The Great Commission is to teach the Good News -- that there is new life in Christ. Some of the vocabulary we use has become tarnished: evamgelize, for example, or Gospel. To the non-Christian they signify a desire to get people to quit doing things that some Christians deduce from the Bible are sinful.
That's pretty far from the truth. Repentance, for example, is one of those words. To me it doesn't mean "to quit sinning" far less "to quit doing things that Sister Bertha Betterthanthou thinks are sins." It means to turn to the Lord. And I will testify that my life is richer and fuller with a relationship with Jesus in it. And, paradoxically, knowing Him has made me much more liberal -- He gives me the strength to stand for what is right, and not count the cost. And far too often lately that's been to call out someone for whom "Christianity" is following a set of rules.
It's not. It's living with Christ as your Brother, Savior, and Lord of your life.
Lisa, we knew each other Elsewhere. I respect your views, and more fully I respect and share your motivations. What profoundly disturbs me about the homosexuality debates is that, contrary to their professed intent, the people arguing for the sinfulness of homosexuality under all circumstances seem not to care one whit what effect their argument have on the GLBT people hearing them -- they seem to choose to stand for the truth as they see it regardless of whether they sound like they're denigrating and insulting every gay person (and any of us who accept, welcome, and support gay Christians) and in short appear to care less that they are driving those they're supposedly proselyting away from Christ. That's what they ought to feel the sort of feeling you described in post #71 about.
On the other hand, people like you and Ishida attempt to dialogue, to understand the gay POVs and to encounter them as fellow sinners saved by grace, just like you and me. And that is meaningful.
There's a passage in Ezekiel you know better than I, to the effect that your job is to warn. Presuming you're right on the subject for the sake of argument (and we can discuss whether you are another time), your job is to give that warning. Not to judge, not to condemn, but to warn. If you have done that, according to Ezekiel, your hands are clean. Kath, nearly the only "ex-gay" person whose testimony I believe, used to say here that her job was to warn about sin. Not to judge sinners, but to warn people, to show them a better way.
Bottom line to me: Jesus accepts us just as we are. He sends the Holy Spirit to instill growth and change. He did that with me. I didn't like who I was; He changed that , big time. That, not some rinkidink code of behavior, is what He came to teach, what He died to give us.
Take heart, Lisa. He who will judge you loves you, and knows your heart better than you do yourself. And He sees the goodness there.
