Tolerate This!

"Tolerance"- This nine letter word has gained a lot of momentum through the years. Maybe "intolerance" is even more common. You know, the idea that all us Christians are just "intolerant." It's amazing to me the fact that simply saying that something someone is doing is wrong is considered "intolerant," but the fact that you are telling me I'm "intolerant" is, in fact, you "tolerating" my "intolerance." Even though me telling you that you were wrong was "intolerant," you telling me that I'm wrong is just fine. Confused yet? I know I am.

I was watching Conan last night and Jesse Tyler Ferguson was one of the guests. Jesse is an actor from the comedy series "Modern Family" that is on ABC. They went through a really nice and interesting interview that was fun and comedic, and then Conan said, "I have to plug this in here. You recently started a foundation? What's that about?" Jesse then began to talk about "tie the knot." Tie the knot is a foundation that sells bow ties to raise funds and awareness for "marriage equality" for the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. So I went to tietheknot.org to check it out. On the website they are comparing this fight for "marriage equality" to the civil rights movement. Now, I'm familiar with the concept, and I'm sure all of you are as well, but I was shocked that a man who seems so educated could make a claim so outrageous. Well, that comparison led me to search reasons why the LGBT community would make such claims. They state that they are a small minority that is being "oppressed" by the majority, similar to blacks being oppressed by whites. Not exactly in the same ballpark, or even universe, is it? I also came across an article that attacked a Catholic bishop, or as they say bigot, who was simply stating why he believed homosexuality was wrong and even immoral. I also watched an interview on Hardball with Chris Matthews in which Chris and Congressman Barney Frank were having a blast attacking Tony Perkins from the Family Research Council about his statements against gay marriage in which the title of the video (Barney Frank 'wipes the floor' with bigot Tony Perkins in same-sex marriage debate), calls Mr. Perkins a bigot for simply not supporting gay marriage, and rather supporting Biblical standards and definitions.

The Bible is very clear on the issue of homosexuality. Paul writes in Romans that it's unnatural. Leviticus is very harsh calling it an abomination. So clearly, to a Christian, it is immoral. Why can we not say that? Why is it "intolerant" to say something is wrong, but "tolerant" to call me a bigot for expressing my opinion? Understand this, I don't hate homosexuals, and neither does God. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the WORLD" not, "God so loved everyone but homosexuals," but that doesn't mean we simply say nothing. The world today seems to think tolerance means love, but that couldn't be farther from the truth. Tolerance is a passive word. It means to "allow the practice, or act of without prohibition." Tolerance actually is synonymous with "permitting." Would you permit your son to use drugs? Would you permit your daughter to having multiple sexual relationships with multiple men? NO! You would prohibit it! Why? Because you love them! Love is an action word, not a passive one! When you love someone, you show it by what you do. When they do something wrong you tell them because you love them. That's why Christians seem like bigots. We don't hate the LGBT community! We love them! We have our convictions that we are free to act on through the 1st Amendment, which also protects our freedom to tell you our convictions. It's in fact more intolerant to call me a bigot for expressing my beliefs, than for me to express a belief that you simply feel uncomfortable with or hostile to.

Listen Christians, this is not a license to walk out into the world and tell everyone they are a horrible person. None of us should do that! We need to look upon people with love. We need to care for and foster them. I am not trying to single out the gay community, simply open up eyes to see. Paul says in 1 Timothy, that Timothy needs to stay in Ephesus so that he can COMMAND the people to steer away from the false teachers and that his attitude in doing so should be one of love. It's not to establish dominance or fear, but to show the people of Ephesus that he loves them enough to tell them they are doing wrong. In 2 Timothy, Paul tells to "preach the Word." That is a command all of us need to take. Regardless of what people may say or think, we need to stick to the Word of God, and preach it with love and humility. Homosexuality is a sin. We all sin. None of us are better than anyone. We all at one time need to hear this message, and the homosexual community is in that same boat. Love them, care for them, and preach the Word!

To any LGBT who may read this, please don't think I'm targeting you specifically. I've written, and given countless messages, and had debates with Christians and non-Christians, Atheists and agnostics, about all kinds of topics and issues. I simply came across this subject, and was led to write about it. None of it was written with any intent to offend or demean, simply to reveal.