When I announced the I was going through Leviticus I knew that someone would want to know my stance on Homosexuality and Jesus. I didn’t expect it to come quite so fast but thanks Robert for prompting me to share.
Here’s it is:
God doesn’t make mistakes. God makes people. Some people are gay, some are straight and I think God loves everyone. Some of you might wonder why I would say this. You might think I’m a horrible Christian for believing this but here me out. I don’t think God ever intended for us to hate gay people and I’m fairly certain as a church we’ve got it wrong.
The first thing I thought when I got to Leviticus 18:22 was “well I guess it’s ok to be a Lesbian”. There’s no mention of women/women relationships and I guess that’s probably due to the fact that women were not really citizens. I’m not sure why we got hung up on this line really. It’s one line in a bunch of lines that we don’t really follow anymore. Think about it for a moment
- How many of us are wearing jeans right now that are made from more than one type of material?
- How many of us are against the death penalty?
- Do we give back our land to the original owner after 50 years during a jubilee year?
- How many of us will eat bacon and eggs for breakfast this weekend or have steak and lobster for dinner?
- Do we throw someone with ezcema or psoriasis out of the house because they have a skin erruption?
- Do we condemn those who have tatoos?
Truthfully there’s a lot more said about menstruation, semen emissions and sleeping with other animals then there is about homosexuality.
I do not know why one rule is held up over these others. I do not understand why Christians who follow Jesus think it’s okay to hate others. Jesus spoke love into the world. Jesus lived love in the world. Jesus showed us how much God loved us and tried to demonstrate how we should live.
When asked which were the most important parts of the law Jesus said “‘…Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” {Matthew 22:37-40 NIV}
We need to love our neighbor. We need to love them. This is what Jesus taught us to do. We are called to love, serve and speak God into the world. We need to love.
I love gay people.
I love you too.
I try to love everyone.
That’s what Jesus taught me to do.
