Why do the the secular progressives feel so threatened when homosexual behavior is called a sin by Christians? Is this sin unique among sins? The recent fury by the Hollywood crowd over Kirk Cameron's honest answer to a journalist's question and the firing of verious people for their views on this issue got me to thinking about this.
For thousands of years the church has declared many various things as sinful; practices that are in direct rebellion against the Creator. These are acts that God Himself revealed to men as opposing his Lordship. The church has always declared the sinfulness of sex outside the covenant of marriage (before and after marriage), the sinfulness of idol worship, greed, envy, hatred, pride and arrogance, self-righteousness, murder and many more. And the largest proportion of these are directed toward the church's own sin. You can see this every morning in our prayers and every Sunday (in confessional churches) during the corporate confession of sin where we remind ourselves that we are sinners and do so by then naming specific sins we ourselves are all guilty of ... and the very grace in the gospel constantly reminds that we are no better than others (to think one is better such an easy sin for all of us to fall into), and we also remind ourselves that but for the grace and mercy of God in Jesus Christ alone would would have no hope at all. We confess daily that if we based our ability to please God and earn eternal life on our own broken sinful lives, that none of us would make it, since we all justly deserve God's wrath. Humanity, therefore, needs a Savior because it is in slavery to sin and bent on rebellion against the only one who can deliver us. None of us are immune from sin and our personal sin is not more righteous the sins of the gay person. We are all equally damned without God's grace.
When we tell others that something they are doing is sinful behavior in the eyes of God it is not because we hate them or think we are better than them. On the contrary, it is a call from other sinners like them to escape their slave-master and flee to Jesus Christ, the one who lived the life we should have lived and, in our place, died the death sinners justly deserve. None of us are born free. Only Christ can set us free.
Now, the secularist may not agree with that and think it is foolish to believe in God, but it is only spreading the greatest kind of ignorance to judge the heart motive of the Christian and to imagine that when the Christian says homosexuality is sin that it somehow promotes hatred, bigotry and bullying - all sins that are equally bad, if not worse, than homosexual behavior itself. When we declare these other practices sinful, I noticed that the progressives do not call it hatred. They may laugh and shrug their shoulders but they do not think it is bigotry. So why is it then that this particular sin is singled out? It seems to me that the purpose has more to do with political rhetoric used when someone wants power (1), than anything based on reality. If Christians are bullying people because they are gay, then in all likelihood they are not Christians. Deep down the progressive secularists know that Christians declare God's law, not out of hatred but of love (2). We can even see this in popular culture. For example, on Seinfeld, When Elaine's "Christian" boyfriend did not warn her about hell, she complained that he did not care about her because if he thought there was a hell, he should at least warn her about it, even though she didn't personally think there was a hell.
This is not not say that there are not so-called Christians who hate or are bigoted. It is to say that this is not the motive behind the vast majority of those in the true church. We rail against bigotry and hate it in ourselves every bit as much, if not more, than we do someone's sexual behavior. Homosexuality is really not something that crosses our mind very often and is low on the priority list of things I think about. But if you ask us or if you would have us vote our conscience when the issue comes up then we will. If you write articles every day in the media telling the world wrongly how homophobic Christians are, then we will speak to the masses as well with the love of Jesus Christ. But Christians will never, and I repeat NEVER, change their mind about this. God's law always triumphs over social pressure. Time for so-called progressives be tolerant themselves and get used to the fact that we live in a diverse world and those not like themselves do not necessarily hold their differeing beliefs because they are hateful. This reaction and continual libel in the press is evidence of prejudice against Christians rather than anything resembling what is going on in our minds. Prejudice because of the sweeping accusations of hate and bigotry without understanding what Christians believe. That is to spread false reports and may indeed temporarily help a political cause, but it does not match reality.
Remember it is one thing for individuals to commit a sin and yet know its wrong and feel remorse about it. All men do this and such sin is forgivable. But it is entirely another matter when society begins to call good "evil", and evil "good"... by calling good "bigotry". This is the height of mass self-deception.
Psalm 51:5 - 'Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.'
Note:
(1) The whole usage of the word "homophobia" towards Christians appears to have been dreamed up by image consultants for the purpose of furthering a political position, regardless of the facts on the ground, even if it hurts another party with unfounded allegations. In the current news world, impressions are almost everything ... and if you can poison people against others to bring about an intended result then, the facts get lost in the mix.
(2) According to Romans 1:18+ unbelievers already know God and what he says but suppress the truth about Him in unrighteousness. They have the data but are hostile in their heart toward it. They know what we really think and know we do it out of good motives but they hate it and try to spin it some other way and convince themselves and their followers of a lie about someone else. And that is what makes the sin even worse. I pray for those who disagree that they would have their hearts softened to understand and believe that we are merely trying to declare the good news that Jesus frees all captives who trust in Him. If they cannot see this then they are (inadverttantly) creating a dualistic, Manichean world for us all to live in, in which those who share their views represent the forces of goodness and light while those who don't share their views represent the forces of evil and darkness. I appeal to reason here and am under no delusion that what I say will make a big change but if it helps someone to understand then this short article will not have gone in vain.