Mark's Notebook

Does God love gays?

This cover story in the latest Metro Silicon Valley discusses a new documentary "God and Gays."

What God thinks about gay people is something that Christians and gay people need to think soberly and deeply about, not something where blanket pronouncements serve any purpose.

When some gay people say they can be Christians, they need to think about why their Christianity might give them some sense of being loved, but not some power to change. A real relationship with a loving Savior ought to impart some power to change some things in your life that you don't even necessarily think are wrong, but which God wants to change anyway.

On the other hand, when some Christians say that gay people cannot be Christians, they ignore the fact that the Bible has only half dozen passages that mention homosexuality, but four whole Gospels that show Jesus embracing those whom the religious community would not. Jesus did not condemn the outcasts, but he loved them back into the fold. Jesus condemned only the religious establishment that would exclude some from the spiritual life.

I personally like to think that the Bible can be summed up in these verses from Psalm 62:

One thing God has spoken, two things have I heard:
that you, O God, are strong, and that you, O Lord, are loving.

Gay people have a religion where God is loving but not very powerful. God wants to exercise his power in your life to change your life. And this means more than just the power to let you learn to love your mate better. Any old non-Christian person can do that, and divorce statistics indicate that they might do so better than self-labeled Christians do. God wants to change your life in ways you won't expect, and perhaps won't even want at first. But he also wants the power to change your attitude and desires. The irony is that by refusing to give full rein to God's power, they lose the most powerful demonstration of God's love. When you see God at work in your life in ways that are beyond human ability and comprehension, it validates your knowledge of his love in a powerful way.

Some Christians have a religion where God is powerful but not very loving. They remind me a lot of the Pharisees of Jesus's time. The Pharisees could quote lots of Bible passages, but they had a hard time showing the love of God to others. The irony is that by denying God's love, they cut themselves off from the full demonstration of God's power. God cannot reach others through a hateful person, although the story of Nebuchadnezzar shows that he can use even a hateful person to achieve his purposes through circumstances. I don't want to be a "circumstancial" Christian through whom God does things only by accident ... but someone whose love reaches out to others in a purposeful way.

Ministries mentioned in the article and the movie include Exodus International. This is not a hateful organization, as some would try to paint it. They do not try to "change" homosexuals into straight people. They do try to expose gay people to the love of God, and then let God exercise his power in his own unexpected ways. As Christians, we often hope that God will change a person in a certain specific way: free them from homosexuality, from substance abuse, or from pornography. But we forget that God's agenda might be to free them from cigarettes, from lying, from adultery, or from hatred of parents first. It's when we try to steer people away from God's agenda and toward our own that we get into trouble.

Each of us who calls himself or herself a Christian has our own "history" with Jesus. He has changed each of us in a unique way and a unique pattern. He doesn't fix everything all at once. Each of us still has ways we are being changed. Some of us may still be struggling with vices we've known about for many years. But God will fixes those things in the order that works best for him and his kingdom, and in the way that best indicates our awareness of his love and power.

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Last updated Monday 3 August 2009