Part of striving towards humility, I believe, is willingness to be open to the fact that we might be wrong about how we have looked at a certain issue for all our lives, i.e. homosexuality. It’s so easy to point fingers at Fred Phelps and company, because “We would never do something like that.” But I think G.R. makes a strong point when thinking about how the church and us as individuals have remained silent while so much hatred abounds concerning homosexuality. Can we stop fighting about the ethics of a sex act and instead listen to our brothers and sisters?

Jesus was good news to Zaccheus. Yes, Zacchues needed to stop ripping people off, but that begs the question of what else he needed. Jesus went for the most important need first - friendship, acceptance, honor, respect, investing trust etc. He did not try to sort out the behavior.

Even if Zaccheus did know the intentions of Jesus to be that he repent and reform (which may or may not have been Jesus’ goal - I think his goal was to have Zaccheus feel what it was like to be loved) Jesus sure did take a weird way of getting there.

Had Zaccheus asked Jesus what he thought about unfair taxation, Jesus probably would have told him a story that was either a bit confusing or striking and surprising. He probably would never have given him a moralistic answer. But he didn’t ask that question and Jesus didn’t answer it. He was excited to be chosen to be inthe presence of this unusual and great teacher.

We Christians get so excited about answering questions people are not even asking that the odds of communication actually occuring are microscopic.

We need to find a way to connect with people in meaningful ways. Soon enough we’ll get an invitation into other things - even if it takes 10 years.

http://www.larrykilgore.com/Issues.html

I think his Bible is missing a few pages. And by few pages, I mean the entire New Testament.

If we’d get busy doing what God has asked us to do - love each other so others will know we belong to Him, tell the Good News, make disciples, if we share what Jesus truly wants of us, God will bring His harvest in their hearts and in the sanctification of each one of us.

The only true way to love someone is to take their arm, lovingly lead them on the path to the Cross, lead them to Jesus and let God take care of forgiving sins, be they sins of lust, thievery, gossip, covetness, whatever - we need only plant and water, leaving the harvesting to God.

Also, we have been lured into believing the world’s definition of “tolerance” - it is NOT acceptance of any and all things, all actions and attitudes in which people may be engaged.
To me, tolerance is not rejecting anyone,accepting everyone. If it [tolerance] is to mean acceptance, may it be acceptance of each and every person we meet being as God has created them, in His image and worthy of hearing the Good News of Jesus and His offered salvation, they are worthy of our time and agape love. Let’s worry about their actions AFTER they have the power of the Holy Spirit to guide them and sanctify them.

Now, before I get a nosebleed, help me down from this soap box. :O)

How long does this “end” take? A month? A year? What if a homosexual person never repents? Does it change our responsibility to love them like crazy?

It is not our responsibility to convict another person of his or her sin. That is the job of Christ and the Holy Spirit. If we are loving people extravagantly, many times they’ll bring it up and they may be on the road to transformation. I think the key here is mutual accountability and transformation, not just us trying to get the sinner to change his or her ways. We must be transparent and wear our sinfulness on our sleeve. That is the difficult part for most Christians.

Ahnog,
Although I’m not sure I agree with you I understand where you are coming from regarding the end result. I strongly feel that every conversation we have with people does not have to revolve around their sins even if we feel strongly they should change. My husband does not greet me at the door each night and say “so how is that patience thing coming?” nor do I ask him if he is going to let a cuss word slip or (insert any sin that you struggle with here). In order to have real conversations with people about change you have to a have a real and loving relationship with them. These types of relationships are never developed if met with a Hi my name is… and I think being gay is a sin. Let’s talk about how you can change this. The church as a whole often communicates this to the GLBT community before we even meet an individual. I am convinced this is not the way Jesus would greet them. Jesus showed love first before ever asking anyone to change.
Ashleigh

Jesus didn’t take Zaccheus to task for his unethical tax practices, but rather honored him above the entire crowd by inviting himself into a friendship with him. As I recall, Jesus never mentioned how Zaccheus took advantage of people - a far worse moral violation than private gay sex that no one knows about.”

I think the point you miss is that in the end Zaccheus understood what Jesus expected–repentance and reformation. Any relationship God’s people sustain to homosexuals must have this same end in mind.

Jesus didn’t take Zaccheus to task for his unethical tax practices, but rather honored him above the entire crowd by inviting himself into a friendship with him. As I recall, Jesus never mentioned how Zaccheus took advantage of people - a far worse moral violation than private gay sex that no one knows about.

Maybe friendship is more persuasive than moral code. Maybe speaking the truth in love is more than a Biblical way of justifying condemnation and actually has a lot to do with friendship.

Christian moral code is not credible to people who do not feel loved by Christians. And a moral code without love is an immoral moral code.

How insensitive humans can be sometimes!

Ron Clark

“They’ll know us by the T-shirts that we wear
They’ll know us by the way we point and stare
At anyone whose sin looks worse than ours
Who cannot hide the scars of this curse that we all bear

They’ll know us by our picket lines and signs
They’ll know us by the pride we hide behind
Like anyone on earth is living right
And that isn’t why Jesus died
Not to make us think we’re right

chorus:
When love, love, love
Is what we should be known for
Love, love, love
It’s the how and it’s the why
We live and breathe and we die”

Then I think of the women at Highland who cooked every Friday for AIDS patients in the Abilene community. They didn’t want to be noticed. They didn’t stand on the street and yell at people. They just quietly carried out their loving ministry so families of AIDS victims could spend what precious time was left with their loved ones instead of worrying about food. This is the work, the beauty and the love of Christ. I don’t think the Westboro folks will ever figure that out, and that makes me sad for them.