Gay Christians.

If all sin is equal, why is some sin treated so much differently than others?  More specifically, homosexuality.

Everyone knows it.  The church comes close to ears in fear every time the words, "gay", "homosexual", "lesbian", or other similar words are mentioned.  Why is that?  According to God, lie-ing is just as bad.  Premarital sex is just as bad too, but that happens all the time within the church!  It's as if everyone in the church is a sinful human being or something!

There are people in the world today who have homosexual feelings, but also have a deep love for Christ.  They have spent hours on their knees and in deep, lamenting prayer for God to lift the burden from their minds, but they simply are not attracted to the opposite sex.  Many of these people attend church, but are afraid to say something about their struggle because they know that if they do, the church will pounce upon them like wolves, and throw them on the street after they have ripped them to shreds.  Every sin is equal.  If we treated every human being the way we seem to treat homosexuals, there wouldn't be a church.

Of course, there are churches which do the opposite.  Many gay couples have been married in churches by a pastor or priest.  To me that is the equivalent of handing a serial killer a knife, or a sex addict a porn magazine.  You're encouraging sin. 

There are also some churches which accept homosexual christians onto their leadership staff.  Again, to me that is like a attaching a casino to your church for everyone to go to after the service. 

I get the feeling that some people will read, "homosexual christian" and cringe, because to them that is an oxy-moron: you can't be a christian but have homosexual feelings at the same time. 

Hold on a second.  Are you saying that everyone who is gay is automatically never going to spend eternity with their all loving Father in Heaven, who so desperately wants to be with them that He bore the torture and pain that was intended for us so that we don't have to?  What happened to all men being equal?  Why does homosexuality suddenly set someone apart as the devil's minion? 

What if I said, "gambling christian" or, "sex addict christian" or, "greedy christian" or, "alcoholic christian?"  That probably seems wrong too, but that's because we're looking at the sin and thinking it impossible to be a christian if we live in sin.  And yet, in order to be a christian in the first place we have to acknowledge that we are imperfect humans who live in sin.  For some people, their sin is an addiction, or something that takes place in the mind which is very hard to deal with, even when God is helping them work through it.

Here's my point(brought about by today's dessert discussion).  The church needs to stop kicking homosexuals out of their congregations.  To admonish a homosexual for being homosexual is to commit judgement, and judgement is a sin as well.  Christ came for everyone to be loved and accepted.  We certainly don't condone the act of homosexuality, but we love the person who was struggling, and do our best to help them get through it.

I hope this made sense.  I have to go to worship practice now, catch you tomorrow.