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Homosexuality and Hypocrisy: What Would Jesus Condemn? October 8, 2007 By Tina Spurlock
Jamie (not his real name) and I have been friends for many years. We met at church camp and instantly connected. He had (and still has) such charisma. We think a lot alike, so our bond seemed almost magnetic. He had just recently received the Holy Ghost. Consequently, he was still a bit new to it all. He had such a desire to be a good Christian and please his pastor. He did everything he could to live up to expectations.
We became close, and talked on an almost daily basis. One night while we were talking, I could tell there was something bothering him, so I asked him what was wrong. He asked if I could keep a secret, and I assured him I could. Then, very regretfully, he told me “I’m bi.” At first it didn’t register, so he had to explain. My first instinct was to be upset because I thought he meant that he had been acting on these impulses.
What he told me next, however, broke my heart—“I’ve never told anyone else. I’ve fought with these feelings for three years, and I don’t know what to do. I thought after I got the Holy Ghost they’d go away, but they didn’t! I feel so guilty all the time. I know I’m going to hell.” If I didn’t break down into tears at that point, I definitely wanted to.
My Tough Choice It was at this moment that I knew I had an enormous responsibility on my shoulders. I had a choice. I could either respond as so many others do, which is to judge him and give him a string of useless, condescending jargon that doesn’t really help him, making him see that I don’t care enough to be there for him when he needs a friend. Or I could be his friend, love him, show him compassion, understanding, and reassurance.
This is where we, as the Church, often come up short. We look at our fellow brother or sister and see them struggling and simply raise our guard saying, “Hey, I hope you work through those problems of yours, but I don’t want any part of it,” and just back away, as if their problems are going to rub off on us. Even David had this same experience:
I hate all this silly religion, but you, God, I trust. I’m leaping and singing in the circle of your love; you saw my pain, you disarmed my tormentors, You didn’t leave me in their clutches but gave me room to breathe. Be kind to me, God—I’m in deep, deep trouble again. I’ve cried my eyes out; I feel hollow inside. My life leaks away, groan by groan; my years fade out in sighs. My troubles have worn me out, turned my bones to powder. To my enemies I’m a monster; I’m ridiculed by the neighbors. My friends are horrified; they cross the street to avoid me. They want to blot me from memory, forget me like a corpse in a grave, discard me like a broken dish in the trash. The street-talk gossip has me “criminally insane”! Behind locked doors they plot how to ruin me for good” (Psalms 31:6-13, MSG).
In his darkest hour, even his own friends and neighbors (though I’m sure he wasn’t dealing with the same problem) turn their backs on him when he needs them the most. The so-called “religious” people of his day let him down. Those that are supposed to be “spiritual” gossip and spurned him in his time of need.
Homosexuality is Sin or Special Objectionable Sin? I know that it’s the general consensus among Apostolics that homosexuality is a spirit, and I’m not here to argue that. However, I will tell you that by trying to be there for a friend who is struggling to overcome it, you aren’t going to become gay yourself. Homosexual sin is no different than any other sin. The Apostle Paul paints our sins in this light:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. Yet God, with undeserved kindness, declares that we are righteous. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past (Romans 3:23-25, NLT).
I especially enjoy what Romans 2:9-11 has to say, and I give two different, interesting interpretations, to shed light on the unconditional and evenhanded love of God:
If you go against the grain, you get splinters, regardless of which neighborhood you’re from, what your parents taught you, what schools you attended. But if you embrace the way God does things, there are wonderful payoffs, again without regard to where you are from or how you were brought up. Being a Jew won’t give you an automatic stamp of approval. God pays no attention to what others say (or what you think) about you. He makes up his own mind (Romans 2:9-11, MSG).
[And] there will be tribulation and anguish and calamity and constraint for every soul of man who [habitually] does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). But glory and honor and [heart] peace shall be awarded to everyone who [habitually] does good, the Jew first and also the Greek (Gentile). For God shows no partiality [undue favor or unfairness; with Him one man is not different from another] (Romans 2:9-11, Amplified).
Primarily, I understand that all sin is equal to God. No sin is more objectionable to him than another.
The Real Special Objectionable Sin Upon studying, I’ve found that one sin God does find to be excruciatingly objectionable:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you swallow up widows’ houses and for a pretense to cover it up make long prayers; therefore you will receive the greater condemnation and the heavier sentence. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, pretenders (hypocrites)! For you travel over sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes one [a proselyte], you make him doubly as much a child of hell (Gehenna) as you are (Matthew 23:14-15).
Snakes! Reptilian sneaks! Do you think you can worm your way out of this? Never have to pay the piper? It’s on account of people like you that I send prophets and wise guides and scholars generation after generation—and generation after generation you treat them like dirt, greeting them with lynch mobs, hounding them with abuse (Matthew 23:32-34, MSG).
The Pharisees were the religious scholars of the day. They were the ones the saints looked towards for spiritual guidance. And they were hypocrites! Hypocrisy, it seems, would be the sin that God abhors above all others: to preach one thing, and do something completely different. Is that not what we do when we spurn those that battle with sin?
Jesus walked with and spent time with thieves, murderers, drunkards. Many of his followers had at one time been one, if not many, of these. Matthew was a tax collector (considered to be one of the worst kinds of thieves), and Jesus told him to turn from this life and become one of His disciples. Mary Magdalene was a prostitute, and she became one of His most devout followers when He spared her life. God is no respecter of persons. He loves us all equally.
So don’t think that simply because you don’t find yourself attracted to anyone of the same sex that makes you a better person. Lust, premarital sex, even gossip and dissension are just as sinful and wrong in God’s eyes as homosexuality. That pretty much covers all of us because not one person can say that they haven’t had lustful thoughts or feelings, or gossiped before. We are no better than them, so we should never act like we are. Now if they have given up fighting it and embrace it, then that would be the time to step back and let your prayers take over (i.e. don’t stop praying for them!).
Homosexuality Overcome, Except . . . I see homosexuality as a disease. I’m not chalking it up to just another medical condition scientists seem to be discovering every day; it’s a disease of the soul. It corrodes a man’s or woman’s spirit. It feeds them lies, nourishing them with deceit. If they have no support system to help them through, they eventually become beaten down, spiritually tattered, and, slowly, they die inside. They want so desperately to get beyond it, but they have not the strength to overcome themselves. I’ve watched what it’s done to some of my friends. It’s broken my heart.
Thankfully, Jamie overcame his feelings, and found victory. However, we lost him in the process. I won’t judge anyone because that wouldn’t be prudent. Nevertheless, Jamie confided in me after he left his church that he had been in a dark place at the time. Even so, instead of trying to help him and encourage him spiritually, believers gossiped and spread rumors about him, essentially driving him away. Now he sees Pentecostals as hypocrites and refuses to return to our churches.
There are only two people from our churches he even speaks to any more, one of them being me. When I told him about this article, he was extremely supportive of me telling his story if it means opening one mind or one heart to see the need for more Apostolics who practice what Jesus preached. The second greatest commandment is to “love thy neighbor as thyself.” Does that mean we hold them at arm’s length when they battle their own demons? Fighting without friends who rally around you is a lonely fight indeed.
Steps to Help Your Friends So what does that mean we do when we see one of our friends battling homosexuality?
In the end, if they know that they have a good support system set up for them to turn to, they will be able to deal with this problem, and be able to get past it. It will be a thing of their past.
Our Challenge Ultimately, until we, as the Body of Christ (for we are the living Body of God), learn to love others in their darkest hour, until we learn how to show compassion and open our minds enough to understand (not to accept) that sin is sin and temptation is temptation, we will never see the revival God has for us.
We often hear of the revolution that’s to come, how the Church is going to revolutionize the world around us. Yet, how can this happen, if we are still so closed-minded that we can’t even help one another? How can we help others, if we won’t help each other? This is where the Church must revolutionize its own thinking. That’s what Jesus did when He came to this earth. He revolutionized the mindset of the religious around Him. Now, it’s our turn.
Empathy is a great gift from God and should be utilized for His kingdom to its greatest extent. I hope to see the day where our saints open their hearts enough to be able to handle circumstances such as this, and, instead of watching person after person walk away from God and the Church due to condemnation and judgment, they find victory and peace with the help of brothers and sisters in Christ who have helped them get there. ninetyandnine.com © 2007, Tina Spurlock --------- Tina Spurlock is an English major at Northeastern State University in Oklahoma. She’s an avid reader of literature of any kind. As a child, she read the billboards on the side of highways, successfully driving her parents crazy, and consequently to feed her Dimetap (“the purple stuff”) to make her fall asleep on long road trips. |
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