Sexuality and Christianity

My friend, Arlen Crawford in America, has reported today on the case of Pastor Haggard who has asked for forgiveness from his congregation. Haggard has had to admit he is gay and has problems with his own honesty with those people he has preached to.

I think the idea of being gay and therefore being unable to become a Christian has to be dealt with. The matter of sexuality is, for me, no problem. Long ago, as a trade union activist, I learned that some people were different to me. They are attracted to members of their own sex. I am not, so this leaves me wondering how it can happen. However, I am, perfectly happy to accept them as equal in God's sight. Just as I cannot understand their feelings so they cannot understand mine. We are simply different.

My life as a Christian has taught me that God loves absolutely everybody. There are no exceptions to this. I once preached on "God loves me" and talked about who might be the lowest of the low today as the tax collectors were in Jesus' time. Alan Bennett had suggested in an Easter programme that child molesters were the lowest people today. Does God love them? Yes! No one sits outside his circle of love. Like it or not, the people you detest are loved by God. In the case of paedofiles, God does not love what they do but they are not exempt from his love. No one is exempt.

I am not saying that everyone must love the outcasts. I am simply saying that God loves them. The difficult act for the Christian is to love all these people who are so unpopular today. Yet if we cannot take that step we fail as disciples of Jesus. The problem is a very difficult one for many people but I have to say that I do not have a problem. If someone is not a threat to me or others i cannot exclude them from God's list of people to be loved.

Many years ago I read of a policeman who counselled a probationer police officer thus: Don't hate the criminal - hate the crime. This is what God calls us to do. We have to be able to handle all these matters in life on a practical basis. The trick is to hate what is done without hating the perpetrator.

The task of today's church is not easy. In the United Kingdom the numbers of church attenders are falling year after year. A few years ago I bought a book which I find most helpful. The first chapter begins like this: "How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a foreign land?" is a qquestion the Church, always finding itself in but not of the world, urgently needs to reconsider today." The book is "The Gospel According to Peanuts" and it is excellent. Mind you, it was published originally in 1965, 41 years ago. But the situation is just the same.

Instead of stating publicly what we think of gays and lesbians we should be enetering the world to tell it all about Jesus. We are not here to fill churches. The instruction we should follow as Christians is what Jesus gave to Peter. He said, "Simon Peter, do you love me?" "Yes, Lord." the rsponse was, "Then feed my sheep." We are not exhorted to get folk into church but get them to meet Jesus. Commitment to Christ is everything and the church is not seeing it like that.

There is slow evidence that the current church is starting to change from the edges inward. I cannot wait for the results because I am convinced it will not be changed from the centre. But my message today is "Smile because God loves you.!"