Originally Posted by Omahabound
For Christians there are two lives to be led, one among sinners and one among brothers and sisters. Among sinners, the duty of the Christian is to proselytize and show the example of Jesus (an impossible task by the way). Among brothers and sisters, Christian life is as if they are one big family. In that family there are rules to be maintained and those who refuse to abide by those rules are to be cast out of the group until they repent.
While Christians are called to love first and foremost, love is not unconditional. Jesus says He rebukes us because He loves us. That doesn't mean he accepts, approves, or freely forgives unrepentant behaviors. It merely means He will rebuke us to get us back on track and if we refuse, the consequences are on us.
You also need to understand that God is offended by sexual deviancy. This is not reserved to gays alone and in fact, if you count the numbers of gays/straights, it's the straights who are probably racking up the most sins when it comes to sex. Just as the Bible condemns homosexuality, it condemns bestiality, simple fornication, incest, adultery, and a myriad of other sexual sins.
What you see as hate is contempt at the attempt to whitewash a sin as normal, natural, a gift of God, and so on. A true Christian will pray in his heart of heart for any sinner to turn away from their sins but they will detest the sin nonetheless because it separates men from God and our (all mankind) relationship with God is of the utmost importance.
We are all burdened by temptations. Temptation in and of itself is not a sin. Jesus was tempted by Satan but we know Jesus was free of sin. The problem lies with lusting or giving into temptations. While you may argue that it's your nature and you have no control over it, that is no excuse. Just as I have no excuse to act on my temptations and lust after others. As a married man, I cannot justify lusting after other women though it's very much a part of my nature to do so. I have to take control of my temptations and refuse to act on them instead of making justifications as to why I should be able to ignore God's Word and act on my nature. You might be surprised by the number of Christian men who struggle with sexual desires that are forbidden and I wouldn't be surprised if Christian women aren't constantly tempted.
We are not promised by God to not be tempted or to have a perfect nature. He merely has made the greatest sacrifice in history, the sacrifice of His Son, and promised that we can free from the bonds of sin if we simply accept Him. But even that's not so simple because if we accept Him, me must abandon many of those things we hold dear; many of those things we identify as a part of ourselves.
My last point is to be supremely careful in stifling those opinions you'd rather no here. It may place you in a precarious position.
2 Timothy 4:3
"For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."
As one of those fundamentalist-type of Christians, I have no love of other faiths but I have to admit that Muslims have one thing right and that is that we must all submit to God. To have that beautiful relationship with God we must understand that He is omniscient (among other unique attributes) and that while we may not understand our burdens now, what He asks of us is for our own good.
Lastly, Christians are far from perfect which means our behavior is far from perfect. Much of the Christian hate you experience is often poorly executed passion attempting to save you.
For what it's worth.
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