Is A Form of Blindness
Sorry God! Got distracted! Thought I gave Jesus the wheel, but really, I gave it to the Supreme Court!
"Lilly" was a street walking, HIV positive hooker. If there ever was a human way of life, which practically stood up and shouted, "CONDEMN ME!!" more than any other I've never seen it. "Lilly," (not her real name) is still to this day, the hardest person I've ever met. She was a regular at the soup kitchen I'd started volunteering at on weekends. I honestly thought that maybe God brought me to the kitchen to catch Lilly turning a trick, so I could be a witness against her in a court of law. From my perspective Lilly need to be removed from among the population. She needed to be put somewhere so she couldn't continue polluting the lives of the people around her. Never mind, of course, that some heartless guy infected Lilly with HIV. I didn't consider the hooker and her problems. I saw a hooker and only saw her as the problem.
God didn't send me to Lilly because she or her sin were his biggest problem. God sent me to Lilly, because my sin, in relation to Lilly, was the greater sin. God sent me to Lilly, the hooker, so he could help me see that my indifference, was a far greater problem than Lilly could ever be. All I cared about was Lilly's sin. God wanted me to see a woman he wanted for his beloved daughter. God wanted me to see Lilly not through her sin, but through the lens of Christ's blood. I could have said, "Love the sinner, but hate the sin," and I would have been lying. I loved hating Lilly's sin, but thought nothing at all about Lilly. God saw Lilly's sin, and hated it, but he hated Lilly's sin because it was stealing, destroying and killing her. When God looked at Lilly he saw her through the lens of Jesus crucified to remove her sins. I just wanted Lilly to go away, and I honestly gave no thought to anything else. God wanted an eternal relationship with Lilly, and saw her cleansed by the blood of Jesus.
It took years of being around Lilly and other prostitutes for me to see these very sinful women through a different lens. I wasn't looking at Lilly and the other "ladies of the profession," as I came to call them, with anything but total disdain. When I started hearing about their lives before prostitution I was shocked and disgusted. The abuse, sexual molestation, and cruel indifference from their own families was beyond anything I'd ever dreamed in my worst nightmare. I started out asking the question, "How could these women do this horrible work?" After a few years I started asking the right question, "Considering the horror these women have endured how could anyone expect they'd end up doing anything else?!" Perhaps someone will now accuse me of becoming soft on sin, because I suggest these women had little or no choice.
The fact is we all have choices, but there truly are people whose horrible early life circumstances have greatly limited their life choices. But sin cannot merely be excused because a girl's father started selling her body for drugs when she was 4-years-old. Still, we should be compassionate and merciful when dealing with humans so damaged by the evil of those who should have loved them. Sin cannot be excused, because sin kills, steals and destroys. Anyone who advocated giving sexually broken people a total pass or total acceptance of their sins is among the worst of sinners. Progressive Christians, who excuse the sin of homosexuality on the specious grounds of questionable and completely invalid scientific study/experimentation are committing an egregious sin.
The Conservative, "Bible believing," sort of Christian, like me, are no less guilty of heinous sin than the progressives. The sin of indifference toward the plight of prostitutes, porn addled folk, lesbian, gay, bi-sexual, transgendered folk and the like are just as guilty of damnable sin as the progressives. Jesus didn't come to condemn the world, Jesus didn't come to bring more law to the world. Jesus didn't come to give the world the bad news. (AND DON'T ANYONE DARE ACCUSE ME OF BEING SOFT ON SIN! Lilly's sin was killing her, and potentially a lot of other people. There is no way to love Lilly and be soft on sin!) The problem with conservatives is sin remains the focus.
SIN IS TRANSIENT!!! Sin has a "sell by date". If a sinner dies their sin ends and they receive eternal condemnation! If Jesus takes away the sin then he makes the sinner a saint, and they receive eternal relationship with God.
Why is it that conservative Christians focus so heavily on sin instead of the power of Jesus Christ to defeat; cure; free from slavery to; put the power of sin into remission??? We haven't, "loved the sinner and hated the sin!!" We, conservatives:
"Love hating the sin, and ignore Christ's power to cure sinners!"
Do you know how I know the above statement is true???
When I heard the Supreme Court's decision to legalize gay marriage, my first thought was:
"This is heartbreaking!!! Because the Supreme Court is believed, by mere humans, to have the power to give legitimacy to gay "marriage", the 'Supremes' have only served to deepen the spiritual darkness surrounding sexually broken people. The greatest power the Supreme Court has exercised over LGBT persons has been to thicken the chains binding them to sin. The Supreme Court has done nothing to overthrow God's truth about marriage. But because they are perceived to have power on the earth over people they have broadened the chasm between sinner and the only truly all powerful God."
So when you heard the Supreme Court's ruling on gay marriage were you heartbroken that LGBT people were hurled into greater darkness? Were you saddened that the chains holding people in bondage to sin had been thickened?!
Is your focus wrong? Do you love hating the sin, while ignoring the sinner? Is your anger, bitterness, fear, anxiety, and loathing driving your faithmobile crashing into the Supreme Court's delusions of authority and power?? I've told you my initial response to the Supreme Court's decision on gay marriage. WHAT was yours?
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