March 19, 2013

Opening the Door

In a recent newspaper advice column, Annie’s Mailbox, a college age lesbian was considering coming out of the closet to her family. She wanted to be honest about her relationship, but she was worried about crossing a moral line because her family is religious and conservative. “I don’t intend to rub it in their faces. But it feels like a burden to lie about it.” OK, let me get this straight. She feels like it is a burden for her to lie, but she sees no problem in burdening the family with the truth. The woman seems bent on forcing her family to accept her homosexual lifestyle. Sadly, the church is not immune to sexual immorality…or to boasting about sexual immorality. Paul wrote the Corinthians, “It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that does not occur even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this? (1 Cor 5:1-2 NIV) I’ve experience many different emotions when homosexuals open their closet door, but I must confess being filled with grief has not been one of them.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----I think you dug into the heart of the issue, pointing out that this young lady sees no problem in burdening her family with the truth. Abiding in love and trimming the self by truth clarifies issues in surprising ways. The problems we usually address are most often merely the offspring of “parent” problems we refuse even to acknowledge. It is not that her homosexuality is the problem. It is that her love for her family is not truly love.
-----Her “love” for them is evidently her possession of them for generating her own warm feelings of comfort and joy about herself. Isn‘t that what’s within her wanting their acceptance of her ways? She has completely missed that her love must generate their comfort and joy by her good actions and character toward them.
-----Or, are we taught not to love like Christ? And how did Christ love? Was He born human just to run around feeling all giggly and happy amongst His beloved people because they accepted Him? No. He was born to pour Himself out for those people so they could run around feeling all giggly and happy by what He did for them (e.i., feeling the joy of their salvation.) He was born to do them good. His love directs this good to them. It does not exploit good for Himself from them. Nor does it pry from them acceptance of Him. The acceptance He receives is generated in people by His willingness to confine love within definitions of the truth.
-----Now, it is a bit more clear why the great attack upon the concept of truth. Truth leads to knowing the evils of homosexuality (as well as the evils of all the rest of the sins and errors we crave.) To love is to do good to those whom you love, including yourself. If you are doing gay, you’re not doing good. It can not be love, for love does no harm. What’s the harm in gay? Falsehood. First with God. Taking His place is what it is to say gay is good, because He said it is bad. It is this simple matter of who gets their say. And what you wind up doing expresses who got it.
-----Now is the time to realize this principle works upon all other sin as well. It is not a thing gay alone. Satan really did coax mankind into an indelible paradigm shift of acting like God. Look into yourself. If you see no sin, you’d better look deeper. It is there; the Word of God assures you. It also assures you that your part of your relationship with Him is not in your generating righteousness. It is in your confessing your unrighteousness that He makes you righteous. Then the young lesbian can love her family, not by announcing her “gayety”, but by confessing it. Her family could then love her in turn by doing whatever benefits her recovery from it. There is no love without truth. There is no truth without love.

Love you all,
Steve Corey