About a month and a half ago, we had a guest pastor preach at our church for a couple of weeks while our pastor and his family enjoyed some much-needed R&R. The guest pastor was an older man, and his preaching was mostly anecdotal, filled with illustrations and easy-to-remember examples of how to make the Biblical passage applicable to our every day lives. His preaching was enjoyable and easy to listen to, full of application centered around exegesis. After one of the morning services, I was invited over to my parents' home along with our guest pastor, his wife, and another family for some hot beverages and warm fellowship before the evening service.
We all gathered into the sun room, piled up on the couches, sipped our hot brews of choice, and spent the afternoon talking about this and that. For the most part, the conversation wasn't extraordinarily memorable. We talked about theology a bit, we talked about education, we talked about "kids these days," and we talked about politics. I probably wouldn't recall the conversation at all if it wasn't for the subject that came up just before we had to get ready and leave for the evening worship service.
At some point the subject of Michael Horton and the White Horse Inn came up, and our guest pastor spoke up about how Horton and the White Horse Inn has become quite liberal lately. Being a big fan of Michael Horton, Modern Reformation, and the White Horse Inn (WHI), my interest was suddenly piqued by his comment, and thankfully someone else inquired into why our guest pastor would say they are all "too liberal anymore." The response wasn't what I was expecting. Our guest pastor explained that they're liberal because of their stance on homosexuality. Asked to flesh out that statement even more, the man proceeded to explain that Horton and the rest of the men on the WHI have chosen a lenient stance on combating homosexuality. He further explained that he believes the Biblical position is that homosexuals should be put to death for their sinful lifestyles.
To say the least, I was completely shocked by his response and position. He explained that he believes it is good and necessary to evangelize homosexuals and share the Good News with them. However, he talked about doing so in the context of witnessing to them in prison, on death row, awaiting the punishment for their sins.
The conversation didn't go much further than that. We all had to get ready to go to the evening service, and even if we didn't have anywhere to go, I don't think there was a single person in the room that wasn't so shocked and bewildered by our guest pastor's comment that they were dumbfounded to silence. Sitting under his preaching that evening was an interesting experience, and I remember thinking over and over that I was so thankful that he was only a guest preacher.
On the way home from church that evening I told my wife that I was a liberal along with Michael Horton and the rest of the men on the WHI. If believing that we shouldn't put homosexuals to death but seek to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them, taking them to God's Word and showing them that homosexuality (despite what many Christians testify) is not the unpardonable sin, and that God's grace and Christ's sacrifice is sufficient for their salvation makes me a liberal, then I've never been more happy to be considered a liberal.
I thought the liberal position on homosexuality is that it wasn't a sin, it's completely acceptable, and that Christians should allow homosexuals to live their way of life without feeling guilty about the way God made them. I never thought the liberal position was seeking after the lost and desiring to see them repent of their sins, stop rebelling against God, and place their faith in Christ Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Additionally, I never knew the conservative position was that we should put all homosexuals to death. If this position is to be labelled "conservative" then I cannot help but wonder what is being conserved: the Gospel or the Law?
As our guest pastor explained how his position was the more biblical of the two, he pointed us to Leviticus 20:13. Verse 10 of the same chapter states that adulterers should be put to death. Should our government adopt this punishment for sinful behavior as well? Should we gather all the adulterers, throw them in prison, and systematically execute them after they are tried and found guilty?
It is most important to note that these are punishments given for detestable sins committed in the midst of a holy nation, a people specially chosen to be God's people. These are not punishments meant to be adopted by every civil government and judicial system, but rather, they are punishments fitting for a people God has claimed as His own. In the same chapter, the LORD tells His people, "You shall not make yourselves detestable by beast or by bird or by
anything with which the ground crawls, which I have set apart for you to
hold unclean" (v. 25). Does this mean that every civil government should adopt laws consistent with Israel's? Surely not. God was setting Israel apart from the other nations that surrounded them with specific restrictions, laws, and punishments for breaking His commandments. "You shall be holy to me, for I the Lord am holy and have separated you from the peoples, that you should be mine" (v. 26). These are commands and punishments that will separate the people of Israel from all other nations, and I do not see how this passage can be pointed to as the biblical text that should set the stage for how we respond to homosexuality in our nation and culture.
There is nothing more disappointing and appalling to me than to hear someone say that the proper Reformed and conservative position on homosexuality is that we should gather them up and start executing them systematically. Of course, this is not what our guest preacher said in so many words, but that was the natural ramification of his position. I could not (and still cannot) wrap my head around how any Christian, especially an ordained minister of the Gospel, can argue that the biblical response to homosexuality is capital punishment.
Unfortunately, there are many more Christians and pastors who would wholeheartedly agree with our guest pastor. The Westboro Baptist Church certainly has made their bizarre position known around the world, and there are other churches and church groups out there that would sooner execute homosexuals than share the Gospel with them. These churches, groups, and individuals make their position known loud and clear, and they do so under the guise of "biblical Christianity." The result is a nation tooting its tolerance loot growing less and less tolerant of these pesky Christians who won't grab their loot and toot along too. Christians with political agendas, legalistic halos glowing above their heads, and Leviticus 20 on their side are muddying the waters, screaming "Crucify them!" louder than other Christians can yell "Repent!", and the result is shameful. Of course, the Christian position on homosexuality will never be viewed as loving by a culture that won't tolerate any group that doesn't tolerate everything, but many people in our nation are starting to equate the Christian position on homosexuality to a hate crime and an effort to start another Holocaust. Certainly, if our position is that homosexuals should be put to death, then it is not difficult to see how our nation can quickly overreact and use whatever means necessary to put Christians in their place.
The non-believing world does not and will not differentiate between radicals and moderates. For many outside of the church, if you're a Christian then your position on homosexuality is the same as Westboro Baptist Church's. In their eyes, WBC is only publicly proclaiming what all other Christians are thinking. Sadly, for many "Christians" that is the case. They would never walk up to a homosexual and tell them that God hates them, but, nevertheless, that is their theological position.
So, are all Christians anti-gay?
Yes. Plain and simple. All Christians are anti-gay. God is anti-gay. Jesus hates homosexuality. He detests it. He hates it so much, actually, that he would stop at nothing in order to wipe its existence off the face of the planet. He is the only begotten Son of God, and He humbled Himself to be born of a woman, to bear humanity's fallen flesh, and to live a life of pain, suffering, and misery so that no one would ever have to suffer with homosexuality again. He suffered from thirst and hunger, He spent most of His life wandering around as a homeless man, risking life and limb to proclaim the Gospel in the midst of a people who claimed God as their own but rejected His one and only Son, and He did it all so that homosexuals would find their identity in Christ their Lord rather than their sexuality. He endured a public execution so painful that a special word had to be created in order to describe the horrific death one endured on the cross: excruciating. He died. His heart stopped beating. His lungs no longer filled with air. His side was pierced, but He felt nothing as His lifeless body hung upon the cross. Almighty God, Creator of Heaven and earth, and King of kings was dead. He endured immense pain and suffering so that homosexuals could be free of their sins, be reconciled to God, know eternal life, see their risen Savior, place their eyes upon the glory, glory, glory of God, to have the Spirit of God dwell in them, and be united to the God-man that died their death so that they could live His eternal life. Yes, Jesus hates homosexuality that much.
Jesus hates homosexuality, and He laid down His wholly human, wholly divine life as a holy sacrifice to atone for the sin of homosexuality, pornography, adultery, pedophilia, bestiality, incest, and every form of sexual immorality and perversion. Out of everyone in the Christian church, there was only ever one man that could truly point the finger at His common man and cast the first stone, but instead of the capital punishment to the eternal degree that each and every man deserves, Christ left the stones sitting on the ground, embraced the sexually immoral, wrapped them up in His own righteousness, and took their wretched sinfulness to the cross where He nailed it as He bore the wrath of God for sin to the grave.
So, yes, all Christians are anti-gay because our risen Christ is. Christ led the movement against homosexuality, and many Christians would do well to start looking at Leviticus 20 without the log in their own eye blinding them to the truth. Does it not say that adulterers should be put to death as well? Didn't Jesus say that if a man only looks upon a woman with lust in his heart that he is guilty of committing adultery? How can any Christian look at Leviticus 20 and call for the execution of homosexuals when they are guilty of an abomination punishable by death themselves? The punishment for sin, of every shape, size, color, and type is death, naturally and spiritually. How can any Christian point to Leviticus 20 and say that someone deserves to die without pointing to themselves first, falling to their knees, and thanking the Lord for His great mercy and grace, beating his breast, begging for forgiveness with tears streaming down his face?
Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them. The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst they said to him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery. Now in the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say?” This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” And once more he bent down and wrote on the ground.
But when they heard it, they went away one by one, beginning with the
older ones, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.” (John 8:2-11)
I hate homosexuality, and I hate to see anyone ensnared by it. Call me a liberal if you must, but I do not see how the Christian position on homosexuality should be or can be executing those who practice it. Yes, it is sin. Yes, it is punishable by death. Are not all sins? Are not we all guilty of sins that require blood to be shed? Are not we all guilty of sins listed in Leviticus 20 that require capital punishment? Only Jesus, the Son of God, can speak softly to us, "I do not condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more." That was Jesus' message, and sadly, homosexuals do not hear that message from people who claim to love, adore, and embody the Gospel message of Jesus Christ.
The world will never understand or accept that Christians can be anti-gay without being homophobic and wanting to see the destruction of homosexuals. Unfortunately, much of the Christian church in North America has rallied around conservative political values to determine their position against homosexuals rather than rallying around Christ and His love for sinful men and women. That is why a Gospel approach to homosexuality is seen as a "liberal" threat to "conservative" Christian values. Shame on any Christian who says that the biblical position on homosexuality must be drawn completely from Leviticus 20. It is an important text, but it points us to John 8, wherein we see Christ embracing a woman who was condemned by the Law but saved by unconditional grace. The Gospel message is about death for sinners, but in the context of that death being placed upon God in the place of sinners.
Homosexuals are sinners, but that doesn't set them apart from any other man or woman living today. So, Christians, I ask you why would or do you treat them differently as far as the Gospel is concerned? Why do you speak of them as if they have committed the most heinous of sins? Why do you go out of your way to alienate them from the ministry of the Gospel, turn your back on them, and insist on pointing them to the Law while refusing to share the Gospel with them? Does God's grace not extend to homosexuals? Is the Gospel, "the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek" (Rom. 1:16) but certainly not the homosexuals?
What would you do if a homosexual couple walked into your church this Sunday morning and desired to worship with you and your congregation? It's a question worth thinking about. And don't think about what you should do, but really ponder what you would do. Personally, I am very humbled and disappointed with how I would react, and it's not because I would follow Christ's lead. Do you know someone that is a homosexual? Have you ever considered inviting them to church with you? Have you not invited them because you'd be ashamed to walk into church with someone who is homosexual, or have you not invited them because you fear the backlash from others in your church who would accuse you of defiling the sanctity of the congregation with such filth? If it's the latter, that should alarm you. If it's the former, then consider why you're not ashamed to walk into a church building and worship Almighty God every Sunday morning.
Just because you do not know how God can love someone as wicked, sinful, detestable, wretched, filthy, rebellious, hateful, vengeful, immoral, and diabolical as yourself, do not sell your neighbor short of the amazing grace of God.
But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the Law and the Prophets bear witness to it—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might
be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. (Rom. 3:21-26)
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