Homosexuals and Evangelicals

An Evangelical reader of Andrew Sullivan's blog emails him about his thoughts on homosexuality and his experience with a friend who came out.

What made the exchange more poignant is the fact that I’m an evangelical Christian who believes homosexuality is wrong. He knew I was an evangelical Christian, and for some reason, chose to test the waters of tolerance with me. Later, I was on the phone with my sister—a Christianist if ever there was one—I told her the story, and she immediately asked if I’d told him homosexuality was wrong

“Of course not,” I answered, “Do you think, at one of the most difficult moments in his life, I was going to turn it into a nightmare?” I stood squarely for my friend and against my sister.

And yet, my conscience neither condemned nor condoned me for not speaking out.

This is the dilemma for many evangelical Christians. We are passionate about Biblical inerrancy and strongly believe Revelation when it says that those who practice homosexual behavior will not be allowed into heaven. And yet we are also (some of us, anyway) passionate about “speaking the truth in love.” For us, the Bible is the Truth and from that standard everything flows.

Read the whole thing. It is an insightful look at a respectful Evangelical and how they feel about gays.

I have no problem with somebody believing that homosexual acts are a sin. What I do have a problem with is people who take it a step farther and don't treat gays with respect. They are still human beings. Homosexuality is not a choice; people are born that way. Of course you can argue that they have a choice whether or not to act on their feelings, but that is a different matter. Demonizing them isn't going to make them any more likely to come around to your thinking. It will lead, though, to people like Larry Craig and Ted Haggard desperately trying to pretend to be something they are not and acting out on their inner turmoil by oppressing the very people like them.

I also feel that ultimately, if you feel that homosexuality is a sin, it is between the gay person and God. What two consenting adults do is between them and not the business of anyone else. No one is being hurt, so there is no need for anyone else to step in. I guarantee that there is not a gay person in the country who doesn't know what many Christians think about the fate of their souls, so preaching to them about it probably isn't going to make a difference.

What do I know, though? I don't even believe in Hell.