{"id":180,"date":"2004-08-13T23:08:55","date_gmt":"2004-08-13T23:08:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/08\/rethinking_the.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:48:41","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:48:41","slug":"rethinking_the","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/08\/rethinking_the.shtml","title":{"rendered":"Rethinking the idea of a ‘Gay Christian’"},"content":{"rendered":"

That title ought to get you reading. A couple of news stories have got me thinking about this. The first is the California Supreme Court decision <\/a>that the Mayor of San Francisco acted out of line in granting same-sex marriages. The second is the recent announcement <\/a>that the governor of New Jersy stepping down because of an extra-marital affair with another man.
\nIn the first story the Mayor, of course, portayed himself as a crusader for civil rights, standing up for the oppressed. Nevermind that California state law explicitly states that a marriage is between a man and a wonan. The mayor clearly was flaunting the law. What got me thinking was the idea that this was a civil rights issue. That only holds water only if you consider being gay to be a human characteristic, in the same category as things like being black, hispanic or a woman. To me that’s a bit of a leap. I understand that to those who identify themselves as gay it seems that’s just how they are<\/i>, but I’m not aware that there has been any evidence that supports the idea that folks just are <\/i>gay. In fact many folks become gay later in life or stop being gay. No one ever stopped being black (Micheal Jackson excepted) and very few have stopped being women (and even then they must continue to take hormones becasue their bodies don’t know that they aren’t women anymore). We grant civil rights to people based on the unchangeable characteristics of who they are, not based on their preferences or tastes.
\nIt was with this in mind that the story of the NJ Governor, a twice married man and father, came out. Setting aside for a minute what his actual intentions might be (I’m not even sure waht they are, haven’t looked into it), let’s assume for a moment that he is ashamed of his homosexual behavior and desires to change and save his marriage and family. It struck me that he might, in the same way a clean alcoholic still considers himself an alcoholic, may feel like he is <\/i>gay. He may get counciling and treatment and stop his sinful behavior, but, just like the alcoholic still craves a drink, he may still be drawn to that life. Perhaps he stays ‘clean’ for as long as he lives, but in his mind he’s still ‘gay’.
\nIn the church, perhaps we should not, then, be so quick to dismiss the idea of the ‘gay Christian’ any more that we dismiss the idea of the ‘alcoholic Christian’, the ‘addict Christian’, the ‘lustful Chritian’ or the ‘liar Christian’. We are all recovered or transformed from something, and are likely still are drawn to it today to some degree. The alcoholic longs for his drink, the liar is tempted to decieve, the lustful craves that look and the gay man or woman desires the same sex. As long as we not remaining in <\/i>that life, but fighting against its call, we are still His. We do not celebrate that of which we are now ashamed nor to we accept or tolerate it. But we cannot refuse admitance to God’s family or shun anyone because one has this particular sinful leaning. In doing so aren’t we much like the Pharasee in Matthew 18:9-14? Jesus criticized him for looking down his nose at the tax collector and He praised the tax collector for his humility. God accepts us all, in spite of our sinful leanings, if we submit to Him and not to those leanings. We should do the same.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

That title ought to get you reading. A couple of news stories have got me thinking about this. The first is the California Supreme Court decision that the Mayor ofRead More Rethinking the idea of a ‘Gay Christian’<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nRethinking the idea of a 'Gay Christian' - salguod.net<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/08\/rethinking_the.shtml\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rethinking the idea of a 'Gay Christian' - salguod.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"That title ought to get you reading. 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