So much has happened since I last blogged, too much to even try to list. I put off blogging for a long time for a number of reasons, but it’s become clear to me over the past year that I needed to pick it up again. I’ve hidden in fear of rejection, fear of success, fear of change, and fear of myself to the point where I even began questioning the gifts and dreams God’s given me. But the message God placed in my heart is such that I cannot keep it to myself.
Instead of hiding it, I’ve found that I’m compelled to speak it out. If my message is ignored, then no harm done. If it’s met with scorn and ridicule…then I’ll probably have myself a good cry. But if the message somehow manages to bring about some form of hope or godly change to the small part of the world I can currently reach, then it’s worth the risk of speaking up.
My heart and my mission is always for the hurting, the hopeless, the cast aside, the desperate, and the forgotten. And so this message is for you.
I’m smiling right now at the irony of this blog post being written at the start of Pride Month 2021. The reason this makes me smile so much is that despite me being a Christian heterosexual white man, I love the LGBTQ+ community deeply. My wife and I have gay and transgender friends, and we have shared life with many individuals from that community. We’ve invited them over for holiday meals when their own families refused to have them. Despite our differences, we’ve loved on them, fed them, and let them know we were there for them if ever they needed us.
We love listening to their stories and life experiences, and we take joy in their unique perspectives on life. We mourn for the pain and rejection many of them have suffered so deeply from those who should have known better. Most importantly, though, we rejoice with those in the LGBTQ+ community who still see and pursue the beauty in life despite their hardships.
The fact is that the individuals of the LGBTQ+ community have suffered so much in their lives simply because of who they are. For me, the Christian heterosexual white man, rejection simply means pain, disappointment, embarrassment, and possibly a delay of the hopes and dreams I have for my life. For the people within the LGBTQ+ community, rejection means the potential loss of family and friends, careers, respect, safety, and even their homes. It means having to endure the possibility of hate crimes from random strangers. It means being looked down upon, spat on, and viewed as less than.
And the most horrific part is, most of the above is inflicted upon these individuals by those who are supposed to love them unconditionally and bring them the most hope and comfort in their lives: parents, friends, and Christians. Based on this, it’s no wonder why the LGBTQ+ community suffers from a much higher suicide rate than the heterosexual community, particularly among teens and young adults.
Read that last line again. These precious, beautiful human beings suffer so much rejection in so many traumatic ways that they no longer believe that life is worth living! As a fellow human being, I am heartbroken!
As a Christian who understands how much God loves each and every one of them, I am devastated and appalled by the fact that so many of my fellow Christians have violated their own God-given commission by hating them instead of loving them, rejecting them instead of accepting them, avoiding them instead of embracing them, and inflicting emotional pain instead of administering healing to their souls.
Let me be clear: every single gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, and queer person in this world is first and foremost a human being. As human beings, God loves them far more than any of us can fathom. As human beings, Jesus gave his own life for the chance to spend eternity with them. As human beings, Christ commanded his followers (i.e. Christians) to love them.
Jesus said that His followers will be known by their love. Instead, the world has seen us for what we reject and despise, and for what we boycott.
Many of my fellow Christians will say in their rejection of the LGBTQ+ community that they are simply expressing the truth in love. Many quote the old Christian cliche, “Love the sinner, hate the sin.” But I wonder what their love actually looks like in this case. Are you going out of your way to bless them, or are you going out of your way to tell them how awful they are? Are you celebrating them for the human beings that they are, or are you standing against them because of what they do? Are you accepting them into your hearts and homes, spending time to get to know them as people, or are you ignoring them in hopes that they will just go away?
Love is messy and complicated, and I don’t claim to have all the answers. To be honest, I’m still learning how to do it correctly most of the time. But I do know this, the people Christians should be loving are the ones who need it most. Jesus died for all humanity, but the ones he gave special attention to and ate with were the broken ones, the outcasts of society, and the ones the church of the day especially liked to call sinners. On the other hand, the ones Jesus chastised the most were the religious leaders who rejected all the people Jesus spent his ministry loving on. Which side of that equation do you want to fall on?
My fellow Christians, we need to love the people of the LGBTQ+ community. We need to stop standing against them, rejecting them for what they do or believe about themselves. We need to instead love and embrace them for who they are: human beings who are deeply and desperately loved by God! If we are to genuinely consider ourselves Christians, then we need to love others, especially those who are different from us.
And to my friends and readers who are celebrating Pride Month this June, know that I love you! You are beautiful! You are loved! And you are worthy of God’s love!
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