Greg Atkinson

This video link was sent to me by a friend and reader of this blog. He knew I should see it. I watched it and wept. My heart goes out to this dear man of God. I listened to and appreciate his story, but don’t agree with his lifestyle. Take a look and listen to this man’s story.

Randy McCain’s Story from Neal Campbell on Vimeo.

I reached out to Randy and emailed him twice – asking him to start a conversation with me and invited him to be interviewed on this blog. As of now, I haven’t heard back from him. As I’ve said many times before on this blog, I love homosexuals and have a special place in my heart for them. Where the tension comes in is over whether or not gay Christians should live a life of celibacy like my friend, Justin Lee of The Gay Christian Network. There are “Side B” Christians that are homosexual, but don’t date and live a life of celibacy.

Recently, I was asked to review a new book by Zondervan and found that not only Justin feels this way, but many others. The book I was asked to review is called Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality and is part theology, part memoir. Wesley Hill writes as a gay celibate Christian – someone who believes in the Bible’s prohibition against homosexual practice, but struggles with same-sex attraction.

If you are a part of church ministry  you likely know someone who struggles with same-sex attraction. This book will help you understand their feelings of loneliness and isolation better, and also provides encouragement for them by “waiting” on the Lord.

I’m curious, IF you took the time to watch the entire video above and hear Randy’s story, what are your thoughts? Do you think his moving story of love and romance trumps what Scripture teaches? Is Scripture out of date, out of touch, wrong, misinterpreted? Do you celebrate Randy’s story and his ministry as a senior pastor of a church or do you grieve and wish he would live a life of purity and faithfulness to his tremendous calling in Christ? You know where I stand. Where do you stand?

You know that I’ve blasted “Pastor” Steven Anderson on here several times in the past. Now he’s in the news for hating homosexuals and wishing they were dead.

I’ve tried to have an open and grace-filled conversation about homosexuality on here many times and even asked a gay friend to do a guest post. In his guest post, he referred to the Church as what a lot of people blame for the suicides of gay teens.

Steven Anderson, his church and his big mouth are not helping this situation at all. It makes me furious. Watch for yourself.

To all homosexuals that see this video and hear his association with Christianity: PLEASE know that we don’t all feel this way and he is a small part of a tiny vocal minority. What are your thoughts on Steven’s defense of his beliefs being based on the Bible? I shutter to think of the people that are attracted to his church and listen to his teaching every week.

The following is a guest post from Justin Lee, Executive Director of The Gay Christian Network (http://www.gaychristian.net).

Of course, we all know that there are some hateful, bigoted people out there who call themselves Christians. But most of the Christians I know are wonderful, loving people. They may not believe that homosexuality is compatible with Scripture, but they would never, ever want gay teens to feel worthless, much less commit suicide.

Somehow, between the church’s intent to preach a message of love, and the gay community’s hearing a message of hate, something is going drastically wrong. And it’s up to us to fix it.

I know a little something about this topic. My job is building bridges between the gay community and the church. It’s something I do every day. Unfortunately, in my experience, most Christians are pretty clueless about why their messages are being misheard. They imagine it’s just a problem with the gay community, and that there’s nothing that they as Christians can or should do any differently. I sometimes hear Christians say things like, “That’s just the conviction of the Holy Spirit. If they don’t want to hear it, that’s their fault, not mine.”

It is true, of course, that sometimes people simply refuse to listen to God, and sometimes God hardens people’s hearts. But in this case, a huge part of the problem lies with the church. We have failed to understand those we’re trying to reach, and as a result, we’ve not only pushed them away; we’ve pushed away their friends, family members, and all who care about them. In some cases, we’ve become the Gospel’s worst enemy.

I often ask people this: If you were going to be a missionary to a foreign country where they didn’t speak your language, what would you do before you started trying to share the Gospel? Wouldn’t you first learn everything you could about the language and customs of the people you were going to witness to? You’d have to learn a lot about their language before you could even communicate with them at all, but you’d have to know much more than that to communicate effectively. You’d need to know, for instance, if a “thumbs up” sign is offensive to them, or if failing to remove your shoes before entering someone’s house is a sign of rudeness. If you didn’t learn those things, you’d risk turning them off to your message before you’d even begun. Right?

It’s common sense. But so many Christians fail to learn anything about gay people, their language, or their culture before trying to talk to (or worse, about) them as witnesses. You’d be amazed at how many arguments I’ve seen between gays and Christians that could have easily been prevented if the Christians had just taken the time to listen first.

I grew up Southern Baptist, a committed, Bible-believing Christian. Growing up, I thought I knew everything there was to know about homosexuality: it’s a choice, it’s a sin, and people need to be told that. Then life dealt me an unexpected blow: as I went through adolescence, I discovered with horror that my sexual attractions were for other guys instead of for girls. How could this be? I was a good Christian boy.

It took years before I would admit that I was “gay.” Even after I did, I was still trying everything to become straight: fervent prayer, therapy, “ex-gay” ministries, dating girls; you name it. I was crying myself to sleep night after night, begging God to change these feelings. But they didn’t change.

And as I told my story to other Christians, I discovered something horrible: They weren’t interested in my story. They didn’t want to hear what I’d been through. As soon as they heard I was gay, they would dismiss me as “deceived” or “not a true Christian,” and start preaching at me about God’s destruction of Sodom or the Leviticus command not to lie with a man as with a woman. (Even when I told them I was celibate, it didn’t help.) Years later, I would make a documentary called Through My Eyes about dozens of other young Christians going through the same experience.

So yes, I can tell you firsthand how the church comes across. It’s hard to stay in the church once you’ve been through that… and I’m a committed Christian who wants to stay in the church! If a celibate Christian struggling with his identity isn’t welcomed, then why would a partnered gay man with children expect to be? And if we treat our own that way, is it any wonder that those on the outside want nothing to do with us?

There’s hope for change. Our change. And it begins when we as Christians learn how to listen as Christ would.

*** So, what do you think about what Justin has to say and him sharing his story and experiences?

I post my blogs in advance and was gone last week to the Catalyst Conference, but before I left town, I watched Glee on Tuesday night – which was about spirituality, Christianity, God not answering prayers and how Christians treat homosexuals. I was messed up. I think it was one of the best episodes (powerful and thought-provoking) I’ve ever seen on television.

In what I think was one of the best vocal performances I’ve ever heard, Kurt (who is the gay teen on Glee) sang a very moving rendition of “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by the Beatles. You can download the song HERE. Watch this video and tell me what you think.

Well, friends, it’s been 9 months since I made my plea “Can’t We All Just Get Along?” (a blog you must read and comment on if you haven’t already). 73 comments later (as of this writing), I’m still asking the question. The good news is I heard from some very nice gay Christians that answered “Yes – we can get along.” The bad news is there were some that felt I still needed to change my beliefs in order to show I was “loving” and thus allow us to get along.

What I experienced from some of the angrier, louder, more defensive gay Christians was intolerance – ironically, the very thing they wanted from me was tolerance – they were just intolerant of my beliefs. Simply put, some of you want me to be tolerant of you, but you are not tolerant of me. Let’s define tolerance:

tol·er·ance  [tol-er-uhns]

1. a fair, objective, and permissive attitude toward those whose opinions, practices, race, religion, nationality, etc., differ from one’s own; freedom from bigotry.

I have friends that are Muslim – they don’t expect me to give up my Christian beliefs in order for us to “get along” and I don’t expect them to change their beliefs (though we strongly disagree) – that’s tolerance. Sometimes you need to agree to disagree.

To anyone reading this that may be homosexual: Please know that I love you, respect you, would be honored to be your friend and I DON’T have it all together. Yes, I struggle with  my own issues. We all have our issues and sins. Where we disagree is I consider the homosexual lifestyle (being sexually active and in a relationship with someone of the same sex) to be sinful. You might believe that it’s perfectly normal, not wrong or sinful and that’s okay. We can agree to disagree.

The truth about this discussion is that I think it’s vitally needed, relevant and crucial to Christians today. I also think pastors and Church leaders need to be educated, informed and made aware of these real issues and how to handle them. All people need to know that they are welcome in our churches and that the Church is the one place they can turn to when they struggle, are tempted, scared, confused – you name it – you can turn to Christ and His Church.

Through this blog, I’ve had the pleasure of making a new friend: Justin Lee, founder of the Gay Christian Network. Not only have we chatted on the blog and via email and text, but on the phone as well. He’s a great guy and I consider him a friend. I’ve asked him to do some guest blogs on here to educate, inform and help with awareness of this crucial issue for the Church and hear his heart and perspective. He’s conservative theologically and showed me tolerance – which means the world to me. He’s a great example of being tolerant of another’s beliefs and his answer to my question was “Yes, we can get along.”

I still ask the same question to the rest of you – now 9 months later – in light of this issue of tolerance: Can we get along?

I had to say it at least once. I received some pretty mean email from gay Christians. Just as I have called out Steven Anderson several times for being mean, off-base and just plain wrong, I simply called out the billboards that were posted around Dallas for misrepresenting Scripture.

I thought I made it pretty clear that I’m not anti-homosexual and I’m not a person without unconditional love and grace and mercy. Is it not humanly and spiritually possible for me to love and welcome a gay person to my church without agreeing that their lifestyle is not a sin?

Do I really have to compromise my view and understanding of God and Scripture in order to not be called anti-homosexual or homophobic? I’m not anti-liar, anti-thief, anti-adulturer, anti-gossipper, anti-glutton, anti-pride – or any sin you want to pick. BUT, though I love, accept and see them with eyes and a heart of grace, I lovingly encourage them to, as Jesus said, “Go and sin no more.” He didn’t preach, shame, ridicule or punish. He simply said “Go and sin no more” (to a woman caught in adultery).

Can I not look a gay man or woman in the eyes and say I love you even though I don’t agree with your lifestyle? Do I really have to condone what one is doing to be seen as loving? I have friends that struggle with pornography (most men, if not all, have looked at porn at some time in their life – women, too). Can I not hang out with, love, accept and be a good friend to my friends that struggle with porn and still encourage them to keep pure eyes and day by day give it over to God?

As to those that emailed me about the 2 billboards referencing the Roman Centurion and the Eunuch. Let’s make a HUGE leap of logic and historical understanding of those passages and say that both the Roman Centurion’s servant and the eunuch were gay – that’s a a big “IF”. But let’s say they were, all that implies is that Jesus healed a gay servant (I don’t think anyone Jesus healed was sinless or perfect) and that Philip baptized a gay man. We don’t have to clean ourselves up to come to Jesus, as we all know.

So, if we go along with their interpretation of Scripture, a gay servant got healed and a gay man got baptized. Neither case affirms their lifestyle. You can be gay and get healed and you can be gay and accept Christ and get baptized. That doesn’t mean that “Jesus affirmed” them as the billboard says.

However, when the Bible does speak up on the issue of homosexuality (not leaps of logic or guessing or assuming – really speaks) – it’s crystal clear on it’s view of homosexuality as a sin (in both the Old and New Testaments).

Hear me: if a gay person said “Let’s go hang out… watch a movie… go bowling… catch a Texas Rangers’ baseball game… watch the Cowboys” — you name it. If a gay person wanted to be my friend, they could with no problem whatsoever. They would know my view of Scripture and that I didn’t approve of this one area of their life and would love to see them live a pure and holy life before God – but, it wouldn’t keep me from hanging out with them and being their friend.

I am a person FULL of grace. I have been forgiven much in my life. I do NOT have it all together. I sin all the time. I screw up. I blow it. I need grace and mercy in my own life, therefore, I freely give it to others.

Ask me to be your friend, love you, pray for you, be there for you – whatever – just don’t draw a line in the sand and say if I don’t cast aside Scripture and believe that your lifestyle is okay before God, we can’t be friends or I’m anti-homosexual – that’s being intolerent and not respectful of my personal beliefs.

I want to hear from all of you, but especially the gay Christians that don’t agree with me. I  don’t delete comments on here unless they’re spam or vulgar. If you have something to say, say it. If you want to email me, email me. If you want to meet me in person (leaders from the 5 DFW churches), then meet me. Do you think of me as antiquated or mean because I hold to one understanding of Scripture? Have I not made myself very clear that I would love you and treat you with respect? Is that enough?

I go to a lot of Texas Rangers games. I also went to watch the Cowboys practice at their new stadium (which is across the street from Rangers Ballpark). On the interstate drive to the 2 major stadiums there have been put up highly controversial billboards by 5 churches in the DFW area. Below are the 2 billboards that I saw on my drive to the stadium.

These billboards caught my eye and I immediately pulled out my iPhone and looked up the Scripture references. Talk about twisting Scripture! Please hear my heart – I love ALL people. I know gay people. I treat them kindly and with respect. I know every week that I’m at my church that there are gay people in the congregation. They are welcome at our church and we believe in unconditional love and grace and mercy.

BUT to twist Scripture like these billboards do and take advantage of clueless people driving down the road that think their references are true and don’t have the ability or desire to actually look the verses up and read them for themselves is wrong.

Several times in the past I’ve started to blog about the issue of homosexuality and the Church. I’ve written drafts of blogs, but never posted them. You see, I usually err on the side of grace and think there are a lot of cruel and mean people in “the Church” that need to see gay people as Christ sees them.

However, I still believe that homosexuality is a sin (just as I sin all too often myself and have my own struggles). Where I disagree with my homosexual brothers and sisters is when they twist, remove or lie about Scripture. The Bible is very clear on this issue and that’s not going to change – even if it’s the 21st Century.

I would love to meet with these 5 DFW churches and their leadership (this is the website for the campaign). I would like to hear their reasoning and explain how they can take two very well known stories in Scripture and use them for their basis of their campaign. I’m extremely disappointed in their misuse of Scripture and what I believe is a type of deception.

Hear me people of DFW: the characters in the stories listed on the billboards were not gay – it’s simply not true. What are your thoughts?