Second verse, same as the first.
Today was a great day. I did next to nothing, relaxed and took a five hour long nap. Yes, it was truly a day of much needed rest. Tomorrow I start the first in what will be three weeks of training for a new job that will be a complete and utter restart for me. New industry, new world and a much needed change in working environment.
Today brings a somewhat unrelated question that I have been tossing around today. I’m looking at a new living situation and I’ve got one pretty locked in but I’m still looking for some better deals. I emailed a gentlemen about a listing and he shot back, “I read something in your bio about Christian Rock. Will it bother you that I am an openly gay man?”
Color me speechless for about fifteen minutes. I tried to wrap my head around the answer I was going to have to give.
Do you reply simply by stating, “No, but I’m not comfortable with it?” How in the blazes do you respond as a Christian in a Christlike manner? You see, after reading through James 1 I’ve come to the conclusion that Jesus wants us to act very different than how we see ourselves going through life. And so in responding to this man’s statement I don’t know what to say. I’ve always been a subscriber to the whole, “Love the sinner, hate the sin” argument and it’s worked out pretty well throughout life. I had a good friend in high school who was gay and I never held it against him or threw the fire and brimstone. He was a great guy then and I figure he’s still a great guy.
So, I figured I share my conundrum here, write it out and figure out how to respond. I’ll probably find a diplomatic way to do it…but it still doesn’t get me past the internal struggle that’s been awakened. For example, in California (land of Hollyweird) they’ve decided to allow gay marriage and make it legal.
I’m not going to go into my stand (that’s not what this blog is about) but I will ask the question. As Christians do we fight this situation and demand it be denied? Or are we to accept the populist opinion, take our lumps and move on? Do we resort to simply praying?
I’ll be talking to God about this in my prayer time but I wanted to get this out my head and onto paper. I’m not one of those conservative Christian extremists who’ve given mainstream Jesus-following a bad name…I’m just trying to figure out how to navigate all this.
I’ll be moving into James 2 tomorrow. I think I’ve beaten James chapter 1 into the ground and beyond.
Until tomorrow.
