Last Year, I gave my presentation at the Student Psychology Academic Research Conference (SPARC) at the University of West Georgia on the topic on how Christians should treat the homosexual community. After my presentation, one of my fellow classmates expressed that she enjoyed my presentation and told me that she needed more Christian friends like me. I was puzzled by what she meant by her statement and asked her why she needed Christian friends like me. I felt that I was nothing special when viewing people in the Christian community. My classmate began to tell me how most of the Christians she has met have been judgmental people towards her and people like her who did not believe in God. Unfortunately, I could not tell her that she was wrong.
I have been raised in the church throughout my life, and cannot remember a time that I was not in a church for over a month, yet I still sometimes feel anxious going into a church. Why is this? When did a community of people that were once persecuted for their religion begin persecuting people that are not like them now? Why does the church have a bad reputation in the community we are in now? Why was I viewed as "one of a kind", because I presented research discussing why we should love people unconditionally? I did not need to present research to tell Christian's to love people. I feel that a big issue that the church receives such a bad reputation is due to Christians being seen in the community spouting hatred in the name of God. The people that write, "God hates homosexuals" and protest are completely wrong.
If you look through the Bible, nowhere does the it promote hatred towards people. The Bible even states in 1 John 2:9 that, "whoever says he is in the light and hates his brother is still in darkness." The biggest rebuttal to that statement is that homosexuality is a sin, and God hates sin. I think that we as a community need to understand that sin is an action, and a sinner is a human being. We may not all be Christians, but we are all humans, and in God's eye we are all loved by him. Our world is always changing and new lifestyles can make people begin to question what they can deem morally right or wrong. I'm not saying that you should change your morals to make people happy, but to just treat people in your community with care and respect no matter what they believe.
So how did I respond to the classmate that wanted more Christian friends like me? I told her that Christians like me are out there and that we are not all judgmental people. I told her that I would love and respect her as a person, no matter who she is as a person. I told her that the church was once in the center of many towns and cities and seen as a place of safety, salvation, and love. My classmate told me that she wished she knew of a church that could be like the one I described to her. I told her that type of church still existed.
