Erin Clyburn’s April 15 article, “Christians should accept gays,” left some issues that need to be clarified. She shows a lack of understanding for what true Christians stand for.
First and foremost, I am not justifying hate crimes toward homosexuals or those of other religions that are performed by those who know Christ. Hate crimes deliberately go against the word of God, which Christians follow. In addition, I would like to apologize on behalf of those who, in the name of Christianity, have bashed people instead of showing them Christ’s love. That behavior has given Christians and their God bad names.
That being said, Clyburn needs to understand what intolerance really means to a Christian and what motivates a Christian to speak out about what he believes is right.
Christians speak out against homosexuality because it is forbidden in the Bible as a sin, a blasphemy against the Lord. According to the Jewish laws in the Old Testament of the Bible, homosexuality was punishable by death (Leviticus 20:13), and the New Testament says neither homosexuals nor idolators will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). It is clear in the Bible that homosexuality is a sinful and destructive behavior.
Proverbs 14:12 states, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.”
Clyburn says “How homosexuality is destructive is beyond me.” Homosexuality, along with any other sin, is a destructive behavior because it separates us from God’s protection and leads to death, spiritual and/or physical. Those who claim to know Christ should know the dangers of being away from God’s protection. That is why many Christians are so passionate about exposing the truth to people-not to condemn them but to protect them out of love.
In Genesis 19, God destroyed two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, because of their sin, in which homosexuality and sexual perversions were rampant. He wanted them to repent and be restored from their sin. When they refused to repent, they came out from under God’s protection and were destroyed.
God did not accept other religions or other gods. The Old Testament is full of accounts where he destroyed entire cities because of the idolatry and sin in those places.
Clyburn also says “love is love.” Actually, there are four different types of love: eros, which is the passionate, erotic love between a man and a woman; storge, or motherly love; agape, God’s unconditional love; and phileo, brotherly love.
Homosexuality is a perversion of eros love. It is a counterfeit. Clyburn states “wherever there is love, God is there. I do not believe God would condemn love, regardless of who shares it.” In reality, God is true love; he will not justify or accept a false type of pure love.
Meanwhile, God exudes agape, unconditional love, like a good father has for his child. A good father loves his child no matter what, but that love includes discipline. A good father will discipline his child as much as needed to train the child to do what’s right. He loves us no matter what, but that includes doing whatever is necessary to train us to do what’s right.
Tolerance does not equal acceptance, and intolerance does not equal condemnation. God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world but to save it (John 3:17). God is all-loving, and there is no condemnation through Christ (Romans 8:1). God is tolerant in that we are still alive even though we sin. That does not mean he accepts sin, however. He could not tolerate sin; therefore, he sent his son into the world to conquer darkness and provide freedom for us from things like sin.
Additionally, Christians do need to separate the person from the sinful behavior; a person’s behavior should not dictate who they are. Clyburn is right to suggest that Christians need to accept and love gays. True love seeks to free the person from the sinful behavior. That should be the motivation for any Christian who speaks out about things that go against the Bible.
Clyburn states in her article that “Christians aren’t satisfied until everyone is the same.” That could not be further from the truth. Christians serve a creator who celebrates diversity; just look at the different plants, animals and races of people on this planet. The Bible even stresses the importance of diversity in the church. It refers to the church as the “body” of Christ; if everyone was an eye or a leg, where would the body be? It would be incomplete to say the least. The Bible stresses that everyone has a specific thing they contribute, and without one, the whole would be lacking.
Clyburn says diversity is “a beautiful thing to be celebrated, not eliminated. If everyone was the same, what would Christians do?” The difference is this: diversity of sins is not something to be celebrated. It would be ridiculous to assume that society could not be celebrated without the murderer and the thief, so why should Clyburn expect Christians to accept and celebrate people’s sin just for diversity’s sake? Eliminating a behavior from someone does not mean the person is no different from someone sitting next to him. He still has many other things that set him apart from everyone else.
Intolerance is not a product of hate or condemnation, but rather of a passion for people who are in sin to experience what real freedom is. I’ve experienced true freedom only through Christ Jesus, and even though I’m still not perfect and maturity is a process, I know the benefits of calling sin what it is and getting rid of it. It’s not about being intolerant of people, but intolerant of the behaviors that are wrong. God loves everyone he created and wants us to be free from those sinful states, and through that freedom, we can experience true joy.