How Should Christians React To The LGBT+ Movement?
June is LGBT+ Pride Month and with it comes a lot of media attention. There are LGBT+ pride parades and rainbow flags everywhere you look! Many organizations have even altered their normal brand logos with rainbow colors for the month in support. On the flip side, many individuals have opposed the LGBT+ movement. Some have even said mean and hurtful things.
Unfortunately, some of those in opposition have undoubtedly been hateful and homophobic. Others simply believe the Bible teaches that homosexual activity is sinful and cannot support the LGBT+ movement because it runs contrary to their convictions. So how can people who have these convictions approach the LGBT+ movement from a place of love and not one of hate? Today’s post has THREE things for Christians to keep in mind as they seek to interact with the LGBT+ Movement with love and truth.
Love Them
First of all, you don’t have to agree with someone to love them. Rick Warren said, “Our culture has accepted two huge lies. The first is that if you disagree with someone’s lifestyle, you must fear or hate them. The second is that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe or do. Both are nonsense. You don’t have to compromise convictions to be compassionate.” If you are a parent with an LGBT+ child… LOVE them! If you have an LGBT+ friend, sibling, coworker, or teammate… LOVE them! Show compassion and love, not hate and condemnation.
Unfortunately many LGBT+ individuals feel unwelcome in churches and Christian circles because people treat them as if they have leprosy or some sort of disease. Sometimes people just have a hard time identifying with them or fear they won’t know what to say. If you struggle with this, try putting yourself in their shoes…
Imagine a world where the script is flipped. Homosexuality is the norm… people say “Like goes with like because that’s the way God intended; it’s how it has always been ever since God created Adam and Steve…” You know this is true, yet you only desire companionship with someone of the opposite sex. You know that choosing that lifestyle will cause people to condemn you, but you don’t want to be alone… you don’t want to live a life of celibacy just because that is what society and some God you don’t believe in says is the right thing to do.
Obviously that is not the real world… but if it were, how would you feel? Might you want to stand up for your feelings and do something about it so other people could come out of the dark too? Some people just brush LGBT+ individuals and their desires off without any compassion or empathy. They say, “Just get over it already!” It’s not that easy…. put yourself in their shoes and LOVE them!
Focus On The Gospel
The gospel is good news to ALL people. Homosexual activity is not the only sin in the Bible. Plenty of things like lying, theft, hate, lust, and envy qualify as well as a host of other things. One big thing to mention is that ALL sexual activity outside of a monogamous heterosexual marriage is considered sin. The problem is that a lot of people will call out LGBT+ sins while ignoring heterosexual sin. They don’t condemn things like pornography or premarital sex in heterosexual relationships in the same way they do homosexual activity. That’s a problem!
We need to remember that we are ALL sinners! I am no better than anyone else, and neither are you. Jesus lived a perfect life, died as an innocent man, and rose from the dead to conquer sin and death, and reconcile us back to God. His invitation of salvation and eternal life extends to ALL people! This includes LGBT+ individuals, homosexual and heterosexual, black and white, male and female, etc… The gospel is for all and needed by all, so love LGBT+ people, welcome them into your life, invite them to church, and tell them about Jesus. Then pray for God to open their hearts to the truth.
Know What You Believe
If all you can say is, “I just don’t believe that’s right…” you need to come up with a better argument… Just saying the Bible says so isn’t enough in today’s world. You need to know where and why the Bible says what it does, and why Christians believe what they do. In recent years many “revisionists” have tried to take the biblical passages about homosexuality and reinterpret them differently. Most argue more from emotion than academic research and accurate biblical interpretation.
The Bible doesn’t talk a lot about LGBT+ issues, but where it does, it is NEVER in a positive light. Revisionists try to twist things from the history, culture, or language of the time the biblical passages were written. They argue that the biblical authors weren’t actually talking about loving consenting monogamous homosexual relationships. Some biblical passages are easier to sneak around than others, but I have yet to see a strong argument against Romans 1:24-27, which is one of the clearest passages on the issue.
Even without any of the verses that specifically mention homosexuality, a person can still make a strong biblical argument. Proper expectations and purposes for marriage and sexuality are laid out clearly in the Bible and are ALWAYS directed at heterosexual union; LGBT+ practices do not fall in line with these expectations or purposes. Anything outside of God’s original intention for sexual intimacy and marriage is sexual immorality in the Bible. That is reason enough to conclude that it is not God’s will for people who have homosexual desires to act out on them.
So as you interact with people from the LGBT+ movement remember to: Love Them, Focus On The Gospel, and Know What You Believe. Sam Allberry is a celibate same-sex attracted seminary trained scholar who wrote a great, but brief resource on this topic called Is God anti-gay? I encourage you to check it out!
For more ideas on loving people you disagree with, see my previous post: How Do You Love Someone You Disagree With?
