It seems that the church handles homosexuality in one of two extremes. One the one hand you have the vehement gay bashing screamers. This church sign below is typical of their message.
There are a couple of churches in my community who seem to rotate the "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation" sign with their "Whoremongers and Sodomites shall burn in hell" sign every week.
The Katie Perry song is all the rage right now, and this church communicated it's feelings pretty strongly about it for about 24 hours.
On the other hand you have the really nebulous, "what's the big deal, God made us this way response"
If you haven't heard yet, Ray Boltz, a famous Christian song writer has announced that he is gay. Boltz known for his trademark hits, Thank You, Watch the Lamb, and The Alter came out of the closet recently in this magazine article. In the article Boltz says,
There are a couple of churches in my community who seem to rotate the "Righteousness Exalteth a Nation" sign with their "Whoremongers and Sodomites shall burn in hell" sign every week.The Katie Perry song is all the rage right now, and this church communicated it's feelings pretty strongly about it for about 24 hours.
On the other hand you have the really nebulous, "what's the big deal, God made us this way response"
If you haven't heard yet, Ray Boltz, a famous Christian song writer has announced that he is gay. Boltz known for his trademark hits, Thank You, Watch the Lamb, and The Alter came out of the closet recently in this magazine article. In the article Boltz says,
"If this is the way God made me, then this is the way I’m going to live. It’s not like God made me this way and he’ll send me to hell if I am who he created me to be … I really feel closer to God because I no longer hate myself."
Now, to me that is about as a ridiculous of a rationalization as you can have. How about this: "God made me lustful, so I'm going to live a life filled with 
lust", or what about "God made me with a tendency to steal, so I am going to be a thief...I even feel closer to God when I am stealing", or better yet "God made me a pedophile, so I am going to abuse children because this is the way God made me"
If Boltz would have said, "I just don't take the Bible to be literal in it's teaching on homosexuality" or "I feel that the moral rules of the Bible were limited to that culture", then I would not have agreed with him, but his rationalization for his gay lifestyle would not be so hideously weak and ignorant.
The truth is this: The issue of homosexuality is not going away, and the church is going to have to deal with it head on, but in the right way. What is the right way? I'm not totally sure, but the two extremes I've outlined here are definitely not viable options.
- Brad
lust", or what about "God made me with a tendency to steal, so I am going to be a thief...I even feel closer to God when I am stealing", or better yet "God made me a pedophile, so I am going to abuse children because this is the way God made me"If Boltz would have said, "I just don't take the Bible to be literal in it's teaching on homosexuality" or "I feel that the moral rules of the Bible were limited to that culture", then I would not have agreed with him, but his rationalization for his gay lifestyle would not be so hideously weak and ignorant.
The truth is this: The issue of homosexuality is not going away, and the church is going to have to deal with it head on, but in the right way. What is the right way? I'm not totally sure, but the two extremes I've outlined here are definitely not viable options.
- Brad
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