The church's response to homosexuality (Part 2)

I don't remember for sure the preacher's exact words, with one exception, but I remember what he communicated and how the congregation responded. What happened is still Exhibit A for me of how a preacher and church should not address homosexuality.

It came in the mid-1990s during an evangelistic service hosted by a local church. The evangelist was telling a story about a man who was acting effeminately, and his punchline -- clearly intended to produce a laugh -- included a slur word for a homosexual. That was grievous enough, but the congregation's response grieved me even more. Seemingly everyone -- although probably not every one -- burst into laughter.

I feel certain neither the preacher nor the church intended these results, but here are some messages I think they were transmitting by those words and actions to anyone there who might have been struggling with homosexual behavior or the temptation to give in to homosexual urges or same-sex attraction:

-- We don't value you as an image-bearer of God, only as fodder for our jokes.

-- We consider your particular, sinful proclivity to be in a category by itself, worthy of our laughter but not our loving concern.

-- We don't want you to come to us in your need, because your kind of sin or temptation should be squelched, not shared.

-- We doubt this gospel we believe and preach has anything for you, so we are going to belittle the kind of sinner you are instead of offering you mercy.

Against those attitudes we have Jesus and God's Word.

We have Jesus, who loved those image-bearers of God considered the dregs of society during His time on earth. We have Jesus, who suffered and died as a substitute for all kinds of sinners.

We have God's Word, which testifies in I Corinthians 6:9-11: "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

That's right: Homosexuals are right in there with all kinds of sinners, including idolaters, who definitely include all of us. The same gospel that saves the covetous and thieves and revilers and idolaters is the gospel that saves homosexuals.

Do we believe this? Will we think and live like this? The church's identification and mission to the world are tied up in how we answer those questions.