Discrimination is another word for faculty of reason. It is natural and good, and everyone engages in it. This is not a matter of religious freedom; this is a matter of freedom, period. If we are not free to think speak and act sincerely then we are not free-at all. That is slavery, communism. Christians should NOT be forced to do something they do not stand for. But they should always remember love your neighbor so yourself.
If I am a United States ambassador to another country and during my first few years there, the President and I make great gains with each other and we are working on ways to increase democracy, tourism, culture and all the things a good ambassador does. I am free to move around my host country and share USA ideals and show what a republic and democracy really is, openly and freely without fear.
Then there is a military coup and the President I worked with is removed from office forcibly and the newly installed President hates the USA does not call me. The new administration changes the culture and relationship and now I am watched, need armed guards to move in the country and instead of enjoying peaceable relations, they are strained, and the new administration hates me and the ideals I stand and wants us out or dead. The CIA is now calling and much of my time is involved in silent intelligence work and assessing threats, etc.
In this example the only thing that changed is the culture around me. I am still an Ambassador sent to represent my country and its ideals and morals. Yet I have to be wise in the culture change, and while I am not tolerant to the new administration, I do not need to go into town squares crying democracy! democracy! republic! republic!. I need to be wise no when to speak, but my world view and the ideas for which I stand do not change. I still need my actions to be inline with my beliefs
This is where Christians are today with the homosexual agenda. Every Christian is called to be an Ambassador of Jesus Christ, we have not changed but the culture around us has. What many people just a few years ago would have said was not natural and rejected have been replaced with tolerance and attacks of anything but tolerance.
So as an ambassador what should we do?
Your comment:
Christians should NOT be forced to do something they do not stand for. But they should always remember love your neighbor so yourself.
Perfect God love says serve them a cup of Java. Matthew 25.31-40 comes to mind here.
Church is a different story, a called Pastor will, in love, let those engaging in this lifestyle, that come to his church understand they cannot continue to engage in this lifestyle.
My wife and I have been used to minister to many Gay and Lesbians. We find wihtout controversy that when the HOly Spirit reaches them it is not through harsh judgements, or conviction of their lifestyle,. We keep hearing over and over that the goodness and love of God compelled them to leave the lifestyle. Which completely is backed up by Romans 2.4.
Because God ahs called us to deliver this people group, we have studied the lifestyle. The actual percentage of those in the lifestyle that are in it for perversion/lust fulfillment is actually much smaller than the church thinks.
Most we have been led to minister with deplore and feel debased in the lifestyle. For women, many were raped and sexaully abused by men in their early years, then forced to be sex trafficked, where a woman in the introduced them to lesbian sex. This is usually fueled by strong addiction to drugs, etc.
For men, they were raped and sodomized by men as a kid and the progression is similar to the women.
The bottom line is that most engaged in this lifestyle have been bound for years by lack of true love, and bound by spirits of rejection, insecurity and fear.
God's grace is so awesome, when we see his grace come into their lives, it is a life changer.
Jesus showed us that the kingdom is advanced by the love of God that is placed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
I am not tolerant one bit to the lifestyle, it is a SIN, but we will reach them through love, not refusing them service.
Not everyone will agree with me here.
Hebrew 13.1-2 says:
13 Let love of the brethren continue. [SUP]2 [/SUP]Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Spare me the comments that say God would not send an angel as a gay man or lesbian. The verse above is one of the most forgotten in the Bible.
A final word, when Jesus says depart from me, because I never knew you, doe snot mean he did not know you. The Bible Tell's us that Jesus knew us from the foundation of the world. What Jesus is saying here is, you did all those things, yet I do not approve of you.