Does Viewing Homosexual Affection Make You Uncomfortable?
Viewing homosexual affection makes most heterosexual men feel uncomfortable, so they turn away from loving their homosexual neighbors.
But Jesus said that we should love our neighbors as ourselves.
That’s true even if we don’t like them or they make us feel uncomfortable.
The 2021 documentary Pray Away on Netflix covered the largest movement ever started by and for homosexual Christians, which they called “Exodus International.” The movement lasted for 37 years, until its leaders decided to shut it down. It consisted of homosexual people meeting and praying to convert themselves into heterosexual people. The founding parties admitted that they outwardly pretended to change, but that a conversion from a homosexual to heterosexual orientation never actually took place. In fact, they admitted that they were promoting a form of therapy that was harming its members psychologically, driving many even to suicide.
In Romans 2:1-4, the Apostle Paul stated about sinners:
You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things. And we know that God, in his justice, will punish anyone who does such things. Since you judge others for doing these things, why do you think you can avoid God’s judgment when you do the same things? Don’t you see how wonderfully kind, tolerant, and patient God is with you? Does this mean nothing to you? Can you see that his kindness is intended to turn you from your sin? (NLT)
Remember, Paul was a Jew who was out to kill Jews who had converted to Christianity until he had a vision of Jesus.
So, Paul converted to Christianity and wrote the initial rules for starting the Christian church.
It is important to note here that Jesus rejected manmade religious laws as commandments from God, which is part of the reason that Jewish religious leaders had Him killed.
Homosexuals who worship the Creator and not idols do not fit into the category of deviance described by Paul in the quote below from Romans, for Paul is describing only those who “worship idols” (Romans 1:23).
Paul added homosexuality to the list of immoral sexual acts, which he put under this section as those who worship idols, stating that they deserve to die. For example, in Romans 1:23-32, he wrote:
Instead of worshipping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshipped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles.
So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired. As a result, they did vile degrading things with each other’s bodies. They traded the truth about God for a lie. So they worshipped and served the things God created instead of the Creator himself, who is worthy of eternal praise! Amen. That is why God abandoned them to their shameful desires. Even the women burned with lust for each other. Men did shameful things with other men, and as a result of this sin, they suffered within themselves the penalty they deserved.
Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises. Are heartless, and have no mercy. They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. (NLT)
If you are a homosexual who worships God but not idols, this writing of Paul’s does not apply to you. Paul put in the homosexual part to accompany idol worship and the rejection of God.
Despite Paul saying that God abandons wicked people, God does not abandon them, they abandon Him.
Paul’s judgment of homosexuals is adopted today by heterosexual men toward homosexual men.
But if a heterosexual man “feels” that something is not right, does that mean it is wrong or evil?
If so, that logic has some individuals judging others, which prevents the former from loving the latter unconditionally.
Some heterosexual men feel like killing homosexual men—an attitude that is still common in the Middle East today.
Would God or Jesus say that homosexuals deserve to die?
No.
Again, as Jesus said, we should love our neighbors as ourselves.
Some people are born homosexual.
Honest analysis will show that homosexuality is rarely a choice.
Most homosexuals are born that way.
God made them that way, and God does not make mistakes.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 7 percent of the population in July 2021 were either homosexual or bisexual.
If there is committed love between homosexuals, without exploitation, rape, harm, pedophilia, or promiscuity, then, according to Jesus, heterosexual people should accept them and not judge them.
Sexual immorality occurs in both the homosexual and heterosexual communities.
Sexual immorality is not worse when it is practiced by homosexual men than when it is practiced by heterosexual men.
In both cases, it is equally selfish, harmful, and unloving.
The test for any sexual relationship is whether or not it is selfish, harmful, and unloving.
Jesus mentioned sexual immorality, but He never mentioned homosexuality.
Immoral sexual acts are sins, whether they are committed by heterosexual or homosexual individuals.
Judging and shaming homosexuals to shun them and drive them to suicide is not loving, and not something Jesus would do.
Nonbelievers conclude that if Christians reject, shame, and outcast homosexuals, then that’s not the kind of religion they want for themselves.
Those judgmental and selfish acts tarnish the names of God and Jesus, and turn people away from them.
Are you in that judgmental group?
When heterosexual people feel uncomfortable when they view homosexual people, that presents opportunities for heterosexual people not to judge, but to love their neighbors as themselves.
These opportunities are tests to love your neighbors despite your contrary feelings.
Matthew stated, “Do not judge others, and you will not be judged” (Matthew 7, 1, NLT)
Many people do not like being around individuals who are different from themselves, which makes them feel uncomfortable.
That includes heterosexual individuals who feel uncomfortable around homosexual individuals.
Some people feel uncomfortable around people of different races.
Are you a person who doesn’t like seeing two people of different races together in a loving relationship, whether they are straight or gay?
We are all children of one Creator.
We are all brothers and sisters of one family, despite different races, countries, and borders.
No person on Earth is perfect, so no one should judge anyone else.
Do we judge heterosexual people for sexual immorality as harshly as we judge homosexual people for sexual immorality?
Jesus gave clear instructions not to judge others, harshly or otherwise.
If you do judge others, He said, you will be judged by the same standards you apply to those others.
Many Christians fail to love their neighbors as themselves.
But there is hope for them, because change with clear understanding of the truth can set them free.
Love your neighbor as yourself without judgment.
Heterosexual people need to love and accept all other human beings as they are, and not judge homosexual relationships.
When two people love each other and decide to marry in a committed relationship under God, sex between them is not a sin, whether their relationship is heterosexual or homosexual.
God is all the pronouns, not just He, Him, and His.
God is not limited in any way.
No matter how individuals identify, they are made in God’s image.
As God’s children, we are made to express love with our own unique personalities and sexual orientations.
In Philippians 3:12-13, Paul admits that he has not achieved perfection: “I don’t mean to say…that I have already achieved perfection.… I have not yet achieved it.”
The Holy Spirit led Paul, but he also interjected his own personal judgments and opinions about homosexuals, women, and the rules of eating.
In the book of Acts, which Paul wrote 61 to 64 years after Christ’s death and resurrection, he states:
This letter is from the apostles and elders, your brothers in Jerusalem…. For it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us to lay no greater burden on you than these few requirements: You must abstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or meat from strangled animals, and from sexual immorality. (Acts 15:23-29, NLT)
In Matthew 15:11, Jesus says about eating, “It’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you; you are defiled by the words that come out of your mouth” (NLT). So, ultimately, Jesus was not saying what to eat and what not to eat. Those were Paul’s later instructions.
Paul said the following about women:
Women should be silent during the church meetings. It is not proper for them to speak. They should be submissive, just as the law says. If they have any questions, they should ask their husbands at home, for it is improper for women to speak in church meetings. (1 Corinthians 14:34-35, NLT)
Love and acceptance are the keys to our spiritual evolution, not judgment and hatred toward our homosexual brothers and sisters.