There are six passages that have been used to “clobber” homosexual people. One is a passage about rape, abuse, and inhospitality to strangers. The second is an admonition to a particular people at a particular time and place to refrain from a cultural taboo. The third is a rhetorical stop along the way to the point that all of us are in need of a Savior. The fourth and fifth are the result of mistranslation of obscure words. And the last talks about sexual intercourse with angels.

If a homosexual orientation was really the horrific, terrible thing it is made out to be by those persons who use these six passages, why did Jesus have nothing to say about the subject? If God is so angered and repulsed by homosexuals, why did God’s Son heal the gay lover of a Roman Centurion*? Why did Jesus speak more about money and adultery and not mention one single word against homosexuals? Perhaps the answers to these questions has more to do with the power and control politics of the Church than with the Word of God.

Here is the bottom line. Grace is not yours or mine to give out. Grace belongs to God and to God alone. If God chooses to be merciful and graceful to a homosexual, there is not one thing any human being can do to stop it. God’s grace is God’s alone. There is no human being, save One, capable of judging the human heart. And that one person is Jesus Christ; a man who was so close to God that He knew Himself to be God’s very own Beloved.

Personally, I prefer to put my faith and trust in the Carpenter from Nazareth than in anything anyone else has to say. When I do that, I know I stand in right relationship with the One who brought me into existence. I may not fully understand the words in God’s Holy Book. I may not comprehend all the mysteries and intricacies of God’s creation, but I know that, come the day I stand before my Creator and give account for my life, the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will work on my behalf and I will be saved by God’s grace.

My dear sisters and brothers, God loves you. God does not hate you nor does God want to condemn you to an eternity in hell. God did not create you the way that you are so that God could have someone to hate. God created you so God could have someone to love. It is my hope and prayer that the love God has for you breaks through all the forces of evil that prevail against you, and that you come to know God in a deep, loving, and powerful way.

*Recent scholarship asserts the high probability that the servant, or slave, referred to in Matthew 8:5-13 was the Roman Centurion’s male lover, or sexual slave. See Jeff Miner, “The Children Are Free” and Rev. Nancy Wilson, “Our Tribe.”

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