The [oh, boy] disclaimer in the title is due to the fact that YES, I know what I am about to do. I am about to get a whole lotta hate mail. I am about to offend homosexual people. I am about to put my inexperienced, teenage, slightly ignorant, jesus loving opinion on the internet for all to see. So, yes, I know what I’m doing. I am, as the rebelution blog would say, doing something that I think is hard because I know it’s right…and that’s what this blog is about for me–it’s a place to let the world see my growth in God, and this is what he is showing me.
Yesterday (5/26/09) the California Supreme Court decided to uphold the ban on gay marriage (Proposition 8). I twittered some “praise jesus! #prop8″ type tweets out of my excitement because the word of God was upheld in California and I personally know many intercessors who have been standing in the gap for California…because history has shown that California is usually the forerunner for the nation. I got a couple not-so-thrilled replies…
I just want to say here and now: Jesus loves the homosexual. Jesus loves you, me and everyone else. Jesus created you, and He didn’t make any mistakes [psalm 139, jeremiah 1:5]. He is madly in love with you, one glance of your eyes ravishes His heart [song of soloman 6:5]. No matter what. He would give His life for you (he did). He wanted to make the ultimate vow of love for you, there is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends [john 15:13]. He endured the cross because of the joy set before Him [YOU!] (hebrews 12:2). He wants no one to perish, but ALL to come repentance.
BUT, along with many other types of sin, the bible calls homosexuality sin. [1 Corinthians 6:9-11] Our society (especially in the deep south where I come from) has pretended like homosexuality is a sin worse than any other, and that simply isn’t true. In fact, Jesus calls it the same “level” of sin as being a drunkard (southerners don’t like to hear that). Bottom line–we all struggle. No one can live up to the glory of Jesus, and that is the beauty of our relationship with Him! He has taken on the sins of the world so that we can be free. God wants for all of us to be free. I am not against the homosexual, and neither is Jesus. I am against immorality, and so is Jesus. I am against anything that would keep you from a relationship with Him, and so is He.
So, if you’re looking for someone who thinks that Jesus is cool with homosexuality, I’m not your gal. But if you’re looking for someone to talk to because you recognize that homosexuality is keeping you from Jesus, boy have you ever come to the right place. He is here for you, He is waiting for you, He can’t wait for you to see Him for who He really is.
Peace & Love,
Kalyn
Hebrews 12:3-4 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. [He did it for you, remember His love. His love the most real thing I have ever experienced.]
Comment, kids. Let’s open up discussion.
38 Comments
May 27, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Well said Kayln.
May 27, 2009 at 3:33 pm
“I am not against the homosexual”
Sure you are. And you should really be honest about it. You just say that to avoid feeling guilty about it. And I understand that.
I often feel guilty about being against the fundamentalist Christian. But I am, so I admit it.
But anyway, I’m glad that this issue in California is only a bump in the road. New England is leading the way, and slowly the rest of the country will get on board.
Because, luckily, we don’t live in a theocracy. We live in a country in which we are free to believe or not believe whatever we like. Which is why Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhist, Wiccans and even Satanists can get married. Atheists can get married too.
And so can homosexuals. The country is just starting to realize it.
May 27, 2009 at 3:41 pm
morsec0de — you’re quite wrong. I wasn’t very clear with that statement…I am against homosexuality as a lifestyle, but the homosexual is a person, and I love all people. I am for the homosexual, not the lifestyle.
May 27, 2009 at 3:51 pm
In that case, I am for the Christian, not the Christianity.
May 27, 2009 at 4:21 pm
Well, in some ways I am too. I am for beleiving in Jesus and the bible wholeheartedly, but the standard of “christianity” in America is very different than it should be.
May 27, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Hey Kalyn!
nicely put, its so true!
and for morsec0de:
There is a difference between being against homosexuality and disagreeing with it. Kalyn and myself are not against homosexuals but we do disagree with them.
The Bible says to love everyone, and everyone includes homosexuals. We called to love, and show the love of Christ to them and those around us.
Its like this:
i have a sister who is not walking with the Lord anymore…we still love her. We are not against her but we disagree about what she is doing with her life. It’s the same situation for homosexuals, we love them, but do not agree with them.
Leah <3
May 27, 2009 at 4:30 pm
“I am for beleiving in Jesus and the bible wholeheartedly”
Well, I’m against that too.
“The Bible says to love everyone, and everyone includes homosexuals.”
So you love them, but you do things in order to keep them from being happy? Things that harm no one.
That isn’t love. That’s a desire for control over others.
May 27, 2009 at 4:46 pm
What do we do to keep them from being happy? true happiness is found in God and God alone… people use the things of this world to fill a void that was meant to be filled by God and God alone. this is why people keep going back for more… this is why people kill themselves… they are always left empty.
“Things that harm no one.”
It is harmful to the people involved in it. It breaks the Lord’s heart.
Like Kalyn said:
“He wants no one to perish, but ALL to come repentance.”
He loves them, and He loves you.
May 27, 2009 at 6:55 pm
Pointing people to God is controlling? Telling people that their lifestyle is damaging and wrong is unloving? If someone is injecting heroine into their veins all day everyday, how can you tell them they are wrong? What’s the standard?
Love isn’t about making much of people. It’s about making much of Jesus and pointing people to him. The Western view of love is so subjective and skewed.
It’s not that people’s desires and pleasures are to great. They are too small. Sin (like homosexuality and a thousand others) take us away from the greatest pleasure: God himself.
May 27, 2009 at 6:58 pm
Sorry, this line, “If someone is injecting heroine into their veins all day everyday, how can you tell them they are wrong? What’s the standard?” came out wrong.
What I meant is that you cannot tell someone they are right or wrong without some kind of objective standard.
We cannot say drugs, murder, rape, etc. are wrong and then stop at homosexuality and say, “That’s their choice.” Where do you draw the line?
May 27, 2009 at 4:34 pm
I believe part of God’s nature is his tendency towards LIFE, anything that produces it, supports it, enhances it, makes it better.
And the scripture says He is LOVE, not just that He loves us, but it is His character and nature.
When you love someone, you want the best for them. And I believe that was what God was spelling out for us first in the Torah, then in the New Testament.
The reason He doesn’t approve of Homosexuality is the same as the reason He doesn’t approve of adultery (Leviticus 20). They both bring forth death.
His ways are not intended to restrict our freedoms, but to restrain us from things that will hurt us because He loves us so much. One may argue that a homosexual relationship “brings life to me”, but in reality, it brings satisfaction to lustful desires, just like adultery.
When we throw off the restraints He has put in place, we put ourselves at risk, and the consequences are dire.
One of my best friends was gay (he died several years ago in a fire). We loved each other very much, and I accepted him for who he was, never with condemnation. Yet in His desire to walk with God, he recognized his temptation for the gay lifestyle was the same as most married men are tempted by adultery. It was his desire to live a pure life before the Lord and experience everything God had for him, so he laid aside his fleshly desires, gave up the lifestyle, and walked with the Lord.
Kalyn, thanks for entering the fray, for being bold to stand up for what you believe.
May 27, 2009 at 4:37 pm
morsec0de
“So you love them, but you do things in order to keep them from being happy? Things that harm no one.”
Loving someone means you want the best for them, which isn’t always going to make them happy!
May 27, 2009 at 4:53 pm
That was good mark
and morsec0de:
i was reading what i said earlier and i realized that it may have come out as sounding mean… i want you to know that is not my intention… we are simply discussing this.
May 27, 2009 at 5:15 pm
I love Mark Nichols. Couldn’t have said it any better.
That’s just it morsec0de, God does want what’s best for them, He loves them.
The marriage issue isn’t as big a deal as homosexuality itself, except that it’s just one more way that our country has been caving in to a land completely void of morality.
May 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm
One more thing for Morsec0de–I don’t desire to control homosexuals, and I’m saddened that so many people who label themselves as “Christians” do. I merely desire them to see God as someone who loves them, not someone who hates them.
May 27, 2009 at 5:21 pm
“That’s just it morsec0de, God does want what’s best for them, He loves them. ”
You realize we live in a secular country, do you not?
Which is why atheists can marry each other. And people can get divorced. And adultery isn’t illegal.
If you’d like to live in a theocracy, they have several in the Middle East…
May 27, 2009 at 5:25 pm
Haha. That’s true.
I’m for people, whether the government legalizes gay marriage or not…I live here, in the U.S., and I want people here to come to the knowledge of God.
May 27, 2009 at 5:18 pm
“What do we do to keep them from being happy?”
Voting to prevent them from getting married, for example.
I imagine if I voted with a majority to keep Christians and Jesus-followers like yourself from getting married, you wouldn’t think that I loved you.
“true happiness is found in God and God alone…”
As an atheist, my happy life stands as evidence to the contrary.
“It is harmful to the people involved in it.”
No, it is not. Not using any normal definition of the word ‘harm’.
“He loves them, and He loves you.”
I don’t believe it exists, so whether or not you claim that it loves me is beside the point.
May 27, 2009 at 5:22 pm
As an atheist, what do you feel like your purpose is? Do you have one? Do you ever feel empty? I know I would feel empty without understanding that my life has meaning.
May 27, 2009 at 5:36 pm
“Do you have one?”
My purpose in life is the purpose I give it. And the purpose given to it by my family and friends.
My life has the meaning that I strive to give it.
No, I don’t feel empty. Except when I haven’t eaten in a few days.
May 27, 2009 at 7:01 pm
morsec0de, if you are an atheist, I assume you are an evolutionist. So, I have question for you:
If you are a product of a chance, how can you be the source of your truth or your purpose? How can something that is so helpless (a product of chance) make their own meaning?
May 27, 2009 at 5:59 pm
first of all i do not vote for any of that stuff(i still disagree with it).i personally believe that we as Christians are called to go and make disciples. not once in the Bible do you see Jesus going and trying to transform the government you see him staying out of it and telling all who will hear it about the kingdom of God.
in the past when people tried to make Christianity a law things became chaotic and eventually it made people religious(just being a christian because they had too)which defeats the whole purpose of Christianity.
i believe we are not supposed to change government but change people. and that is where the love thing comes in. we are called to love them not throw our laws on them. in our loving them they see the truth and want it.
as an atheist… if you do not believe in God, where do we come from? where does the world come from?
May 27, 2009 at 7:31 pm
Leah, most athiests are evolutionists.
May 27, 2009 at 8:12 pm
Let’s see if I can answer all of you and not miss anybody.
“if you do not believe in God, where do we come from? where does the world come from?”
Check out cosmology and biology texts. I have a moderate understanding of the science, but they’d do a better job of it than me.
“Pointing people to God is controlling?”
Not at all. But altering or creating laws that force people to follow your particular brand of Christianity is.
You can preach and promote all you like. I’ll even fight for your right to do so. But forcing other people to follow your religion against their will is not right.
“If someone is injecting heroine into their veins all day everyday, how can you tell them they are wrong?”
Evidence of the harm that it is doing to their body, or the harm that it is making them cause others.
That’s what you lack. All you have is “god said don’t do it”. You don’t have any good evidence that two loving monogamous homosexuals in a marriage harms anyone. The second you do is the second I will take your argument seriously.
“Where do you draw the line?”
Harm. Which we can determine through observation and the scientific method.
“If you are a product of a chance”
I’m not. I (like you, and everyone) am the product of chance and natural selection.
May 27, 2009 at 8:54 pm
morsec0de:
you must have a lot of faith…
May 27, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Zero, actually. I have no need for faith in any facet of my life, or in relation to any of my beliefs.
May 27, 2009 at 9:56 pm
well you have to have tons of faith to believe we are just mere chance.
i find so much comfort in knowing i wasnt an accident.
i dont see how something so amazing such as the human body could be an accident.
i have enough faith to know i was created and am fearfully and wonderfully made, but i dont have enough faith to believe i am just something that came to be… our bodies are too amazing for me to believe that!
May 27, 2009 at 10:13 pm
“well you have to have tons of faith to believe we are just mere chance.”
Strange that you would think that. Especially when I specifically wrote that we were not just chance. Perhaps you need to read over my comments again?
“i find so much comfort in knowing i wasnt an accident.”
That’s lovely. Comfort has nothing to do with fact.
“i dont see how something so amazing such as the human body could be an accident.”
Strangely, we don’t base science on what creationists ‘don’t see’.
“i have enough faith to know i was created and am fearfully and wonderfully made”
Actually, you have enough faith to BELIEVE you were created.
Believing something and knowing something are not the same.
May 27, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Gay marriage will threaten liberty in America:
http://thinkpoint.wordpress.com/2009/05/27/gay-marriage-debate-in-perspective/
May 28, 2009 at 1:18 am
ok your losing me… what is faith to you? cause we obviously believe its two different things…
i believe faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that are not seen…
May 28, 2009 at 1:26 am
“i believe faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things that are not seen…”
Which is poetic, but essentially meaningless.
I believe in things when there is evidence for it.
If there is no evidence for something, or if the evidence actually contradicts that thing, and you still believe in it, then you’re using faith.
Which is why I have zero use for faith.
May 28, 2009 at 2:40 am
the evidence that there is a creator is because there is a creation(the world, man, animals everything else)… there is nothing in existence that does not have a creator. everything that was made has a creator… if you can name me one thing then i will agree with you on this creation issue.
May 28, 2009 at 3:13 am
“he evidence that there is a creator is because there is a creation”
Begging the question.
The evidence that the world is natural is because there is nature.
If everything is created, how would you know? You would have nothing not-created to compare it to.
May 28, 2009 at 3:35 am
exactly… everything we know has a creator so why would the world be any different?
every rocking chair has a designer… you dont have anything without something making it… everything we know has a designer or creator…
nothing makes itself.
you cannot make something out of nothing. its impossible.
also… atoms(the smallest thing) is made from sound… in order for atoms to be created you need sound… in the Bible God SPOKE and it was… he didnt have to build… he just said it and it was done! i find that so amazing! the smallest thing we know was created by sound! haha i love it!
May 28, 2009 at 3:54 am
“everything we know has a creator so why would the world be any different?”
Wrong.
Rocks don’t have creators. Nor mountains. Nor trees. Etc…
You SAY they have a creator. But there’s no evidence of it.
“you cannot make something out of nothing. its impossible.”
And yet that is exactly what you claim your god did.
And it is not what the science claims happened. So I really have no idea what you are arguing about.
“atoms(the smallest thing) is made from sound”
I’m sorry, but that is ridiculous.
May 29, 2009 at 3:01 am
I must commend morsec0de in that I really appreciate the manner that you’re presenting your thoughts. I don’t agree with what you say, but I like the way you say it. You’re respectful while standing your ground. Thank you.
May 30, 2009 at 6:36 am
i agree with Kalyn! your one of the best people i have had a conversation over beliefs with; most people get really upset.
thanks,
Leah
I will be getting back to you shortly with an answer to your last response. i have been kinda busy lately.
August 3, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Good blog, Kalyn. In response to a few of the responses here: And this is why our country has fallen into such a depraved state of mind and debauchery. It has become all about “me”. What makes “me” feel good. What makes “me” happy. Because of this, we have become enamoured with idolatry in the form of what “completes” us. I think everyone has handled themselves pretty well on here with their responses.
So, please allow this 42 year old woman who HAS lived the life of a drug addict, drug dealer, in sexual sin and married to a career as well, to say her piece. For many years it was all about me and what made me happy. And during the course of those years, I always had an empty place that needed filling. So, everytime that empty place would hurt from being empty too long, I would search for something else to fill it with to make me “happy”.
NOTHING, and I mean NOTHING made me happy. No one, nothing, no career, no drug, no sexual pleasure, nothing. It’s because I was so focused on self pleasure that I never looked outside of myself. Even loving someone in a homosexual relationship is not being selfless, because you derive your sense of “self” from how that other person treats you. That is with any relationship. And if that person decides they don’t love you anymore, then you split up and move on to the next person. Always looking for someone to fill that void. That is with any relationship, hetero, bi or homosexual.
So until we, as a society, learn to look beyond ourselves, we will never know the one true selfless and loving God Who created us. Moresecode, you are wrong. There IS proof of the existance of one God Who created ALL living creatures. You are still looking to man, “scientists” who are fallible creatures with answers. Your scientist’s “proof” is a result of their lack of faith of any type. To live a faithless life means there is no reason to get up in the morning, to breathe, to eat. You do these things out of faith without even realizing you do them. Faith is the evidence of things unseen. Can you see the wind? No, you can’t see the wind, but you know it is there. You cannot see oxygen. You breathe it in and out and have faith it is there. Try to stop breathing for a while, you will pass out but your body will resume breathing on its own out of subconscious faith.
The reason so many refuse to believe in God is: 1) because they cannot see Him, so He must not be real, 2) because conviction is often too unbearable for many to bear and 3) because the church as it has become today, has become a mockery to Christ and what He did for us on the cross
The cross was for everyone, religion has made it for only certain people. Yes, I have many friends who are homosexuals. Many raised in church and then cast out of their church’s and families once the church found out. This also places doubt in people’s minds as to whether or not there is a real God and if there is, He must be horrible, so why even try. The church is to be a depiction of God’s body. The church has failed miserably, God has not.
I believe if people will begin to see the church and Christ again as God intended then there will be drastic changes in how people believe. Morsecode, I am sorry you have become so hurt and hardened because you see the church the way it is and not the way it was intended to be. God loves us all, our sin separates us from knowing that true love. God does not expect perfection. He just wants us to fall in love with Him more than the sin we embrace. When you experience that kind of love, then nothing else is ever good enough.
So with that, I want to say Kalyn, this was a good blog and I pray that you continue to allow God to use you to reach out to those who are needing Him (even unknowingly)