Christianity and Sin

A few days ago, my cousin's partner (for lack of a better term, they aren't married, but are monogamous, from here out will be referred to my cousin as well) posted a blog post on her facebook wall.  She was stating that this blog post was an example of why she gets so frustrated (my word, hers were slightly more colorful).  I read the post and my first reaction was:

"I'm not catholic, but I want to go on record with the fact that I may think something is wrong - but NEVER would I rant like this... If she didn't want anyone to read it, she shouldn't have posted on a public blog. There are ways to make b...logs private and only let those you want to see things see them... she should have done that... And like pp said, the Jesus of the Bible would never have acted, responded, or ranted like that even if it was a sin. Love you."

Upon further reflection, I have changed that reaction somewhat.  I still am frustrated that someone who claims to belong to a loving God would post something that inflammatory on a public blog, however, I also realize that this was a frustrated venting from a mother who values the innocence of her children.  The fact remains that homosexuality is something that is a reality in our world, whether we think it right and good or wrong and evil and a reality that we should discuss with our children as to why we believe what we believe.

My cousin and some of her friends were decrying the apparent intolerance of this writer, and I did at first too, but something struck me shortly after my responding post... This writer was simply stating her opinion and the unfortunate truth is that all too often Christians are shouted down, told to "shut up", and called intolerant simply for holding and sharing an unpopular opinion.  While I don't think that this is as huge of an issue as the blogger seemed to make it, I do understand where she is coming from.

A few weeks ago our pastor was preaching on sin and sinners and what the Church is supposed to be and supposed to act in this world.  One thing that stuck out to me during that message was the statement based on an old cliche phrase about sin and sinners, you know the one, "Love the sinner, hate the sin."  His version is, "Love all sinners, of whom I am the worst, and hate the sin in me."  See here's the thing, we're ALL sinners, some sins just might be more visible than others, and the Jesus of the Bible didn't actually judge sinners, he judged the religious leaders because of their hypocrisy.  And there's the rub, Christians are called to be salt and light in a fallen world and to love those who don't know Jesus.  The New Testament is pretty clear that as Christians we are not to hold non-believers to the same standard that we hold ourselves and our Christian brothers and sisters to.  This is where I begin to take issue with this author's stance on whether or not she should take her kids to a park where homosexual couples are displaying affection publicly.
For the record, this post is not intended to cause offense, and I'm truly sorry if I did cause offense, it's simply me stating my opinion about an incredibly controversial subject and I hope that people understand that's all it is and nothing more.


That's all for now.  Thanks for stopping by.


{Becky}