Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Can Conservative Christians Support Homosexuals?

Everyone who knows me knows that the biggest bone I have to pick with conservative Christians regards their view of homosexuals.  I'm specifying "conservative Christians" because I think we all know liberal Christians who have a much friendlier attitude towards gays.  Us non-theists are never going to be able to convince Christians that homosexuality isn't a sin.  It's not our place to tell people of faith what to believe inside their faith.  Us non-theists don't believe in sin anyhow.  But there's nothing wrong with letting Christians know when their actions or statements towards homosexuals aren't respectful or loving.  Every good person can and should speak out against mistreatment and discrimination.

I've tried to keep up with a Christian cause that I read about on Friendly Atheist.  It's called "Changing the Face Of Christianity."  While I don't agree with some of what CTFOC has to say right now, I absolutely support the direction they seem to be heading.  Their mission is to hold up a mirror to themselves and try and reverse the public image of Christianity.  At the time of the Friendly Atheist interview with CTFOC founder Brad White, I was happy to accept that Mr. White had completely missed the mark.  Some of the things he said, and some of the things that were on his website were offensive.  After personally communicating with Brad, and researching more conversations he's had since the interview, I think that he's learning about how to cummunicate better to those who don't share his Christian perspective.  The jury is still out, as it should be.   
Here's a quote from his site, which I either didn't previously notice, or I didn't previously take seriously:  "One of the things we would ask in this subject area is your patience with our ministry."  I've decided to give him the benefit of the doubt. 

Most importantly, after reading a communication between himself and Craig James, I've been inspired to look more critically at my own approach to communicating with believers.  I'm encouraged, and I now think that Christians can change their perspective on homosexuals.  It is clear that in time homosexuals will certainly have equal civil rights.  It's bound to happen as long as it continues to receive support.  In the mean time, it's easy to get angry and yell at people about what we feel is an obvious thing, but it doesn't do any good, even if we're right.       

No comments:

Post a Comment