Thoughts on Homosexuality

Hey everyone. I have a confession to make which I feel you guys deserve to know.
I am a sinner.
Yeah, HUGE shocker.  I know everyone just assumed I was an angel sent from God, haha. Very recently, the Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage as legal in all 50 states. Social media blew up and so did all the news outlets. There was a lot of positivity, but there was some negativity as well, and it got me thinking. Thinking so much as to where I got my phone out while I was still in bed and started typing this post. (I may or may not be still in bed) Well anyways, according to the Bible, homosexuality is a sin. In Leviticus 18:22, it says:

Do not practice homosexuality, having sex with another man as with a woman. It is a detestable sin.

and also in 1 Timothy 1:8-10,

For the law was not intended for people who do what is right. It is for people who are lawless and rebellious, who are ungodly and sinful, who consider nothing sacred and defile what is holy, who kill their father or mother or commit other murders. 10 The law is for people who are sexually immoral, or who practice homosexuality, or are slave traders, liars, promise breakers, or who do anything else that contradicts the wholesome teaching

and a few other verses. The way people have been posting about it, I thought half the Bible would have been talking about how "wrong" homosexuality was. But did you know homosexuality is not the only sin out there? I know, I know, I was soo surprised when I learned that at age 4, when I found out bullying my younger brother was sinful. And later on when I found out dishonoring and disobeying my parents (multiple times) was one of the Ten Commandments. Do you know what else is a sin? Well, a lot of things are considered sinful, and would probably end up being a novel, so I'll list just a few:

• Sexual immorality, which is also known as premarital sex (1 Corinthians 7:1-5 and 1 Timothy 1:10 as stated above)
• Lying (Leviticus 19:11)
• Idolatry, which today can be like obsessing over a sport or certain celebrity (Exodus 20:3-6)
• Rebellion (1 Samuel 15:23 and 1 Timothy 1:9 as stated above)

and my favorite, hypocrisy. And my oh my, there are so many verses in the Bible about hypocrisy. In fact, there appear to be more verses about hypocrisy than homosexuality. Here's one passage that kind of sums it up from Matthew 7:1-5,

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. 2 For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged. 

3 “And why worry about a speck in your friend’s eye when you have a log in your own? 4 How can you think of saying to your friend, ‘Let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,’ when you can’t see past the log in your own eye? 5 Hypocrite! First get rid of the log in your own eye; then you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend’s eye.

And the last time I checked, none of these sins are illegal in the United States or any other country. I saw an article about a couple saying that they were going to get a divorce if same-sex marriage ever became legal. But did you know that divorce is also a sin (Mark 10:2-12)? and, by the way, it is also legal, but I don't see anyone throwing stones at divorced men and women. You're probably thinking now, "Okay, Sarah, what's your point here?" My point here is that we have no right to judge. (I am so guilty of judging btw so this is also a note to myself) Hypocrisy is just as bad as the few sins I pointed out. God does not want us to show judgement towards our brothers and sisters here on earth, only love. Because one, God is the only who can judge us, and two, when we discriminate against someone who isn't like us or doesn't agree with our beliefs, it isn't any more wrong than any other sin!!! (if that makes sense) Just because I sin differently than you, doesn't make me a better person. We are all born sinners. It's been in our nature, ever since Adam and Eve walked the earth. So who are we to judge? We're not Jesus. And do you know what the two greatest commandments are?

The Most Important Commandment

34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. 35 One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?”

37 Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:34-40

(If you've read my blog before, you'll know I blogged about this verse a few months ago. I just went through my blog while writing this and noticed it haha) The greatest commandment wasn't, "discriminate against gay people and not give them equal rights and hate every other sinner" if that's what you were expecting. (sorry, not sorry.) Jesus teaches us to LOVE. Not hate. Love Him, love the people around you. Love is everything. Without love, it's all just war and killing. (Literally, like I'm not even kidding if you've been paying attention to the news lately.) Jesus is the biggest example of love. He didn't hang out with all the "perfect" "sinless" people; He hung out with the people who were shamed in society. The "unpopular" people. The ones who got bullied. The ones who didn't have a lot of money. As Christians (and just as people in general), we're supposed to bring others closer to Christ through love and compassion, NOT through degrading, humiliating, and discriminating each other. Which is why so many people leave the faith because they feel judged by fellow believers for their mistakes and things they cannot change about themselves. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Treat your LGBT friends as you would your straight friends. Love them as you would anybody else. Let them have the same rights as you have. What kind of satisfaction does one get from hating and discriminating against one another? God is the only one who can judge, so we should be bettering ourselves for the afterlife and not each other.

In conclusion, to everyone reading this, Christian and Non-Christian, let's together stop the judging and the hypocrisy and move forward in love and happiness. There are other more terrible things going on in this world that deserve our time and attention rather than focusing on how to keep the LGBT community unequal from everyone else. I mean come on, how about focusing on lowering taxes? Lowering college costs in the U.S.? Finding a cure for cancer? Ending world hunger? I think those are pretty big issues that need our attention. Big enough issues to warrant another blog post. (stay tuned)

And just a FYI if it wasn't obvious already in my post, I love you all whether you're straight, gay, black, white, green, striped, etc, etc. (well if you're striped or green and it's not a tattoo or marker, I'm a little concerned and I think you should probably see a doctor)

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xoxo (I mean it),
sarah