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Christians, Here’s Why You Don’t Have to be Afraid to Support Gays

Christians, Here’s Why You Don’t Have to be Afraid to Support Gays

Last updated on: March 21, 2017 at 9:49 am by Susan Cottrell

Christians, Here’s Why You Don’t Have to be Afraid to Support Gays 2017-03-21T09:49:25-05:00 Susan Cottrell

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“Prejudices are breaking down. Walls are breaking down. Pastors are rethinking their entrenched positions. Parents are choosing their child over learned doctrine that doesn’t reconcile with their lived experience or with the heart of God.”

I wanted to share this, from a Mom who is part of my private Facebook support group for Moms of LGBTQI children. I’m pretty sure there are a lot of moms — and dads — who feel the same way.

Being only two years into this journey with my son, I still once in a great while read people’s anti-accepting comments and blogs and wonder “am I being deceived?” Oh how I wish Jesus would have just come out (haha) and SAID what many of us know he’s showing us. But then I think… this journey is such a challenge, for us on “this” side, for those on “that” side, and for our gay friends and family caught in the middle. And challenges shape us, force us to draw near to God. If we allow them to, challenges CHALLENGE our thinking, our past teachings, make us take a look at our convictions (are they Biblical, just what we’ve been taught, or just the way we “feel”), encourage us to open our hearts AND our minds, to delve deeper, and to fervently pray our hearts out to the Lord.

I love her thoughts here. When I started writing and speaking about LGBTQI issues, I kept saying, “PLEASE God, don’t let me lead anyone astray!” I love Jesus with all my heart, and that’s the last thing I would want to do.

I felt like I’d stepped onto a high wire without a harness. I prayed not to fall before I reached the other side… and it felt like a perilous walk.

But God kept confirming me in gentle ways.

People would comment that they could see the love of Jesus in what I shared, or they felt that someone had finally heard them and loved them as is.

That is the whole point. How could that not be God’s doing? Of course, I’d have preferred a text directly from God early on saying I was doing and believing the right thing, but God is more subtle than that.

Jesus taught outright, “I accept and love ALL people.” Period. He did not add regardless of orientation, just like he did not add regardless of race, or age, or gender. Many Christians seem to need that, and if he had, they would have just moved on to another battle.

Perhaps God gave us the journey this way to focus on relationship instead of on right and wrong.

Perhaps there was a plan here to encourage us to dive deeper into the road Jesus laid out for us, of love first, love last, and love throughout. Perhaps there was a plan to help us deepen our love for and relationships with those we may have been taught did not “deserve” our love and attention, and those we were taught are somehow “less than.”

Jesus did not add anything. Love. Period.

Many Christians add things so that they can have another platform to stand on and be right about. It has led, and continues to lead to marginalization and oppression of groups of people – simply because of who they are.

Focusing on right and wrong is living off the tree of knowledge. That was the whole point of the two trees. The tree of life is about focusing on the Spirit of God leading us in all truth. Leading us in love, and in relationship.

That gave me great comfort and I hope it does for you too.

Now, I have no doubt that God is moving — not just in me but in so many others.

Prejudices are breaking down. Walls are breaking down. Pastors are rethinking their entrenched positions. Parents are choosing their child over learned doctrine that doesn’t reconcile with their lived experience or with the heart of God and teachings of Jesus. I see it every day.

So much is changing, and I believe we are in a time of reformation, a time when people are stepping out and learning how to unconditionally love others, and learning that they themselves are indeed unconditionally loved by God.

Now there are many of us walking that wire. We know we are not alone, and it’s much closer to the ground.

I long since stopped being afraid. I know I am living in truth, and on the right side of God’s heart and the right side of history.

I affirm LGBTQI because of my faith, not in spite of it.

All it required was trust in that still small voice. And it showed me that I was hearing God all along.

You can hear that too. You have nothing to be afraid of.

We have comprehensive video courses helping parents love, accept & affirm their LGBTQI children; helping LGBTQI heal shame from family, church and community; and helping those in the faith community be fully inclusive. Please click here. 🙂

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