Jesus, His Love, Homosexuality, & Me

~ August 2001 ~

NO--I am NOT homosexual...but I confess that I have been told someone had a crush on me. (After she found out I'm straight, we've just been friends.) I didn't meet anyone who was homosexual until my junior year of high school ('93-'94 school year). One week we had a guest speaker, Rev. Sinclair "Sy" Rogers from Singapore, who shared with us about his former homosexual lifestyle and how God saved him from it. I still don't know why, but in spite of Clinton's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, someone in my company at army bootcamp asked if I was; maybe just because I like military stuff and had a "bowl" haircut. I had lots of friends at Clearfield Job Corps in Utah ('99), and many of them were GLB (gay, lesbian, or bi). Brandon, Sammy, CJ, Gary, Mikey, Chris, Josh, Dana, Steven...I love you guys!

Barbara Johnson is the founder of Spatula Ministries, as in "You'll need a spatula to scrape me off the ceiling." This was started to help other families cope with finding out that a family member is homosexual, like her son Larry. My mom has several of BJ's books, and I've read them too.

Lately, I've been reading What's So Amazing About Grace? , by Christian journalist Philip Yancey. The chapter I'm on right now (August 10) discusses this in light of homosexuality and people with AIDS. I am downright ashamed of how homosexual Christians have been treated by other Christians. It is totally un-Christlike and just turns people away from the church. I'm not too surprised to learn that a gay-church has been started...probably several already.

I myself am strongly opposed to homosexuality. But why should I dislike someone who chooses that lifestyle? Just because God detests homosexuality 1 doesn't mean He hates these people He created. He still loves them, and His Son died for everyone. 2 It's not my place to be judgmental about someone, 3 and I try not to. Instead, I repeat to myself, "What would JESUS do?" I know in my heart that He would "hang out" with them and be their friend, just as He was with tax-collectors, Samaritans, and others--the people that "good" Jews didn't associate with. 4

"To love a person means to see him as God intended him to be." -- F. Dostoevsky

  1. 1 Corinthians 6:9.
  2. John 3:15-16, 6:40; Acts 10:43, 13:38-39; Romans 1:16, 10:4; 1 John 5:1.
  3. Psalm 7:8, 96:10; Isaiah 3:13; Matthew 7:1-2 (also Luke 6:37-38); John 5:26-27; Hebrews 9:27.
  4. Matthew 9:10-13 (Luke 5:29-32), 10:2-4, 11:19; Luke 5:27-28, 19:1-10; John 4:4-30, 13:34-35; Romans 13:8-9; Galatians 5:14-15; 1 John 3:23.

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"Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us....We love because he first loved us." --1 John 4:11-12, 19 (NIV)

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"Jesus Saves" -- GIF

Downloaded off the Internet; original artwork is a CD cover from a secular band and spelled JEZUS.
I modified it with Corel Photo House.