Last week on my way to class, I came across a picture on Instagram. The picture was a screenshot of the headline of an article someone wrote for BET called “From Eddie Long to Kim Burrell, Why Millennials Need to Abandon the Church.”
The headline had many religious critics. I had a feeling none of them read the article, so decided to read it myself. Later that night, I watched the documentary in the article titled, “Holler If You Hear Me: Black and Gay in The Church.”
I encourage you to read the article and watch the documentary here, and then come back to finish this article. This will tie directly into our topic this week.
Welcome back, today we will discuss counter-productivity in the church. I believe that if we, as the Church, want to prove that we really do “love the sinner but hate the sin,” then we need to face the music about our own counter-productive ways. What better way to do so than discuss the understanding of homosexuality?
Remember, this is not about hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is saying one thing and doing another instead. This is about counter-productivity, an unfortunate result of our hypocritical ways.
Our task as Christians is to bring people to Christ. Part of that goal is preaching God’s word. The Word is very straightforward and strict.
Christians often come down hard on homosexuality because the Bible is that way. It’s also hard on “sexually immoral sins,” but we, well…
Counter-production is not doctrine problem or a Bible problem, it is a church problem or a people problem. It’s people who have begun to use doctrine to persecute homosexuals.
That is not our job. In fact, we constantly complain we are being persecuted, but look at us. Take a hard look at ourselves.
What I love about homosexuals is they live, despite their obvious persecution. They truly love, despite being hated.
When we use our doctrine to persecute, instead of help, we drive people out of the church. Then, we, the people - not the Bible - become counter-productive. When people abuse doctrine, that is not only dangerous, it is also counter-productive.
The Bible says to flee sexual immorality because it’s an internal sin (1 Corinthians 6: 18, I was paraphrasing). But, it is saying to flee a sin, not a person.
If you use 1 Corinthians 6:18 to justify fleeing the person, how do you bring the person to Christ who, per the Bible, will then help that person and forgive them of their sins? This is counter-production at work.
Even if a homosexual decides they are happy and will not change for anyone or anything, your job is to love that person. Like I said, using doctrine to justify fleeing a person is total… That was not a biblical word I was going to use, by the way.
Whether I am ashamed of this piece or not is honestly a toss-up… Wait, no it isn’t. We cannot presume that everything we do in the name of the Lord is of the Word of God. The Word of God is a sacred tool designed to help others the way Christ would, not a whip used to hurt others because we disagree on a personal level.
We need to watch our counter-production and combat it to the best of our ability. Therefore, we can better serve Christ and make him known.
