When Will We Stop Caring About Who’s Coming Out Next?

• For that matter when was the last time you saw a group of Christians protesting a sin that had nothing whatsoever to do with sex, with the support of the majority of the church?

• davidnjulie797 I’m not sure that adultery is “acceptable” among the majority of people, even though it is discussed more often today. Still, whenever there’s a protest involving the “protection” of marriage, the focus is ALWAYS on homosexuality. There are never protests about adultery. There are never protests about divorce. There are never protests about common-law marriage, which is a social convention that REQUIRES a couple to live in Biblical sin for a specified period of time after which they are then legally accepted as being in some sort of social contract.
  My point isn’t to debate the power of God or Christ’s impact on one who accepts it. That’s not even up to debate in my book. The point of this post was and still is the disproportionate focus on homosexuality as if it is the ONLY issue some Christians seem to believe is a threat to the institution of marriage.
  Another point: I don’t think the majority of homosexuals want to “ram their ‘gayness’ down our throats.” I think there are extremists who want a great deal of attention, sometimes at the cost of the issue of civil rights, which in a country that values freedom as ours does, IS a legitimate debate to have. But then there are Christians who protest funerals of people who have ZERO to do with homosexuality and go so far as to cruelly attempt to connect the cause of death to someone else’s presumed “approval” of another person’s homosexual lifestyle. Those same Christians walk around with placards that boldly proclaim specific people whom God “hates.”
  Those Christians do not speak for me, any more, I think, than the extremists in the homosexual community represent the feelings of mainstream homosexuals. I think most people who are gay, have fallen in love with someone else and hope to marry that person because they feel that there is a specialness associated with the concept of marriage don’t really care what anyone else thinks of them BEING gay. Likewise, I don’t think that in the Civil Rights battles of the 1960s, the majority of blacks who struggled for equal rights weren’t as interested in whether white people AGREED that blacks should be treated equally as they were in whether they actually WERE treated equally.
  What i try to do here is to remove the extremists from the equation, focus on the middle ground, and get to the heart of the issue that isn’t clouded in excessive emotion. I believe we have far too much shouting from the extremes these days. It is in the middle where both sides can begin to stop shouting, start talking, and actually begin HEARING each other.
  The issue of dying to ourselves is a perfect example: that’s a message that will be lost on people who don’t yet HAVE the relationship with Christ that allows that to occur. Telling someone that abandoning everything he feels is of value because you’ll get something so much better has no real meaning until they’ve first seen a true sample of what the better thing actually is.

• Patrick, HI !!!  I will only take up a short amount of time. I would love to have a dialogue with you about this but I am about to turn into bed and I don’t get on this thing on the LORD’s Day. But I just wanted to give you some things to think on till we can converse again.
  You asked me when was the last time you saw Christians protesting adultery. Well it used to be hidden because there was shame associated with it, but sadly it to has become acceptable even though it is a sin.
  But I too could ask you when was the last time a murderer or thief or liars or drunkards protested because they wanted their rights and wanted to cram it down everyone’s throat.  Sin is sin, I can’t look at it any other way than our LORD does.  You also said that there was a Side B group that pledge celibacy, well that is no different than what Christians are supposed to do. If a drunkard becomes a Christian, GOD helps him to stop drinking. Is he any less a drunk, NO this body which is still with each of us is to be crucified daily. As Paul said, I die daily.  This body of flesh in which no good thing dwells will be with us until we die and go to be with the LORD in Heaven. An honest to goodness Truly Born Again Believing Christian knows that he is just a dirty filthy sinner that has been saved by GOD’s grace and mercy through the death of JESUS on the cross to pay our sin debt.  So a gay person who gives their life over to Christ and becomes a Christian is still a sinner, with a sin nature, BUT with the indwelling of the HOLY SPIRIT does not have to live that life anymore. GOD has given him the tools of HIS WORD, HIS SPIRIT and other Believers to be accountable to. Dying daily to self is not always easy but it is worth everything. JESUS thought we were worth it to die for our sins so if , ANYONE, is saved through HIM, they are to be new creatures, old things are to be passed away and all things are to become new, in CHRIST JESUS.   I hope I came through as lovingly as possible but these social media sites are not easy to relay compassion, at least it doesn’t seem to for me.  GOOD NIGHT, I’ll be back on sometime later on Monday.

• davidnjulie797 I agree that homosexuality is no different than any other sin, and I’ve said this before, so there’s no reason I’d get “unglued” by your statement.
  The issue is that many Christians place an uneven amount of attention on homosexuality these days. When’s the last time you saw, for example, a group of Christians protesting adultery?
  The other issue is that becoming a Christian does not, in and of itself, make a gay person straight. I learned recently of a Christian movement within the gay community known as “Side B”, in which gay Christians commit themselves to a life of celibacy: they agree that homosexual acts are sinful, but as they still have no attraction to the opposite sex, they live their life in God-affirming friendships meant to encourage each other not to act on their physical attractions.

• I think the current pope will do a lot towards changing how people think.

• I just want to clarify something about a purely Christian view of the sin of homosexuality.  As a sin, it is no different than murder, stealing, lying, fornication etc.  Now before you all get unglued, I said the sin of homosexuality, the acts of homosexuality.  GOD has never condoned any act of sin and no mater how you want to sugar coat or change what the Bible says about it. The sin of sexual acts of men with men, women with women is and always have been a NO NO in Scripture and until recent history has been illegal in many many states.  Now that said, GOD loves HIS creation and as sinners, we ALL fall into that category, GOD saw the need for HIM to intervene with a payment for the sin of all mankind. That is where the LORD JESUS CHRIST comes in. GOD the FATHER sent GOD the SON to earth to die on a Roman cross to pay for every sin of every person ever given a soul/spirit, which includes the unborn babies that we keep murdering at a rate of 1 1/2 to 2 million a year, but that is another issue.  Once a sinner realizes he has no chance of an eternity outside of a hell that was originally designed for the devil and the fallen angels, then he comes to the conclusion that there must be another way to heaven.  There is only one way and that is through the cross of CHRIST. Once you have asked HIM to forgive you of your sin and to come into your heart and life to save you, HE does.  HE sends HIS blessed HOLY SPIRIT to indwell the newly Born Again Christian to help him to learn and grow in GOD’s WORD. This life will start out like any new life, but GOD’s SPIRIT is not like any earthly teacher. Slowly and methodically HE will purge out the old life and fill you with a new life in CHRIST.  
  As sinners, saved by the amazing power of GOD, through the grace and love of our LORD and SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, old things are passed away, behold all things will become new, in CHRIST. 
  http://wordoftruthlighthouse.blogspot.com

• patricksplaceDianaCTYes, I know that your point was about the environment and the times that we live in more or less necessitate the public coming out.
  My point was that it seems like the media wants to a have confrontational coverage of the issue and yes I understand the “Monday morning quarterbacks” who criticize the coverage but does not want to speak up. Believe me, I get strongly criticized for what I have said and written by many anonymous comments.
  I have been interviewed four times and only two of them made it on the air (not counting the public access cable shows). Two of them were in Washington DC, one by CNN and the other by Tampa Bay Ch 10. The interviews that didn’t make it on the air used more controversial interviews. I tend to think that some news media do not want moderates but look for the extremes.

• DianaCT Just so we’re clear, I want to make sure it’s understood that the point of the post wasn’t to condemn the gay community for coming out, but rather to remark on the environment in which they live that forces them to present what should be — and otherwise would be — personal information as something public they have to proclaim. I understand, and said in the piece, that it takes a great deal of courage to make that kind of a stand, especially given the hate that still exists, alive and well, in today’s society.

  To respond to two points you made:

  First, oddly enough, someone else asked me, in an entirely different discussion just the other day, who my role model was as a kid. Honestly, I never felt like I really had one. There were people I admired for one reason or another, of course, but it never occurred to me to base that admiration on their sexual orientation. Granted, you and I grew up in a time when that wasn’t discussed, anyway. Looking back to the 1970s, one of the most “obvious” gay performers in Hollywood was Paul Lynde, yet the general public didn’t seem to actually understand that he was, in fact, gay. There’s a clip on YouTube of a female contestant who’s obviously infatuated with him. 

  But then most of the people I admired weren’t like me, anyway: they were different enough from me that I wanted to be more like them. That doesn’t make my manner of determining a role model any better than anyone else, but it’s just how I seem to have been wired on that particular point.

  Second, with regard to the media, allow me to play Devil’s Advocate for just a moment. I’ve worked in television long enough to have seen several gay pride parades come and go, as well as viewer reaction to same. Most every year, in fact, we’ll receive a complaint or two — and this has been at every station I’ve worked at — about why we only talk to the most “flamboyant” of parade-goers. And I’ll let you in on a little secret: they’re almost ALWAYS sent in anonymously.

  One even complained that he “stood right there” next to our cameraman, as a reporter interviewed someone wearing sequins and a feature boa. He claimed to be disgusted that this is the kind of person who got what he called much-needed attention, yet that’s who the reporter “chose” to interview.

  Did you catch that? HE STOOD RIGHT THERE and said nothing. He didn’t ask to be interviewed. He didn’t volunteer to display the more “mainstream” side of the gay community. But after it was too late, he complained about what was happening right in front of him. 

  It happens a LOT. In virtually any kind of issue and from any side of that issue. But the result is the same: the media can’t talk to people who aren’t willing to go on the record.

  It is for that reason that I applaud you for being willing to be THAT voice.

• Who did you think of as your role model when you were growing up?
  Up until maybe a decade ago there were no role models for LGBT kids growing up. We were portrayed as the psycho killers and the deviants in the movies. The newspapers always showed gays being rounded up the police. There were no sports players, no actors to be role models, no one to look up to.
  Do you know what it feels like growing up to see only negative images about you?
  You are in the media just take a look at how the media covers marriage equality or anti-discrimination laws. They interview a far right Christian and a far left radical; they never have any moderates interviewed. When they cover a Pride parade who makes the news? Is it the normal looking gay or lesbian pictured or is it a drag queen?
  Take a look at the debate in California over AB1266 the school gender identity integration bill, what does the media focus on? Bathrooms and locker room! The news media ran stories warning of boys pretending to be girls so they can sneak a peek in the girls’ bathrooms. The first gender identity and expression non-discrimination law was passed in 1975; do you know how many people pretended to be women to sneak into the bathroom? Zero, not one person, but still the news media focuses on the mythical “man in a dress” sneaking into the women’s bathroom to rape them. 
  When the hearings were being held on CT anti-discrimination bill some of our strongest allies were the clergy, we even had a bishop speak in favor of the bill. Do you know what was on the evening news? The person that they interview from the right was from a “family institute” talking about bathrooms! They also interviewed someone from our side… me. (I do think that here in CT the media coverage was fair, but in NH it was totally biased against us. The Union Leader ran with the headline “Bathroom Bill Up For A Vote!” They had so much negative press that the sponsors for the bill didn’t even vote for it.)
  Probably only 10% on the far right or the far left are like the people that the media interviews, when the media starts to interviews the middle that is when it will not be a big deal what a celebrity comes out.

• OMG, YES!!!  Thank you!  Bravo for saying so, Patrick!  I’m so tired of hearing it.  It only makes people want to judge more.  This is something that I’m working on for 2014.  LOVE, LOVE, LOVE!!!

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