MondayMorningInsight - Leadership & Encouragement for Church Leaders

Should An Openly Homosexual Person Be Baptized?

Posted by: Todd
Posted on: Thu, May 08, 2008
Viewed 151
(37) comments so far

To start off his post, Brian tells this story…

I was posed the following question by two homosexuals jointly raising a child,
“Which sin is greater: continuing with the way we choose to live our lives or having one of us move out and ripping apart the only home our son has ever known?”

Here’s what I said…

“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not God. But even if I did have a strong opinion on the matter, I wouldn’t give it to you. Do you want to know why? Because my hunch is you’re not really looking for an answer as much as you are looking for a reason to leave this church and turn your back on God. Others pastors may have given you reason to do so, but I’m not going to follow suit. You’re here for a reason, and that’s to find your way back to God. Once you do that, He’ll be the one that will help you answer that question.”

Then I hugged them both.

In my mind two more important questions lurked behind the question they asked:

1. Will this pastor guy treat our sin any differently than the other searching non-believers in the Bible study that went home to continue to embezzle money for their employer, look at porn on their computers or abuse prescription drugs?

2. Can I really trust God?

The second question is probably the most important. It’s hard to fathom how hard it is for a struggling homosexual to darken the doors of a church building, let alone contemplate turning their lives over to a deity who is going to ask for radical, painful change. That takes a great leap of faith; probably more than most heterosexual people were required to exercise before they became Christians.

The real issue for me comes down to this: How can we expect any non-believer to truly have a heart for the ways of God BEFORE conversion?

You can read the rest of Brian’s post here as it relates to baptism...

What do you think? Would you agree with Brian’s thoughts or would you tackle this thing totally differently? Let’s hear what you have to say…

I had the opportunity to meet Brian Jones a few weeks ago in Florida. Brian says, on his blog, that he's an 'average guy', but he's writing some great stuff over at BrianJones.com. Recently, he's been doing a series on homosexuality, and in one of his latest posts, he asks the question of whether or not an openly homosexual person should be baptised.

Comments

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San on Fri, May 16, 2008

It seems to me that the Gospel says that we are to come as we are—we are all open sinners. I don’t remember any caveats from Jesus about who could be baptized—and I study the Bible daily. I just don’t believe that the church has the right to decide who will belong, who won’t, who’ll be baptized, who won’t. The church belongs to Jesus Christ, and I strongly believe that Jesus would baptize anybody. How many of us go down in the water a devil and come out of the water a devil? That homosexuality is a sin is clear. So is lying, fornication/adultery, etc., etc. That the sin is “open” is irrelevant in my opinion. That some people know that I sin and what my sin is, then drug addicts shouldn’t be baptized either; prostitutes shouldn’t be baptized either. That’s not the church. We are all sinners! Judas was a thief, and Jesus knew it. No where does it say that Judas shouldn’t have been baptized. Yet, his sin is considered the most heinous sin of sins! How can we be supportive of the openly homosexual’s change of lifestyle if we don’t worship with him, and love him through it? How can we be witnesses for Christ by acting like witnesses for the devil?
helen on Sat, May 17, 2008

san baptism does not save us,i understand the bible to say repent and then be baptized,i thought repent ment to turn away from,yes we are to come as we are, we can come no other way, jesus said in mark 15, go into all the world and preach the good news to all, and whoever believes and is baptizeed shall be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemmed, and these signs will follow those who believe, we come as we are but we do not stay the way we were, we know sin can not enter heaven , so jesus clense us from all unrighousness, then we have to renew our minds to the mind of christ, and keep our body under subjection , god does not ask us to do this alone, he gave his holy spirit to us , we have got to believe god above every thing else, he said he put his word above his name, so his word is to be trusted above every other thing that is named, people are trying all kind of formulars to make their church work right and get people to god , but all they have to do is do what god already said to do, preach the good news, jesus is the good news, jesus said if we are not ashamed of him he would not be ashamed of us, god will and doed save homosexuals, but he hates the sin, any sin, because sin destroys,but the devils job is to make us want to keep sinning, but jesus died and rose again to say you do not have to sin any more , or live in sin any more, and if we do sin we have jesus , he will forgive us. there is no wondering if god loves us or not, we know he said he does, so that settles it. satan has got people in his grip, but jesus is the one to set them free from satans grip. the anointing destroys the yoke of bondage,
Paul McDonald on Mon, May 19, 2008

Hmmm…

People active in a gay lifestyle generally do not see a problem with what they do.

As for me and my sins, I know they are wrong and yet commit them anyway.

Which is worse, their actions or mine?

When I get my stuff worked out, I’ll worry about someone else.

As for baptism: If we had to live a sin-free life to be baptized, who among us would be baptized?
Bob Barnes on Mon, May 19, 2008

If a similar situation occurs for me, I hope that I will be as wise as that Pastor. I see homosexuality as sin. Yet I trust the Holy Spirit to do the cleanup in people’s life. We “catch them and He cleans them.” I would not deny them wter.
Mike Mizell on Tue, May 20, 2008

I would simply say that Jesus told the woman caught in the act of adultery that he didn’t condemn her but then he followed up by telling her, “go and sin no more.”

Likewise, when we choose to become a Christ-follower we must forsake our sin and stirve to live Christ-like lives whether our sin is homosexuality or fornication or whatever. Check the fruit because trees don’t lie.
jerry on Thu, May 22, 2008

openly means they have not repented, no repentance,no salvation that simple. you people that let people think they are saved with their fire escape prayer are helping to send people to hell. Stop twisting God’s word with with all your worldly philosophies. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man but the ends thereof are the ways of death
helen on Fri, May 23, 2008

jerry you are so very right, but i did not think i was twisting gods word, paul why do you keep sinning knowing it is a sin? and you will never work it out on your own, it takes the power of god to free us from sin, a lot of people think you can repete a prayer after someone and they are saved, if they do it better be from the heart and not just from the head. time is to short to be playing around with peoples lives. .