From: sienna@yabbs
To: all@yabbs
Subject: Winds of Change
Date: Wed Jul 27 20:09:51 1994
Ok....here we go....

We all know how I feel about the church...one of the main issues in the 
church right now which is just STEEPED in hypocrisy is the issue regarding 
homosexuality....

Now, my best friend is homosexual, and has been since we were kids. I have 
watched him struggle and struggle with this. He is a christian, but 
unfortunately he is condemned by the church for being homosexual and 
condemned by others in the gay community because he has religious 
beliefs....


I read some things on this subject which I am going to try and paraphrase.
Bear with me...

If we, as Christians, are going to minister to gay people in Christ's 
name, we first must stop viewing homosexual orientation and homesexual 
persons in the abstract. We must allow them to become PERSONALIZED to 
us...As we stop keeping homosexuality at a distance, as an abstract, then 
we can see it up close, with a face, as something that happens to REAL 
PEOPLE. And we can begin to feel the pain of bearing a stigma and 
experiencing the oppression and fear as though it is something that were 
happing to us.

        We would much rather deny that there could be people
        out there who have different needs - instead choosing 
        to condemn those whose views are different as being
        sinful and wrong. This has been programmed into us from
        early childhood.

        People are Christians first, human beings second, and homo-
        sexual last...

        It isn't our place to judge...it is our place to LOVE.

Some people don't want to understand. And there are many unqualified moral 
judges sitting in a lot od church pews. It is interesting to note that 
Jesus said nothing about this issue. But he DID say a lot about judging.

        A person's homosexuality has no bearing upon whether
        or not he is good or evil. It has no bearing upon 
        whether or not that person has accepted Christ as thei
        Lord and Savior, or whether that person believes that
        Jesus died for them. Their sexuality is only one aspect
        of their lives - just as it is one aspect of yours, re-
        gardless of whether you are gay or straight.

        We as Christians are called to love one another as _our-
        selves_, not to love one another except when the other
        person's sexuality is different than our own...






More to come.....