Yesterday was our local pride festival in Monroe, WA. Our church had a booth where we handed out otter pops, stickers, buttons and temporary tattoos with a cross in front of hearts in the pride colors. People came up to us grateful that we as a church stood with them in solidarity. Unfortunately, there was one gentleman with a large sign with scriptures on it, pointing out how sinful we are, harassing us for disagreeing and lecturing us about Christ’s coming to earth to pay for our sins with the emphasis on homosexuality as a sin. I tried talking to him and I didn’t get anywhere. It upset me so much, I ended up leaving, I went to another booth next-door and sat with them until he went away. I left him in the capable hands of the pastor and a friend who is a Bible scholar defending our stance. The best part was there were five other people following him with “God loves you” signs and yelling and cheering and supporting everyone there at pride.
I wish I could’ve told him what keeps running through my mind today. I wish I could have shared that there are scriptures about homosexuality that are frequently misinterpreted, but the reality is if homosexuality was the sin that was so horrible, that God would hate the people who did this, why didn’t Jesus say anything? Jesus never spoke about homosexuality. What did Jesus talk about? The judgment of the Pharisees. He spoke often about loving others as the most important commandment just behind loving God. He called the Jewish leaders out for twisting scriptures to the point that the main message had been lost. God wants a relationship not adherence to some list of rules and regulations. He condemned their use of holy scriptures to wear down those that were under their care instead of loving and accepting them. I wish I could’ve said that to him. I wish he would understand that God loves everybody! Whether or not you believe homosexuality is a sin or not is really irrelevant. The bottom line is Jesus came down with a message to love one another. Jesus came down with the priority of calling people on the carpet for judging others. That was the message that God wanted to make sure was heard when he came down to this earth not condemnation, but love.
Photo by Jason Leung on Unsplash
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