by Susan Manning

Created on: January 22, 2010   Last Updated: January 23, 2010

In November of 2009, the Matthew Sheppard act was signed into law.  This law was inspired by, and named for a young man who was brutally beaten to death simply because he was gay.  The intent of this law is to protect citizens from violence, intimidation, and other acts of hatred based on their sexual orientation.  Inevitably, the enactment of this law drew protests, the majority of them from professed Christians who claim it denies their right to proclaim the Bible while they carry large, brightly colored signs declaring hatred, and calling for the deaths of those around them.  How interesting it is, that of all the messages to be found in the Bible, the one they choose to decry to the world is “God hates you and wants you to die!”

It saddens me that while most of us are able to view this sentiment as decidedly un-Godly, there are many throughout the church who embrace it in some lesser form.  They see homosexuality as an especially horrendous sin, more of an abomination than any other.  While they can find compassion for those who commit what they consider to be lesser sins, and those they may commit themselves, they believe the sin of homosexuality to be different, set apart. I once had this difference explained to me by a family member who believes God hates gays, but who engages in extramarital sex and enjoys pornography, among his many other sins. As you can imagine, it did no good to remind him that God has given him grace in his own sins. He insists that is different.

Christians like to separate things in our own minds. We like to believe we are set apart from sin. When we are confronted with the reality of our sin, we then break sin down into degrees of acceptability and separate it into classifications of what is forgivable and what is not. Most of us will base these degrees on the sins we have committed ourselves.  We may have told a little white lie, but we’ve never stolen. We look at porn once in a while, but we’ve never cheated on our wives. We had multiple sex partners before we were married, but they were all members of the opposite sex.

In particular, Christians like to separate homosexuality from other forms of sexual sin. It is different, and worse, than the things we have done. The truth is, it’s not.  A favorite verse of those who advocate God’s hatred of gays is Leviticus 20:11, that does, in fact, say that a man who lays with another man should be put to death. What they seem to overlook is that the preceding and following verses call for the same punishment for extramarital sex, adultery, and sexual immorality in general. In fact, this passage establishes homosexuality as one of a variety of sexual sins, no different, no worse.  Those who commit these sins are no different, no worse, than I am. No different or worse than you.  The same grace we receive in our sin, is just as freely given to them.

Nevertheless, there is, within the Christian community, the idea that they are different from the rest of us, and somehow do not qualify to be members of our ranks, not worthy of that grace.  That anyone should ever wonder if it’s possible to be gay and Christian at the same time is proof of this. We have no right to exclude anyone because we believe their sin is worse than ours, but we do, just by asking questions like this. When we deny the grace of others, we deny our own.

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