Re: I feel like college is changing my friend
This is going to be a rambling post, but there is so much in this thread, that I just have to write, and see where it takes me.
Part 1: My Overall View of God
I am Southern, Christian, and politically conservative, a grouping of characteristics that is often looked upon in a negative light by some others in the USA.
But I want to tell you about the God I know.
God is so infinite in his mercy and wisdom, that His love cannot be comprehended by a human mortal. We think of unconditional love, and we still have only a glimmer of an idea, because our minds and souls are not prepared at this point, to fully understand an entity who possesses so much love.
He loved us enough to send His son to die for our sins, and Jesus loved us enough to do it.
He will stand in judgment of every person on this Earth, and we will all be sinners, every single one of us. But because of His grace, we are saved. He will understand our human frailties, and love us all the more
, because that's who He is.
So, atheists might ask, why is there war, and cancer, and pain, and suffering?
This is just my opinion, but I believe that God doesn't want Christian zombies. He wants us to follow Him, because we understand in our hearts that it is good to do so. In order to do that, He gives us free will. Man can choose good or evil. Since man chooses a lot of evil, there is an opening for what I call chaotic evil, those random horrible things that happen to innocent people. In my view, God doesn't cast awful things on innocents, but He allows free will for mankind, and because of man's choices, a lot of random bad things happen.
But because God is a loving God, He works it around so that good things can come from the most awful circumstances. Think of Anne Frank, and how her optimism never failed in the midst of Hitler's reign. For some people, suffering only serves to strengthen faith. For others, the observation of someone
9;s strong faith in the face of overwhelming adversity, is what strengthens their own.
God never promises that life on this Earth will be fair. But He does promise an eternity of peace, if we will open our hearts to Him.
As Christians, we are to do our best to be like Jesus, knowing we can never fully realize that potential for perfection, but still trying anyway. And the most important thing about that walk of Christian faith, is to treat others with love.
You don't have to approve of a thing, or like it, but you do have to treat the person you disagree with with respect and love.
For myself, although I was raised Baptist, I came to the conclusion that my relationship with God should be personal, and not dictated by any other human. So as a young adult, I began to read the Bible, and pray, and listen for God's direction. In that silence, the message was loud and clear. LOVE!
I have friends who are gay, straight, bi, agnostic, Christian, all col
ors of the rainbow, all different perspectives on life and how to live it. Each one is precious to me, and also precious to the God who made us.
And I'll tell you now, the best friend I ever had in this world was gay, and she was a better person than almost anyone else I know. The idea that God would look at her, and judge her on one small dimension, as opposed to the entirety of her person, is a uniquely human (and flawed) construct. God judged her with a compassion so deep, and a wisdom so mighty, that it would probably kill us as mortals to look upon it. We are not capable of that kind of unconditional love, and that's why we need to leave the judgment to Him.
Part 2: On Homosexuality Specifically
Now, jump to the 21st century.
Maybe homosexuality is a big deal to some humans.
But let's think of it in terms of sin for a second.
And let me emphasize, God loves every human on this Earth. He hates the sin, but not the sinner.
So for
the sake of my point, let's say that the Bible declares homosexual acts to be sins.
In that case, God dislikes the ACTS, not the people.
He also hates the acts of gossip, pride, envy, greed, lust, and a host of other things.
Every human on this Earth is a sinner, even those of us who are saved. We do our best from day to day, to learn about Jesus and be more like him, but because we are human, we possess frailty, and so we sin.
God loves us anyway.
Nowhere have I ever seen God say, "I hate all sin, but by the way, homosexuality is worse than all the rest."
He doesn't say that, because to Him, all sin is equal.
We sin if we lust after someone who isn't our spouse.
We sin if we gossip.
We sin if we are prideful and arrogant.
We sin if we envy others.
We sin if we judge others without compassion.
We sin if we lie.
So to have this big freakout over homosexuality is ridiculous in my mind, because w
e are all sinners, none better than the others.
But if each of us strives to be the best person we can be, and we have accepted Jesus as our Saviour, we are bound for Heaven, no matter what other humans may think to the contrary.
Part 3: My Personal View of Sexuality
I can't see how it could be wrong to love someone. Lust maybe, but not love.
If loving a person makes you more selfless, if it compels you to make this world a better place just because they are in it, then how can that be bad?
I can't see how the gender matters at all.
When God judges me, I hope my mistakes in life will err on the side of too much kindness, rather than not enough.
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