Comments on: Love the sinner, even (especially?) when he’s gay

By: rich

rich — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:41:58 +0000

Welcome to the blog, Anika! The theme is called ImpreZZ. There’s a link to the designer’s website in the footer.

By: Anika

Anika — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:22:14 +0000

Very interesting read, I think their would be a lot of mixed opinions on this. Love the theme that you are using, what is it?

By: rich

rich — Thu, 07 May 2009 20:10:54 +0000

I’d read it but hadn’t posted a comment until just now. I wasn’t spending quite as much time in blog-world for a couple days there.

By: Dan

Dan — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:59:29 +0000

Hey Rich, just wondering if you had a chance to view my post, I’d love to hear your comments. I’m not sure if you already had commented but it somehow got blocked by the spam filter? Please let me know if you already left a comment, I will search Akismet.

By: Tiffany

Tiffany — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 22:25:36 +0000

Rich,

You got me back on blogs…Dan encouraged me to check this out…

Great thought-provoking question!! I enjoy hanging out with my gay friends like i do all my other friends…all my gay friends are non-Christian. I play games with them, watch movies, meet up for coffee, talk about life and be real with them…they don’t have a plague! They are no different than ALL the other people we interact with daily. I hope that you are able to get some great suggestions!

God Bless!

By: Dan

Dan — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:38:34 +0000

Great question, Rich. Jesus continually loved people yet maintained a solid stance on sin. My comment got rather lengthy, and I decided to make it a post. Please read my response to your question at http://prayeramedic.com/2009/04/is-it-ok-to-be-gay/

By: rich

rich — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 22:42:34 +0000

Thanks, guys! Sounds like you all resonate with what the article’s saying… that we’re to love all of our neighbors, regardless of their sexual orientation or anything else.

It’s unfortunate that the church (which would include me) hasn’t consistently done this. One recent study of younger people’s perceptions of Christians showed that 91% of them think we’re “anti-homosexual.” Yikes. I’d like to think that if we did a better job of loving all our neighbors this percentage would be much, much lower.

BTW, that’s from Kinnaman & Lyons’ book unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters. That’s the Amazon.com link. You can also visit http://www.unChristian.com.

By: Rahsaan Taylor

Rahsaan Taylor — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 14:45:33 +0000

I believe that we should not worry about how we treat people, because we are supposed to treat everyone the same. Only treat people according to your interactions with them and not what is perceived to be wrong with them. It is when we start to and extra titles to a person that we tend to go astray. We refer to people as my gay neighbor, which indicates that their sexually orientation is the most important part of their life. I have friends who are gay, but they are my friends who happen to be gay. And I treat them only as my friends.

By: Billie

Billie — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 13:32:25 +0000

Great thoughts Rich! I blogged on a similar concern on my old blog a while ago. Here is the link if interested: http://noapologyforfaith.blogspot.com/2007/12/can-homosexuals-be-christians.html

My further thoughts — how we deal with people who do not profess belief and those we do should be different. When we quote scripture as a reason to not partake in a particular action or lifestyle, this has zero relevance to those who do not embrace scripture as having relevant truth for them.

We need to get out of the Holy Spirits job, convicting sinners, and get into the commandment Christ said was among the two greatest, love our neighbors — and that shouldn’t just be the neighbors we like.

By: David

David — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:56:08 +0000

Thanks for this, Rich. I love my gay friends by having them to dinner, going out to lunch with them and embracing them after my sermon each Sunday. I just love them, I guess. No strategies. To me, when Love (capitalized on purpose) lives in us, Love loves through us. My gay friends know that I love them, that Love loves them, and that I leave judgement to One higher than I…whose name is Love.