Do Evangelical Churches pick on the Homosexual Lifestyle?

To those who read my blog. Thank you. I promise I will eventually finish my last blog which asked the question of whether or not your "personal relationship with God is destroying your spiritual vitality?" I'm going to need your help over the next few weeks. I'm currently taking a class at Biblical Theological Seminary. One assignment is for me to write a blog post that speaks about a controversial issue. The syllabus says that "The blog entry should frame an issue responsibly, winsomely and yet provocatively enough to encourage readership and engagement. This assignment is designed to assess how well the student is able to frame controversial issues in a way that is both responsible and encourages further conversation and dialogue." Well you all know my incredible propensity for 'winsomeness' so this will be a true exercise for me. Here's where you come in. The blogs need to be around 1000 words. That's a bit long for a blog but that's the assignment. If you are so led, please write any comments that you have on the website instead of sending them to me directly, so that my professor can see that there are people actually reading these posts. There are 23 of you that are subscribers and receive the posts right to you r email. If you have a friend who may be interested in what I've written please forward it on to them because we want to get as much discussion going as possible. Now, what controversial subject can we talk about????

Do Evangelical churches pick on the homosexual lifestyle?
Have you ever noticed how often homosexuality comes up in conversations that Christians have? Maybe you've noticed it coming up a lot in sermons or Bible Studies that you've been listening to. Do you find it coming up more often than the Bible mentions it or more often than the other sins that God lists alongside homosexuality in 1 Corinthians 6? What do you hear more about homosexuality, adultery, thievery, greediness, drunkenness, or swindling? Well all of our experiences are different and I can't speak to what you experience but I can say that because of the young Christians that I hang around with there are probably more conversations concerning homosexuality than many of the others that I've listed. But I'll also say that I've had many conversations with young people concerning drunkenness. I've also had a lot of conversation with young people concerning the validity of swindling (to obtain fraudulently) music or movies off of the internet without paying for them.

There may be some churches who have been entirely unfair and decidedly unwelcoming to people who describe themselves as homosexuals. There may be individuals or groups of Christians that have a lot of fear concerning interaction with gays. But it is important to remember that this is not an issue that is solely present in the church. I've had many conversations with non-Christians who would be perfectly open to having gays as co-workers but shiver at the thought that their son or daughter would describe themselves as a homosexual. In other words,' it's perfectly okay for it to take place theoretically but the idea of having to interact with it on a day to day basis scares me to death.' All of this, when it manifests itself in the life of the church is fear driven rather than Scripture driven.

It may be, however, that homosexuality comes up more often in Christian contexts because out of all of the sins listed in 1 Corinthians 6 it is the one sin that (by my guess) is no longer considered sinful in mass American culture. Would a majority of people in America believe that drunkenness is bad? It's not just people in AA, most people believe it's bad. Would a majority of people believe that adultery is bad? Some might call it risky but almost no one would call it good. But if you asked a group of American's about homosexuality, we seem to have been programmed to say that it might not be to our liking or to our preference but could we call it wrong or sinful? I don't think we're willing to go there.

Christ was so confident in the character of His Father that no interaction, with those perceived as unclean, bothered Him. He knew what it meant to understand and do the will of His Father. He was not confused as to whether or not the woman at the well (John 4) had a major sin issue but His understanding of her sin did not cause Him to fear her or distance Himself from her. At the same time, He didn't allow the call to relate to her keep Him from talking to her about her need for a Savior that manifested itself in a sinful lifestyle. Her sin did not cause Him to fear her but to draw near to her. I'm absolutely convinced that a whole life of homosexuality activity is on consistent with faith in Christ. When Christ comes into a life he will begin to eradicated heterosexual and homosexual sin. 1 Corinthians 6 says that the believers in Corinth, before their conversion were living sinful lives of many types but God saved and sanctified them. But that belief should not keep me from ministering to people that have real sexual struggles.

Will future generations of Christians cave on the sin issue of homosexuality? Many Christian groups already have. Is it really that important? Why is it important? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
-Mark Evans