Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, April 2, 1994 TAG: 9404040162
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ROBERT A. McRAE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
That person's situation is described as a dilemma and rightly so, for he/she faces two equally unacceptable alternatives for homosexuals. In most Christian churches that I know, a homosexual lifestyle and full-church membership are mutually exclusive.
On a recent Sunday, I relayed the challenge in that article to the congregation of a church where I am the pastor. I challenged those who were listening to respond, and I told them generally how I was going to respond. I said to them that I hope that a gay person would (and most likely often does) feel welcome in our worship and fellowship times each Sunday, and that he or she would feel the warmth and love that anyone else feels who worships with us. As a pastor, I would certainly welcome such a person.
However, a person's response to that warm welcome at my church or at any given church depends in large part upon that person, on any preconceived ideas he or she might have about the congregation or the pastor, and on his or her own view of God's word, among many other things.
The letter referred to in the article says there are churches that totally condemn a gay sexual orientation. This is where we need to make a distinction. I'm not, nor is the church that I serve (I trust), condemning of a homosexual orientation. As I understand God's word, it doesn't condemn, indeed it doesn't speak to, a homosexual orientation. What it does condemn is homosexual practice, and this is a critical difference. It should be made equally clear that the condemnation of homosexual practice is no greater than that of heterosexual promiscuity - adultery, fornication, premarital or extramarital sexual relations - however one says it. I'm not an authority on the subject of homosexual orientation; therefore, I cannot debate whether one can help having such an orientation, whether one is born with such or whether it's socially conditioned.
The church where I pastor is a part of the Presbyterian Church (USA), whose constitution doesn't allow for the ordination of self-affirming, practicing homosexual persons as deacons, elders or ministers. This being the ``letter of the law,'' so to speak, in our constitution, based on a generally accepted interpretation of the Bible, the Session (local governing body) at my church would find it impossible to admit into full membership anyone who practices a homosexual lifestyle.
This doesn't preclude a warm welcome to our worship and fellowship time. It's just that we sense an obligation, as a part of the body of Christ, to uphold a standard to ourselves and to the world that points all of us to a better way. We view the Bible as being rather specific in its outright prohibition of a homosexual lifestyle. There's a world of difference between orientation and practice, or lifestyle.
The real dilemma facing a person who practices this type of lifestyle and longs for the warmth of a Christian fellowship is this: If he or she wishes to be an active part of a Christian fellowship, which is faithful to God's word, then some difficult choices have to be made for those who are engaged in same-sex relationships.
But all of us are faced with difficult choices in life. I know those who have a homosexual orientation and have chosen celibacy in order to be faithful to God's word. I know others, through the power of God's spirit within them, who have changed their sexual orientation and are in happy, healthy marriages.
The real challenge for my church, or any other Christian church today, isn't whether to accept homosexual persons into their fellowship. The challenge is to find loving, compassionate ways to reach out to all persons who are caught up in the moral confusion of this age, including practicing homosexuals, and at the same time to firmly uphold God's standard, which neither accepts, embraces, nor affirms a lifestyle that's contrary to God's express word.
Robert A. McRae is pastor of Galatia Presbyterian Church in Eagle Rock.
by CNB