Gallop: More and More Christians View Homosexuality as “Morally Acceptable”
- Posted on June 21, 2010
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According to the Houston Chronicle and a new Gallop poll: Christians and people from other religious traditions have grown more tolerant of gays and lesbians. The percentage of Catholics calling gay relations "morally acceptable" has increased by more than a third in the past five years, up to 62 percent. More Americans also favor legalizing gay marriage.
More from the article:
Although America's stance on homosexuality remains a contentious social issue, nearly split nationwide, gays and lesbians are moving towards equality in some of the country's mainline Protestant denominations. The Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles recently ordained the church's first openly gay female bishop. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America decided last year to allow non-celibate gay and lesbian clergy to serve. Despite some dissenters, the ELCA has continued to seek the full inclusion of homosexual church leaders and members.
In the survey, fewer people cited homosexuality as a personal choice rather than a factor of genetics and environment (from 41 percent in 2008 to 34 percent in 2010).
As I've said many times before... I really think the gay/lesbian issue will be one of the biggest areas of controversy and change in the church in the next decade. How is your church engaging/reaching/reacting to gays and lesbians? Do you feel you need to? How will your church hold it's theological views on homosexuality and yet minister in a world that is increasingly looking at homosexuality as a norm?
Todd
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CS on Mon, June 21, 2010
Kevin Harris:
“The fact still remains that no one really cares what you have to say until they first know how much you care.”
If I see a man whose house is burning to the ground, do I have to establish a relationship with him first in order to tell him that he may want to exit the building? Or, do you think he’d be better off if I just told him that it’s aflame?
—
CS
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
CS,
That metaphor has always bothered me, and I think I just figured out why…
If the man does not know and can not see that his house is burning, he will indeed need to trust you before he believes what you say, that it is burning.
Peter
Q. on Mon, June 21, 2010
I’ve always felt the same way Peter. I feel like the house on fire metaphor over-simplifies.
At the same time, I feel like the “they don’t care how much you know until you know how much you care” type of phrasing (while sometimes true) gets into the cliche territory pretty fast…which can end up with a greatly diminished impact with each use. So it almost hits me with the same lack of impact that the ‘house on fire’ metaphor does. But that’s just me… That doesn’t mean that it’s not true, that just means that for me (and the segment of the population that feels the same way) I can at times tend to have a negative knee-jerk reaction when things like that are used…
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
Q,
It is indeed a bad cliche. However, it’s also, in my experience, true.
And I like the house on fire metaphor I guess., since it establishes that whatever the person is running away from (the “house on fire”) is significant enough that it will take SOME kind of trust on his part to believe you when you say that it’s happening.
Blessings,
Peter
bman on Mon, June 21, 2010
Oh, this has spiraled into a debate about HOW to evangelize? Whoa. That’s one that everyone should just agree to disagree on. I’m with the relationship-building side because in doing so, through your actions, you’re sharing the gospel with people. BUT, I’m never going to be able to convince the opposing side of my rightness because we don’t have a relationship!
So, anyway, who’s up for a beer?
jerry k on Mon, June 21, 2010
I agree, we need to build a trusting relationship with the homosexual. However, it is my experience there comes a time when the issue will be addressed—and often times, if not almost everytime I have been asked by a homosexual, “Do you think I am sinning? ” And I say “Yes, according to scripture,” then there is an immediate withdrawal—no matter how much trust has been built.
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
jerry,
I like to say (if the person is not a believer), “Well, if the Bible is true, what do YOU think it says?” Turn it around.
Whether I think you’re sinning is unimportant. God wants to restore a relationship with everyone who seeks him.
I try to get people to earnestly respond to God seeking them. I don’t try to get them to “clean up their act”. I try to get them to surrender it.
This can be done without losing your relationship with anybody who’s caught in something that is against God’s will and plan for their life.
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
bman,
I’m in for that beer, btw…
Peter
Christopher Fontenot on Mon, June 21, 2010
Kevin wrote:
” Go out and make some gay or lesbian friends and ask them what they think about your approach and how they feel that you could better reach individuals with the gospel. If you don�t have close gay friends, you don�t really love gay people but rather love the idea of gay people as they are more of a topic/theological argument to you than flesh and blood individuals that your have dedicated to journey with in life.”
So let me see if I understand your approach. We should ask the people to whom we preach how the message should be delivered? We should ask them what they want to hear? How unregenerate man feels about the Gospel message is irrelevant to the message itself. Once again, I ask you to show me in Scripture where Jesus, the disciples, or any of the prophets ever consulted the hearers of the message as to what the content of that message should be?
Let’s use the 9-11 tragedy as an analogy. If you could go back in time to Sept 10th 2001, knowing what would happen the very next day, would you be willing to stand in front of the Twin Towers and openly preach a warning to everyone in New York who walks by of the impending disaster tomorrow? Would you risk the ridicule, the scorn and the insults in order to warn everyone of the death and destruction and how it will happen? OR….would you stand outside and attempt to build a relationship with everyone in the buildings before warning them of what will happen? Remember, you only have one day! Here is the issue….none of us know the day or the hour of the return of Christ or the appointment our hearers have with death. We shamefully assume we have PLENTY of time to share the Gospel with those we know and with those we don’t. Those 11 workers on the Deepwater Horizon did not know the day they were going to die….and neither did we. Yet some believe erroneously that we should wait and establish a relationship. Nothing could be more wrong or un-Biblical.
jerry k on Mon, June 21, 2010
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
jerry,
I like to say (if the person is not a believer), �Well, if the Bible is true, what do YOU think it says?� Turn it around.
————But Peter, When they say that Rom. 1 is talking about idol worship and temple homosexuality then a whole set of debate is not set up. Just had that discussion with a couple of homosexuals this past month.
Believe me, they will tell you what the Bible says, and it ain’t what you or I would say it says. And they will defend it as passionately as we will.
I understand what you are driving at. I understand you are trying to leave confrontational out of it—but when push comes to shove with a dedicated homosexual searching for God, they are being well trained to give the party line. The internet has become a mecca of bogus information for them, proving the Bible does NOT call homosexuality a sin———and they know it very well.
And to ask a person who is not a believer to tell me what the Bible says in this area—-well, I think that is walking through a mine field———-Heck, we have whole denominations telling us WE ARE WRONG on what the Bible says about it.
And when we have a large portion of the church in America saying [and ordaining homosexuals] the Bible DOES NOT teach that homosexuality is a sin—————well, I am afraid we are only witnessing the prelude to a bloody battle.
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
Good point, Jerry,
I always figure I’m trying to convince people to follow Christ, and let the Holy Spirit sort out a lot of this stuff. (As the U2 song goes, “Stop helping God across the street like a little old lady.”
After all, the strong words against sexual sin in the Old and New Testaments are, as far as the law is concerned, in passages addressed to the people of God, not outsiders.
I will continue to refrain from being confrontational on this issue unless and until I’ve earned the kind of relationship and trust that is warranted to engage in it peaceably.
Christopher Fontenot on Mon, June 21, 2010
What’s glaringly absent from all these views concerning “friendship” or “relationship” evangelism is the belief in the clear Scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God. We never know if our witness is planting or watering a seed. We may never know of one single convert to Christ in our entire lifetime of service to the King on this earth. None of this is a measure of our success as fulfilling the Great Commission. The only thing that matters is whether we were faithful to share the Gospel and whether the Gospel we shared was Biblical. God saves the sinners; not our method or our relationship or our salesmanship. But He uses the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. We are to faithfully share HIS message. Not ours and definitely not one marketed to the listener. Will it be rejected? ABSOLUTELY! Will it be ridiculed? NO DOUBT ABOUT IT! Will it work? Scripture makes it perfectly clear in Isaiah 55:11 that it works every time!
You cannot “improve” God’s message of salvation by altering it to make it less offensive. It no longer becomes His message but instead becomes our message….and we have no saving truth.
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
Christopher writes [What�s glaringly absent from all these views concerning �friendship� or �relationship� evangelism is the belief in the clear Scriptural teaching of the sovereignty of God. ] No, it isn’t.
Blessings,
Peter
Christopher Fontenot on Mon, June 21, 2010
Peter wrote:
“I will continue to refrain from being confrontational on this issue unless and until I�ve earned the kind of relationship and trust that is warranted to engage in it peaceably.”
And in the mean time, homosexuals will die without ever hearing the truth of the Gospel. What will you answer God when He asks you why you delayed?
There is a poem I found that is poignant here:
Don’t bother me with souls to save
I have my own agenda;
There’s school to do, sports to play,
Important stuff to attend to.
Don’t bother me with my friend at work,
He’s got his own religion;
I don’t have time to change his mind,
He’ll make his own decision.
Don’t bother me with that little girl.
The girl playing in the street.
She’s much too young to understand
that the Savior she could meet.
Don’t bother me with the sounds I hear,
The sounds of people shrieking.
Although I wonder who they are,
Who are these victims screaming?
Don’t bother me with who they are,
I really don’t want the blame.
‘Cause it’s my friend at work and that little girl,
Who from hell scream out my name.
Why wait?
Peter Hamm on Mon, June 21, 2010
Christopher, leave off. I didn’t say I wasn’t sharing the Gospel. But I’m not making the Gospel only about one particular area of sinful behavior, either. It’s not my job to correct their behavior so they can come to Christ. it’s my job to share what Christ has done, and people will or will not respond to that depending on God’s Holy Spirit.
If you want me to be sure to include a discussion about what sex is acceptable to God in every presentation of the Good News. Sorry… I won’t…
you seem to indicate that you think the truth of the Gospel equals God’s stand on sexual sin.
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