Love Your Neighbor-Christians are Not Enemies of the LGBT Community

We woke up yesterday to the horrific news of America's worst mass murder in our history. At least 50 dead and 53 wounded. 103 people shot in one venue in one horribly evil cowardly act.

And the perpetrator was an American citizen of the Muslim faith who, according to those who knew him, was usually angry, and has now been found to have pledged allegiance, not to America, but to ISIS.

As is usual in dark times, the call goes out to pray for the dead, the affected families, the community, the state, our country and the world. But, pray to whom?

As a Christian, I know I am not a citizen of this world. Once I believed and was baptized I became a new creation, an adopted child of the one true living God, a citizen of heaven. My allegiance is to God our Father, Jesus our Savior and the Holy Spirit our Counselor. But, is that the same as a Muslim pledging allegiance to ISIS? No, it is not.

Let's review the last mass murder of gays by a Christian.

Well, frankly, there's nothing to review.

True followers of Jesus Christ do not kill. Do not harm. Do not condemn. We love.

Sounds trite, but it's true. We love by praying, by showing up to help, by giving our time, talent and treasure. We love because Jesus said that was one of the two greatest commands He has given us. The other was loving God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength. And, since we pledge our allegiance and our love to Jesus Christ, we want to follow all the commands He's given us because we know it glorifies Him and makes us stand out to others so we can then talk about how great a relationship with the Messiah is. That is what spreading the Gospel, or Good News is all about.

So what?

The time of calling Christians gay-hating homophobes has come to an end with this evil event in Orlando. It is not Christians who shoot gay people. We do not throw gay people off roofs. We love gay people. We pray for gay people. At least true, Bible-believing, Jesus Christ following Christians do. Anyone else just is not a true Christian.

True Christians do not ask people what their sin is. We have our own sin to deal with. GASP! Christians SIN????? Yes, we are not perfect. We are forgiven, though. We have the assurance that Jesus's death, which was necessary for our sins to be forgiven, has been applied to our lives for our sins. And that forgiveness is so overwhelming that we spread the love shown to us by Jesus Christ to others who do not know Him yet.

When Jesus said, "God so loved the world" (emphasis mine), He meant every one falls into at least one of these or other sinful categories. But, because of Jesus's death on the cross, we can have those sins become as if we've never committed them, by believing in Christ and being baptized.
adulterer, thief, murderer, liar, cheat, phony religious person and, yes, every homosexual. Every

As John wrote, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

And forgiveness is something we all need.

We just need to admit it.