As a Christian, Am I wrong for Loving....?

Question

I've sat back and been disgusted by some "of my own kind." It is rediculous to think that as a Christian, I am better than any Atheist, Mormon, Agnostic, ect. I don't understand how some Christians can call themselves Christians, yet hate or discriminate against those living "in sin", as we'd like to call it. Christians are suppose to be "Christ-like", In my Bible Jesus loved the good along with the bad. When he told those w/o sin to cast the first stone, not even He (man w/o sin) threw a stone, why? B/c he loved, he had compassion. Why is it so hard for some Christians to accept gays, lesbians, fornicators, ect. Isn't their sin wieghed just the same as the sins we as humans deal w/ everyday. B/c ALL have sinned and fallen short. right? Rather than discriminate, wouldn't it be better to accept them and love them through it? I know that the sin is what we are suppose to hate the sin, but rather than focus on the sinful nature of a person, shouldn't we focus on the person?

I have never seen protestors against liars, or thiefs, or anything like these sins that all deal with daily...? So why do we protest and highlight the gays sin, of the fornicators? Isn't that only pushing them away from our Father that is there w/ open arms waiting to love them? But yet, we stand in the way, b/c they dont fit our "profile" of what a Child of God should be?

As a Christian, am I wrong to love and accept those who aren't the "norm profile" of what my beliefs say a good person is?

edit: I understand that being gay is a sin, but isn't lying a sin too? But i don't see people perscuting eachother for lying? Thats b/c all have lied and no-one wants their sin to be platered on a billboard! you know?

edit: true, to continue in sin is not acceptable, but some people who are gay do not understand what is wrong about it... Will they be punished for lack of understanding, I think not... we are in the dispensation of grace. It is when they know they are living wrong that they become accountable... IT is an issue that will be between them and God. I have no right to judge them. For I too am a sinner.

Answer 1

You are not wrong and I respect what you've said here.

atheist

"Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself."
--Harvey Fierstien

Answer 2

Jesus was confronted by the Pharisees and Saducees all the time but he never rose to the bait. They were always full of bitter bile against anyone who sinned. Jesus is different. We cannot judge, one sin is as great as the next. We cannot elevate ourself as believers because if it wasn't for the Grace of God and His calling on our lives we would still be living in darkness.

I have been through the pious stage and have learnt through experience that only use words when necessary. Jesus came to serve and showed His love in practical ways together with words at the appropriate time. As christians we should be living quiet lives because it is that which people see, faith and deeds together. We can only point the way and give a word (or seed) and God is the one that waters it. We cannot save or do anything on our own.

Answer 3

Ok, here's my two cents worth.

Firstly, all sins are NOT equal. The Bible clearly states that there are sins that lead to death and there are sins that do NOT lead to death. Murder is a sin. Telling a lie to protect a Jew from the Gestapo is not a sin. (1 John 5:16)

Secondly, the Bible clearly states that we are required to discriminate and to judge. (1 Corinthians 2:15) "But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one." Without these, how would one differentiate between good and evil? The catch however is that we must not judge from conceit but from righteousness. (John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.")

In answer to your question, Paul said "...not to keep company with sexually immoral people." (1 Corinthians 5:9) and Christians have no business judging those who are not of the faith, however, (1 Corinthians 5:12) If anyone calls himself a brother and yet preaches against what the Apostles had taught, they were to be cast out from the Church.

So I'm guessing that if a gay or lesbian were to come into a Church and openly state that they were gay and that it was OK by Jesus, then the Church would have to expel them. (Galatians 1:9 "As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.")

This is scripturally correct because the Church had to be protected from infiltrations (that we now see has clearly happened).

Er... maybe that was about ten cents worth.. [:o)

Answer 4

That is a conflict between some of the teachings of Christianity and the effect of the underlying theology. Yes, there are passages that encourage you to love one another (and others that do not - such as the admonition to hate your own family before becoming a disciple of Jesus). But the foundation of the religion is that there is only one right and true God, all others are false, and that those who do not follow the one path laid out by Jesus will be punished and not admitted to heaven. That is by its very nature a divisive teaching.
It is no wonder that believers often times end up judgmental and separatist. Islam has the same effect on many of its believers.

Answer 5

It's the carnal mind set. The carnal mind is what we get with the sin nature. When we are born again we get a new nature, but we still have the old one. We are told over and over again that the old man has to die, but we are seldom told how to do that. This is mainly because our teachers don't know themselves. They have learned from their cemetery schools instead of the spirit of God.

These are your carnal Christians, but you know, a carnal Christian will get mad if you call them carnal Christians. That's how you can tell who the carnal Christians are: Call everyone a carnal Christian and watch who gets mad. (tongue in cheek) I just call them baby Christians. That really makes them mad, especially if they have been a Christian for 30 years.

Their argument will be something like they need to be told that their sin is wrong. They already know that their sin is wrong. What they need is a savior.

You spoke of the woman taken in adultery. Jesus never told her that her sin was wrong. She already knew that. All he told her was to go and sin no more.

The people who Jesus got angry at were the accusers. Do you know that the devil is an accuser? If we accuse, we are doing the devil's work, and the only reason that we do it is to make ourselves better than the other person. We try to make ourselves look good by making the other person look bad, but all we do in that is to make Jesus look bad, because we are suppose to be representing him.

This thing about WWJD? I would rather go WDJD? What DID Jesus do? WWJD leaves us open to speculation, and is usually used by the person who is in the wrong.

Jhn 3:17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

EDIT

If more of us would follow the spirit instead of the flesh, people like Lynus and Thor coule be reached.

Answer 6

It may be wrong for many people. For the simple fact.
You sound a lot like Jesus.

As Christians; we need to repent from our sins. With the help of the Holy Spirit and a lot of time we start to repent and be conformed into the image of Jesus. Then a horrible side effect happens to many Christians. We demand that everyone conduct themselves as Christ followers forgetting that 1. They may not want to do that. 2. If they wanted to, it is impossible outside of the Holy Spirit's help. My last point is the big one. People also confuse their own fear with the leading of the Holy Spirit. Homophobia is the prime example. They get creepy feelings at the thought of gay people so they translate that as GOD telling them to exterminate all gays from the planet. It's really childish and deadly if you think about it. We can change that if we just make the truth of GOD's word and Jesus teachings known.

May the Lord richly bless you.

Answer 7

From looking at the answers other people wrote, the majority seem to agree with you. as for me, Im not here to get man's approval.So, bring on the thumb downs. Homosexuality will always be a sin in the sight of God, just like every other sin. That will never change. Its said in the scripture that God is angry at the wicked every single day. As long as a person stays in their sin, They are an enemy of God. True, God does love the sinner, but he hates when the sinner stays in their sin instead of repenting of it.

Answer 8

you are absolutely right i feel the same way. along with the attitude of many christians like this today i am not totally convinced about the certain things in the bible. homosexuality is not a sin to me. i love them and the act itself. fornicators are awesome too im over the 'everyone must get married' concept...the bible was written in an entirely different time and society so the gist of it remains but obviously a lot of things in the culture are out of date and flat out wrong.

but no youre perfectly fine. christians who think like this are the problem because they want to point a finger at "sinners"....their hatred itself is what will cause harsh judgement on them in the end if christianity is the truth.

Answer 9

Last time I checked, the liars and the theives were not demanding that their sinful lifestyle be accepted as correct and moral.

You are correct that Jesus was accepting and forgiving of those who were willing to "go and sin no more", such as the woman in the stoing incidence. But pick up your Bible some time and see what he had to say to those who wanted to continue in their sin, or to have at supported and approved by law.

You will find that he had very harsh words for such people, calling them whitewashed tombs, broods of vipers, sons of hell, etc. I can think of two incidences were he used physical force against such people.

So if a person is to be "Christ-like", they must follow ALL of his teachings, not just the ones that are currently socially acceptable. This includes his commandments to stand against evil and sin an condemn it. That is what he meant when he talked about us being "light" and "salt" in the earth.

Answer 10

I agree somewhat but many Christians are blinded by their own desires. Think of it like American idol some of those people really think they can sing but they are devastated when they are not chosen sad to say many Christians are going to face that when they stand in front of God for judgment it gives me chills just thinking about it. God judges our hearts, man judges are actions and mind. The bible says to be careful in your judgment of others because you will be judged also. Homosexuality is a sin there's no way around it. It would be wrong of me to convict them to hell because I don't know that person,same with any crime or sin murder is a sin there's no way around it. All sins are equal and they all lead to hell. The bible says to surround yourself and fellowship with other Christians. I love all people I'm a Christian and I don't discriminate but if some one is doing something that may get me in trouble I'm not going to be around it so we have to put some focus on the type of people we hang around.

Answer 11

It is right for us to love the people around us, but gayness is wrong. Although that is true, we still also have to love the people around us nevertheless, the thing we have to do is make them understand what is wrong and what is right. Although it is true that it is impossible to completelybe sinless, God also looks at our efforts. God did not create us in this way of both males and females in order to let us be gay. If it was meant ot be like that, why can't there just be males as males are stronger? Let them give birth? Because God want us to reproduce, and does not want to let the child be neglected, as usually gays, guys both, pay attention to career a lot.

Also, I like gays, most are actually really friendly. I don't hate them, it's just that.. it was not created in that way and we should not change the laws of God