it be Ipods, movies, games, music, internet or news, if you control that, you control the way a generation thinks. If more people in the media say this is ok – than in one generations time it will be.
PS – you will NOT hurt my feelings if you disagree and think 180 degrees the other direction – I am abnormal in that agreeing to disagree is not a difficult thing for me- so let me have it if you think otherwise – I truly do covet your thoughts!

Much love,

Dave