"Love the Sinner - Hate Your OWN Sin"

Chapter 6: Elephant 1 - Homosexuality

“Consider this: Could someone stand in your community of believers – whether a local church or small group – and confess to homosexual inclinations without the risk of what can only be described excommunication? Does such an inclination automatically mean, ‘You can be in the church, just not part of the family?’” – Brent Crowe

This is the first chapter in which Crowe addresses one specific issue, the first elephant in the room. He begins with a narrative illustrating the exclusion that homosexuals face in many churches today, where the grace and love of God is not extended to them. Crowe maintains that he is not writing this “out of some righteous indignation I have toward people in the church, but out of a deep sense of conviction I have upon reflection of my own journey. You see, I’ve been guilty . . . of replacing an honest look at the Scriptures with quick and easy slogans I’ve heard some preacher say” (89). Crowe writes that responding “with a Christlike love to those struggling with a homosexual lifestyle” is one of the greatest tasks facing the church today, but “as we choose who we will demonstrate Christ’s love to, we display the worst kind of arrogance” (89). Crowe clearly sees a failure in the church’s approach to this issue and the people involved. However, it is also clear that Crowe accepts the premise that homosexuality is a form of sin. This is the premise on which the rest of his discussion is founded.

·      What is Homosexuality? Can One Be Born Gay?

Here, Crowe brings up central questions, like the difference between orientation and behavior; i.e., “Is homosexuality something you are, something you do, or both”?  (90). Crowe writes that the “source of homosexuality is yet to be scientifically or clinically discovered and may never be understood, and therefore he avoids examining the “various studies that at the end of the day raise more questions than answers” (90). Instead, he takes this time to define the terms he is working with. First, Crowe clarifies that “The Bible does not condemn homosexual inclination or orientation; rather, the Scriptures clearly condemn homosexual activity or behavior,” and that “orientations don’t necessarily determine identity” (90).  Crowe maintains that homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle, and he interprets the Scriptures to be clearly against homosexual practice. However, Crowe reminds his audience that we are all oriented towards sin because of our fallen nature; we do not, though, have to act on those sinful desires. Crowe defines homosexuality as ‘both the desire to and engagement in homosexual behavior’” (91).

“The follower of God doesn’t find his or her identity in sexual orientation, but rather in Christ” (91).

·      How to Believe: Homosexuality

o   What does the explicit moral will of God say concerning homosexuality?

Based on the six biblical texts covering homosexuality, Crowe defines homosexuality as a sin. He takes care, however, to note that “no one sin is more respectable than others; all sin breaks the heart of God and should therefore break the hearts of his followers” (92).

o   Genesis 19:1-13

Crowe summarizes this text (and likewise, in the sections that follow), giving context and a description of the events. Since we’ve discussed these passages in class, I won’t summarize them again here. However, what I find particularly insightful about Crowe’s writing here is that he reminds us of the “events leading up to [the destruction of the city],” and that “Abraham’s intercessory prayer demonstrates the role of godly people within a culture, who should be all about compassion” (94).

o   Leviticus 18:22; 20:13

Crowe writes that although some may discount these verses as being part of an outdated or irrelevant legal code, they are still relevant today because they demonstrate “the acceptable way to live before a holy God” (95). Additionally, while some “advocates for homosexuality say that these prohibitions are no longer relevant today because they are found in the Old Testament,” the “problem with this argument is that the New Testament reaffirms the authority and relevance of Old Testament prohibitions against homosexual behavior” (95). These prohibitions are therefore, according to Crowe, not only part of the “ceremonial law but part of God’s everlasting moral law” as well (95).

Crowe addresses the issue of the church’s association with being anti-homosexual, and  includes a warning to those who “would say a strong ‘Amen!’ Destestable!’ to the above truths concerning homosexuality”: “Truth need not always be communicated through a megaphone on the mountaintop, but sometimes through tears in the valley. If pride, not compassion, characterizes your attitude over this sin, even though you may b a child of God, you certainly have an unchristian attitude” (96). Crowe clearly believes that the church has (in general) approached this topic of sin from a place of pride and with a lack of compassion.

o   1^st Corinthians 6:9-10

Crowe first explains that the term “unrighteous” used here speaks of unrighteous people in general, “not believers who are in danger of losing their salvation if they committed any of the sins in the catalogue that follows. Unrighteousness refers to those who continually do wrong or who live as if God’s moral standards don’t exist . . . [so] the list describes those who are not followers of God” (98). Crowe’s analysis is basically that those who practice homosexuality (or any of the other lifestyles mentioned in this passage) and are unrepentant of that lifestyle will not be in heaven (98). Paul was not referring to “those who struggle, repent, and continue to struggle” (98). However, choosing to follow Christ means surrendering your life to him, and the cost of following him means turning from sin and giving up the lifestyles that are sinful, though we may consider them to be part of our identity.

o   1^st Timothy 1:8-11

Here Crowe compares the New Testament text to the 10 Commandments of Exodus, and lines up the sin of “men who practice homosexuality” with the seventh commandment, “you shall not commit adultery,” which “speaks to anything outside of God’s intended purpose for sex,” including “lust, unclean thoughts, fooling around, rape, incest, and, yes, homosexuality” (100-101).

o   Romans 1:18-32

Crowe writes that “the strength of this passage is that it demonstrates the downward spiral a society takes toward the acceptance and celebration of homosexuality,” beginning with the state where the “unrighteous become oblivious to the obvious truth (verses 18-21)” (102).

·      Extending Grace and Forgiveness

Crowe’s focus for the last part of this chapter is to “focus on how our freedom in Christ enables us to extend grace and forgiveness” and “motivate us to serve others – even those living in direct contradiction to God’s moral laws – so that they too might become followers of Christ” (103).

o   Understand your role: to be Abraham, not God

Reminding readers of the first biblical text discussed in this chapter, Crowe writes that “because we have escaped judgment only by the grace of God, we should therefore desire that no one experience the fate we all deserved,” and should respond to this issue (as with any other sin) with an attitude of service and compassion (103-104).

o   Communicate the truth about sin with a broken heart

Crowe states that “we must communicate the truth about sin, but only after our hearts first break for sinners. Sin fractures every human soul. In our conversations, we must never be guilty of positioning one sin as more ‘sinful’ than another” (104). He then reminds us that our sins do not define our identity, as Christians, but rather our identity is only found in Christ. This means that we are to treat those who struggle with the sin of homosexuality as fellow sinners, even if we don’t struggle with the same sin: “Remember, we’re not given a right standing before God because we are heterosexual versus homosexual” (104).

o   Avoid bumper-sticker theology

Slogans like “God didn’t create Adam and Steve!” are incomplete, because they fail to offer a thorough analysis of biblical texts, and they are incorrect because they fail to “represent the attitude of Christ” (104-105). One of the most insightful ideas in this section is that “It’s important to remember that an incomplete argument is more likely to represent Satan; we only need to remember the fall of man to find evidence of this” (105).

o   Love the sinner, hate your own sin

Crowe’s subtitle here stems from the common statement that Christians should “Love the sinner and hate the sin,” but explains that this oversimplifies “very complex sexual issues and baggage,” because “those living a homosexual lifestyle find much of their identity rooted in their sexuality” (105). Crowe addresses the issue of the church’s hostility to homosexuals and the perception that Christians are “antihomosexual,” though the church should be a place of grace and forgiveness (106). Instead of focusing on the sins of others, Crowe writes that we need to change our attitudes and remind ourselves that we, too, are in need of redemption for sin: “maybe the best place to start is by loving the sinner and hating my own sin” (106).

Overall, I thought Crowe’s discussion of this “elephant” was insightful, compassionate, logical, and well-supported. I agree with Crowe on the premise that homosexuality is a sin, and the evidence for this belief, as well as the way we should approach those who practice homosexuality are the main points of his chapter. However, this premise was not really a gray area for me to begin with. My main critique is that he doesn’t address what I see as the more complicated gray areas of this issue, which include whether or not churches should ordain homosexual ministers. Crowe seems to keep his discussion of homosexuality on a very reasonable, but basic level. However, while he does not explicitly mention issues like ordination, etc., I do think that it would be easy to predict where he would stand, based on the rest of the chapter.