My Support for the LGBTQ Community
This is a story I’ve been meaning to write for a really long time. It’s just something I really wanted to put out there.
I’m not your typical Christian. I wasn’t raised in a Christian family and I only became Christian within the last 10 years. Because of that, I feel like my ideas and beliefs are informed not only by what I’ve learned in the last 10 years but also what I grew up learning as well. In my heart, I think there’s a place for believing in Jesus while also being able to keep a hold of the ideas that my parents raised me to have.
One of the most important things in my family is music. We’re constantly listening to music at home. There are professional musicians in the family and when we all get together you can bet you’re going to hear singing, violin, or piano. As a kid, I played the cello and went to a Saturday music school.
In high school, two of my cellist friends came out as gay. I’ll be the first to say that I’m on the innocent side so I wasn’t expecting it at all. Being even more honest, as a high schooler this was my first time hearing someone tell me they were gay. I didn’t know what to think about it because my experience was talking to my guy friends about the girls we had crushes on.
I had a choice to make. Was I going to think it was weird or was I going to learn to support and understand my friends? Was I going to stop being friends with them? Even worse, would my first reaction be to bully or make fun of them?
I chose to listen to them and continue to be the same kind of friend I was before. I hope if someone makes the brave choice to tell you about this personal part of their identity that you make the same decision to listen and accept that person in the same way as you did before.
However, I also know that there are many in the Christian community that don’t feel this way. They make arguments that homosexuality and other identities are unnatural and sinful. At the worst, they deliver sermons that teach the congregation that all those who identify as LGBTQ will be going to Hell. I’d like to say that I think these two viewpoints are wrong.
Whenever I think of Jesus, the first word that comes to my mind is “love”. Jesus is “love”. I believe that if Jesus met someone who identified as gay He would love and accept that person just the same as someone who identifies as heterosexual. There was no hate in the heart of Jesus.
How do we reconcile that with what the Bible says about sin? I remind myself that every person, regardless of who they are, is a sinner that needs the salvation of Jesus in their life. Everyone. In addition, I avoid judging sin on an objective scale where some sins are worse than others. Sin is absolute. There is no good sin and there should be no judgement of who is the worst sinner.
Instead, I always try to show love and understanding to people I meet and listen to the struggles that they are willing to share with me. If a person tells me about their sexual identity, I listen and offer my support. As a believer, that’s what I feel called to do with everyone I meet. I believe this is what Jesus asks of us every single day.
These are my brief thoughts on this topic and I hope to start a conversation on how we in the Christian community can offer more support and understanding to all people, regardless of who they choose to love.
