Ten Things I’ve Learned About Gay People in Ten Years PART FOUR CONCLUSION

THE CHALLENGE  (A decade ago), I considered myself well-educated and strong in Bible knowledge and understanding.  I thought it was sufficient to let others tell me what to believe about gay people and what the Bible says about them.  That all changed in one relationship making my place of uninformed comfort no longer reasonable.

I intentionally inserted a time line to show the decade it took to come to these ten insights.  On every one of these points, I either did not care or believed the contrary position.  Please, take what I offer and challenge yourself.  The wrong thing to do is nothing and sadly, the majority of Christians are comfortable right there, doing nothing.  I understand that.  I was silent and lazy.  Come on, we know that is not the Jesus-model; the Jesus model is filled with verbs: love, go, heal, make, do, serve.

While the majority of Christians ignore the issue of faith and orientation, the minority of Christians passionately sends a message of hate or one that demands change.  While the majority of Christians ignore the issue of faith and orientation, most of the eighteen million gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in the US walk away from the possibility of a God-connection, feeling excluded because the loud minority is telling them they are excluded.

Maybe you are at step one and you do not have gay friends and honestly do not know if sexual orientation is innate.  If that is the case, then purposefully engage in relationship with gay people.  Start with coffee if dinner is too intimidating.  Just be humans together, find commonality, break down some walls.

The next step might be visiting an affirming congregation.  If that scares you, “visit” one online.  (There are some suggestions at the end.)  If your child is gay or lesbian, reach out to others for answers at a local PFLAG, come to the annual Gay Christian Network Conference with your son or daughter, or go to the forums online and engage other Christian parents.

Intentionally spend some time with a Bible and concordance and read, in context and original language, the sections of the Bible that refer to same sex activities.  Most of you have probably never done this.

While you navigate the authenticity and implications of these insights with your faith and life:

•                   Being gay is not a choice
•                   There are gay Christians
•                   Gay couples do enter into long term,           committed, monogamous relationships
•                   Every word translated as “homosexual” in the Bible is in an extreme circumstance
•                   The church is not offering a model of being gay and Christian and leading a virtuous life
•                   Asking people to deny their natural sexual orientations is destructive
•                   Bisexual people are attracted to both sexes in varying degrees
•                   There is no radical gay agenda
•                   The loss of gay believers to the church has been tragic

This last point needs to be held in the forefront of every step:

                   The loudest message the gay community hears from Christians is one of intolerance and hatred.

Is this the message in you ? "God loves you. I love you."

Then say it with passion until you drown out the hatred and intolerance.  This is the life-changing message that all of us, including the gay community, need to hear: God loves you. I love you.

I encourage you to be uncomfortable and to challenge yourselves out of passivity.  For God’s sake and the sake of His people, please care, please.

Start with a step.  Start with a whisper.