on DD and LGBT and NPH

I can’t stay silent any more. The internet has been exploding the last couple days with the firing of some guy from Duck Dynasty after his GQ interview, and many of my Christian friends are saying things on their Facebook walls like, “Yea! Preach it, brother!” Really? THIS is what we are to be known for? Saying out loud for all to hear that HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN! THE WORST SIN! EVERYONE SHOULD KNOW!

REALLY?! I disagree.

I read the GQ interview, and I think this is the part that got him fired. He also said something about not being able to understand how a guy could want to have sex with another guy over a woman, but that’s just his own personal preference. I can’t see him being fired over that.

“Everything is blurred on what’s right and what’s wrong,” he says. “Sin becomes fine.”

What, in your mind, is sinful?

“Start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there. Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men,” he says. Then he paraphrases Corinthians: “Don’t be deceived. Neither the adulterers, the idolaters, the male prostitutes, the homosexual offenders, the greedy, the drunkards, the slanderers, the swindlers—they won’t inherit the kingdom of God. Don’t deceive yourself. It’s not right.” source

Jesus did not speak on homosexuality at all. What does that tell you? If you took out of the New Testament all the times Christians are called to take care of the quartet of the vulerable (poor, the orphan, the widow, and the immigrant), all the times we’re called to do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly, you’d have little left to work from. Homosexuality is mentioned exactly three times in the New Testament. So what should we be focused on? What should the “worst” sin be? (I’m not going to comment on whether or not homosexuality is or isn’t a sin, because that isn’t what I’m getting at.)

Did Jesus not stop some guys from stoning a woman because she was sleeping around? Didn’t they say things like, but she’s a sinner! She’s breaking the law! The law says she must be stoned! Did Jesus not say that it is not up to them (us) to judge, and for the one without sin to throw the first stone?

Edited to add: I’ve received comments that I missed the crux of the message of that story which is that Jesus said to the woman, “Go and sin no more.” But it still lines up with what I’ve been saying. It’s God who convicted her of her sin. It is not our job to do that. It’s his.

I mean, even that Phil guy got this part.

“We never, ever judge someone on who’s going to heaven, hell. That’s the Almighty’s job. We just love ’em, give ’em the good news about Jesus—whether they’re homosexuals, drunks, terrorists. We let God sort ’em out later, you see what I’m saying?” source

We weren’t put on this earth to be judges. We were put on this earth to care for it and its people. BUT!, you say. But the Bible speaks out against homosexuality! Ok, let’s go with this.

This photo was taken from Neil Patrick Harris’s instagram account:

(click here if the photo does not show up)

And oh, look! A gay couple with two kids! How evil! They’re probably even in the Evil League of Evil! (See what I did there?)(If not, you obviously need a dose of Dr. Horrible.) They must be stopped and told they’re sinners!

Ok, now look at this photo, taken from Mark Charrington’s twitter feed.

Dear @UN @MikeLakeMP pic.twitter.com/Yb25QUMqmq

— Mark Cherrington (@MarkCherrington) September 19, 2013

(Click here if the photo does not show up.)

Mark works with at-risk youth in Edmonton. He sees kids like this every day. Beaten by johns, by parents, by partners.

Now can we talk again about what the “worst sin” is? Is it two men whose desire it is to be in a loving relationship and raise kids together? Or is it the kind of people who get off or get rich by beating and raping children? What did Jesus base his ministry on? Did he base it on telling us that we are to judge others? Or did he base it on instructing us to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves, the “least of these”, the ones society views as “lesser than”. He gave us Matthew 25.

We’re in the Christmas season, for goodness sake. We’re supposed to be preaching that God loved the world so much that he sent his one and only son to the world as a helpless infant so that he could grow up and die on the cross and rise again to show his power over death, to be our sinless sacrifice. This is supposed to be a time when we show the world God’s love, not our judgementalism. We’re supposed to be full of joy because we get to share this good news of how much God loves us and the rest of the world. And it’s not because we deserve it. I’ve broken every single one of the ten commandments, all of them, and guess what? God still loves me. I don’t understand why, but he does. That is what we are supposed to be preaching.

Let me ask you this: if Jesus was on earth today, who do you think he’d be hanging out with? That guy on the street corner with the HOMOSEXUALITY IS A SIN! GOD HATE FAGS! signs? Or that gay kid who has become so ashamed of the way he was created that he can’t face another day with his holier-than-thou “Christian” peers?