“Evil preaches tolerance until it is dominant, then it tries to silence good.”

Charles J. Chaput

HOMOSEXUALITY

by Mark Karapetyan

​

A few weeks ago, as I was speaking to an audience of different backgrounds on the topic of sin and Hell, a furious, fuming, livid, enraged, and out- of- control young woman, named Karen, rushed to the front of the stage and angrily exploded:“How dare you judge me? How dare you tell me that I am going to Hell? I am a lesbian and very proud of it. What I do with my life or who I choose to love and marry is none of your business. My sexuality is my business.  Unlike your tyrannical, control-freak God, my God is all about love and acceptance.  In the end, love always wins. People like you are the reason this world is in such a mess. People like you will go to Hell !!! Let us love whoever we want; don’t be intolerant and accept us for who we are; don’t be a typical homophobic Christian. LET US BE WHO WE ARE.”

The entire audience gasped as the young woman hurled insult after insult, without giving anyone the chance to speak. Trying to calm the situation down a bit, I immediately interrupted: “Excuse me, miss. May I ask you a question? You want me to accept you for who you are as a homosexual, and that I will do. Will you also show me the same courtesy and accept me for who I am as a Christian? Also, you demand that I be tolerant toward your homosexual views; will you also be tolerant toward my heterosexual views, or is it just an ‘either your way or the highway’ kind of deal?”

She nervously smiled, looked around, and hesitantly responded:  “I’m listening…”

“Excellent… let’s continue the discussion,” I requested.

“Here is my question to you: what is homosexuality all about?”  I asked.

“It’s all about love. We want to have the freedom to love any partner we choose,” she aggressively answered.

“You do have that freedom,” I explained: “You can love anyone you want. Interestingly enough, you live in a country where the freedom you speak of actually comes to you from the same tyrannical God you ferociously attack; you get it from the same God who gives you your inalienable rights, such as, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happ…”

“Yea, yea, yea, I’ve heard all that. Tell me how homosexuality is not about love,” she interrupted.

“Homosexuality is not about love; it’s about sex,” I clarified: “There is nothing wrong with a man loving another man, or a woman loving another woman.  In fact, we as Christians are commanded to love everyone, but love is NOT equal to sex. You love your dog, but you don’t have sex with your dog just because you love it, do you?  You love your mother, but you don’t marry your mother just because you love her, do you? The same is true for homosexuals as well. Sex is designed by God ONLY for one male and one female who are in the covenant of a sacred marriage.”

She chuckled, and then sarcastically mocked: “Your God is ancient, and he needs to catch up to the twenty-first century. Your God’s words were written by men thousands of years ago, when people were still uneducated and unsophisticated. The world has evolved. People have evolved. So must ideas, concepts, and beliefs.”

I took a deep sigh and defended: “First, my God is not ancient; my God is eternal. Second, there is only one true God, and millions of other fake gods; these include gods or idols that people create in their imaginations and minds to make the gods fit their beliefs and values. Third, you say that as time passes, people evolve; therefore, ideas, concepts, and beliefs must also evolve. You demand that people become tolerant toward things God commands against, such as homosexuality.  Does this also apply to murder, theft, and adultery? Should these acts also be accepted by us today, since prohibition against them are ancient ideas and concepts? What if your partner cheated on you one day in the future, and defended her adulterous act by saying,’ honey, it’s the twenty-first century; you, your ideas and your beliefs must evolve. You must be tolerant toward adultery.’ What would you say to her?”

“I would say nothing to her !” She exclaimed: “some ideas and beliefs are good, and some are bad. The rotten ones, I believe, must evolve and change.”

Marveling, I responded: “But who decides which ideas and beliefs are good or bad? You? You play God? What if what you decide is good, someone else decides is bad? Who’s right and who’s wrong?”

The young woman became very agitated, thought for a few seconds, and then exclaimed: “All I know is that I was born with homosexual desires. If your God created me, then he created me gay by putting those desires in me.”

Shocked, I inquired: “You were born gay?”

“YES !”  she fired back.

“Answer this then,” I insisted. “Are alcoholics born that way too?”

She gazed at the ceiling for a few moments then hummed: “No, they choose to be that way.”

“Ahhh, they choose to be that way,” I concurred.  “Why then, is it not the same with homosexual acts and desires? I myself have a lot of feelings and desires, like the desire to sleep with many, many women, but I don’t act upon them because I choose not to. Not only that… if you were born with homosexual desires, what do you tell someone that says they were born with anti-homosexual desires? Are your desires and feelings alone valid, but not theirs? Do you just attack them for disagreeing with you? ” I inquired.

“I will not attack anyone; just like Jesus, I will accept them for who they are.  In fact, Jesus never once said that homosexuality is wrong,” she politely defended.

In a calm voice, I explained: “It is true that Jesus accepted all sinners like you and I, but He never once suppressed, altered or half-told the truth. He was very loving and merciful, but at the same time, He was stern, just and righteous. You say that He never mentioned or condemned homosexuality; Jesus didn’t once mention child sex, incest, or rape, either. Does that mean He was okay with these acts? It is true that Jesus didn’t specifically address homosexuality in the Gospels; He did, however, clearly list heterosexuality as God’s intent for human sexuality. In Mark 10:6-9, Jesus says: ‘But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together let not man separate’.”

“Why is it a sin to have sex with someone I love? Why would a loving God punish me for loving?” she challenged.

“I’m glad you asked that” I noted, and then I continued: “Sex is a gift of God to humanity. It is sacred. Your sexuality and everyone else’s sexuality is sacred. God designed sex to be between a man and a woman so they would be able to fully enjoy their relationship together. In no way, should this be violated.”

“Sex is just physical, it’s not sacred; love is sacred,” she objected.

“It is not? well then, explain this to me,” I daringly requested: “Why do women who are raped, suffer not only physically, but more so mentally, and emotionally? Why do they get traumatized for years, if sex is only physical?

“I don’t know why” the young woman whispered, and then sat down and listened to the entire lecture.

Although we still disagree on many issues, Karen and I have become friends. She even agreed to help me edit this topic.

The matter of homosexuality is a very touchy, and delicate, yet crucial subject. It must be addressed, dealt with, and discussed reasonably, and open-mindedly, with love and understanding by everyone.

In closing, here’s my humble advice to both opponents and proponents on this issue.

 

To all the opponents, and mainly the Christians:

I personally have seen many of you look down on homosexuals as if they are a different breed of creature, and not human. They are just as human as you and I are. They feel, cry, laugh, and get hurt, just like you and I. They also are created in God’s image. Your job is not to convert them, immediately condemn them to Hell, or shove Jesus down their throats. Your job is to love them, and humbly tell them the Gospel of Jesus Christ, in meekness, WITHOUT suppressing the truth. Your job is to respect them and never mock them, even if you disagree with them. Your job is to forgive them and turn the other cheek even if they offend you. It is heartbreaking to see many Christians treat homosexuals as inferior creatures by hurling insults at them and calling them hurtful, abusive, disrespectful names. Why don’t Christians who are against the homosexual lifestyle treat fornicators, liars, and other sinners, the same way they treat homosexuals? After all they are all sinners in God’s eyes are they not?

The story of Jesus and the adulterous woman in the Gospel of John is the best example for everyone to follow when it comes to dealing with our homosexual friends. The adulterous woman was ashamed and put on the spot when everyone else was ready to condemn her and sentence her to Hell for sinning. The words of Christ “which of you is without a sin, let him cast the first stone” shows how careful and sensitive we must be when we speak to other sinners because words, can either destroy someone or build someone up and give hope. This story demonstrates how quick we humans are to judge others because they sin, without looking at our sins, and seeing the evil in our hearts first.

Always, choose compassion and mercy over hatred and unkindness. People will normally welcome love, and kindness, and open their minds to logic and reasoning. They will not respond to negative attacks, shame, and incivility, mark my words!

To the homosexual community:

In all honesty and fairness, you want others, mainly Christians, not to denigrate you and call you demeaning, discourteous names, but you are the first to call them a homophobe, racist, uneducated, Bible-thumping Christians. If you want your message to get across, this is not the way, I guarantee you.

You want Christians not to judge you, but then you judge them for judging you. You want Christians to leave you alone, but you will not leave them alone for disagreeing with you.  You want them to be tolerant toward your views, but you refuse to be tolerant toward theirs. You harass, threaten, and even sue them, putting them out of business as punishment, just because they disagree with you!

How would you feel if I filed a lawsuit against you and shut your business down just because you refused to celebrate Christmas or Easter?

It is one thing to disagree with others, but it is another thing to force your ideas, opinions, and your way of life on them.  Others have opposing beliefs; you must respect that. Christians are not the only ones who must be loving and tolerant. You must be loving and tolerant toward them as well.

I myself, for example, have many homosexual friends whom I interact with on a daily basis. They will always be my friends, I always love and respect them, but I do not hide God’s truth from them. Just because people change God’s truth to make it fit their agenda does not mean they have their own truth. That is called perversion (the alteration of something from its original course, meaning, or state, to a distortion or corruption of what was first intended).

Let’s go back to the story of Jesus and the adulterous woman. Notice that after Jesus showed the adulterous woman love and mercy, “go, neither do I condemn you,” He followed it up by telling her to repent, and NOT to do it again.

Jesus demonstrates infinite love to all sinners, but at the same time, He shows infinite discipline and justice. Without correction and chastisement, love becomes flimsy and counterfeit. Ask a parent!

God, out of infinite love, gave all of us the gift of free will. We are privileged to make free choices in life, but we are not free to ALSO CHOOSE the consequences of those choices, remember that…

“Nothing is easier than self-deceit, for what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true.”

Demosthenes