Homosexuality (Continued from Below)

(Continued)
Here is the tension. If one wishes to argue the Gospel as being an experience of change, then it follows that the previous state of those who were changed could not have been acceptable to the Church or to God. Repentance is necessary; it is not an act of piety. By piety I mean the ongoing attitudes and actions of those committed to the Christian faith. Therefore, repentance of one’s sins is required to enter into a life of piety; it is not an action of one already pious. The point is this. We must all initially change before we can continue to change. Repentance precedes sanctification.

From this starting point we can begin to address the issue of homosexuality. Before the Church decides on whether or not homosexuality is a sin, it must first decide how to act in either case. If it is a sin, then Jesus left no other example for the Church but to love the sinner. This, however, does not apply to those within the Church. According to Paul in I Corinthians 5, individuals openly practicing sexual immorality are to be removed from fellowship with the Church. Paul is clear that the Church is to always have fellowship with the world, for how else can the world be redeemed but by the example of the Church? But when those in the Church adopt the lifestyles of the world, they are to be removed from the Church. But wait.

Homosexuality can in no way be isolated as the only sin condemnable by the Church. What of greed, materialism, adultery, lust, pornography, disobedience to parents, the breaking of Sabbath, or any other sin the Church has either condemned, ignored, or debated in the last twenty centuries? Why is the practice of homosexuality on a pedestal? Is the practice of homosexuality the speck in our brother’s eye that distracts us from the log in our own? This only complicates how the Church should address the issue of homosexuality in the Church.

On the other end of the spectrum, if the Church does not judge the practice of homosexuality to be a sin, how could any other action be considered a sin? Scripture is clear on the issue, and the only defense against this is to question the authority or context of Scripture itself. To argue that Scripture does not condemn the practice of homosexuality would almost seem to argue that Scripture does not condemn any sin at all. If the Church accepts homosexuals without question, then how could the Church act in any other way in regards to adulterers, murderers, rapists, liars, thieves, or any other individuals whose actions the Church would readily condemn?

Personally, I feel as if the Church’s attempt to accept homosexuals has pushed the Church into a corner. Reaching out and accepting homosexuals into churches is not enough for many people; these would argue that in order to accept homosexual people, all language suggesting this lifestyle to be a sin must be utterly abolished. In the midst of all this debate we forget one key concern. What is the truth? Practicing homosexuality is either a sin or it is not. The beliefs of any number of people will not change what is. If God disapproves of homosexuality, then all those who encourage this lifestyle do not act in love towards homosexuals; they are merely sugarcoating a very uncomfortable truth. If God does approve of homosexuality, however, then many people are promoting condemnation in the midst of their own sin.