On Wednesday I’ll be catching up with the senior pastor of my church to talk about what it’ll be like being a gay member of the congregation.

It’s a rapidly growing, multi-campus, Baptist church mostly attended my young adults. I’ve been going for a little while and I really like the church. The pastor has been pretty welcoming but has also made it clear that he believes homosexuality to be sinful. So I am not really sure how far the welcome goes.

I am well equipped to talk about theology, but I’d rather try and convey what it is like to be gay and a Christian. I really want to be treated like an equal, and not a 2nd rate member.

So, should be interesting.

I don’t really know how to respond if he brings up the dreaded “hate the sin, love the sinner” thing.

Hi Mr Summit

I like how avb says in his open letter that it’s a “tired, hackneyed” phrase! 😀 That made me chuckle.

And yes it is. To me the phrase of “hate the sin, love the sinner” is a cop out that allows Christians to judge from behind some words that are meant to be loving or make them look holy. Yet they are anything but loving or holy. Those words tend to be hurtful and divisive. And the hate directed toward the “sin” tends to seep out towards the so-called “sinner”. I can cope with the fact that some Christians believe homosexuality is a sin – they’ve been poorly informed and taught what most of us were taught without checking the scriptures’ original meaning. People can believe what they like as far as I’m concerned although of course I’d rather they were informed and changed their beliefs on that point! 😉 At least ignorance can be fixed with new information and sometimes people believe the same anyway but are respectful about it. That I can live with.

What concerns me about the phrase is the attitude that often accompanies it. There can be condescension, hate, fear, anger and judgment all directed toward LGBT people and those things are the opposite of love… And even if we respect the other’s belief that homosexuality is a sin (without having to believe in it ourselves), homosexuality is very much part of us. It’s an orientation, not a choice and not something that can be neatly separated out like sin can be. So without realising it, even the most loving of Christians who use that phrase are indeed condemning the ‘sinner’ as well as the ‘sin’.

Hope that makes sense.

Blessings,

Ann Maree

Like your approach very much.

Tony Campolo said “Jesus never said to love the sinner, but hate the sin. He said to love the sinner, but hate Your Own sin.” Matt 7:3-5

I also like Matt Glover’s paper. I believe these kind of approaches achieve better outcomes for change than debating theology, very important though that is. It is quite amazing how the translations have been changed from the original Hebrew and Greek. I also believe in Baptist churches (and others) their attitudes towards gays have much more to do with feeding homophobia and church politics than they do about theology.

All the very best Mr Summit. I will support you in prayer for that meeting with the pastor. You have my full support.

Fond regards

This has been postponed to tomorrow.

I like the Matt Glover idea and will have a look through it. I also have the same document I gave to my house-mate / parents / friends printed out.

I will tell you how it goes.

Hi Mr Summit

Do you mean the letter you used with your parents or something else?

Blessings,

Ann Maree