Posted on 04/13/2009 3:52:53 PM PDT by ReformationFan
You may have seen the yard signs around town asking the question, "would Jesus discriminate?" You may also know that they are part of a $55,000 public relations campaign by the homosexual Metropolitan Community Church of Indianapolis to persuade people that opposition against homosexuality is unChrist-like. You should also know that this is a shameful campaign promoting an immoral lifestyle and that the subtle proposition that Jesus would not discriminate in regard to homosexuals is as flimsy as a house made with fractured toothpicks.
First, we should not take it as a given that discrimination is always wrong. Discrimination is both Biblical and experiential. Everyone discriminates. Parents discriminate in the choices they make for their children. We discriminate on what movies we choose to watch or not to watch. We discriminate in our voting choices on Election Day. The members of the Metropolitan Community Church discriminated in their choice of spending $55,000 to defend homosexuality rather than to support a Crisis Pregnancy Center, or print Bibles, or defend persecuted Christians in Muslim lands. To discriminate is merely "to make distinctions in treatment" (Webster's New World Dictionary, Warner Books, 1990). In fact, to imply that discrimination is somehow unChrist-like while discriminating is hypocrisy. Jesus never condemned discrimination. But He did condemn hypocrisy. Of course, discrimination can be wrong if we make distinctions for the wrong reasons, or if we do the wrong things in those distinctive treatments. But there is nothing wrong with discrimination. We must do it. Quite often we do it based on our moral values.
Furthermore, the Bible discriminates. Jesus discriminated. For example, the Old Testament teaches that God chose the Jewish race to reveal Himself to them and bless them like no other people at that time - "He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them" Psalm 147:19-20 (compare Deuteronomy 7:6-11). That is discrimination. Jesus told the citizens of Capernaum that "if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" Matthew 11:23. But those works were not done in Sodom, though they could have been done there, and Sodom was destroyed. That is discrimination. Jesus said that when He returns to earth that some will "go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" Matthew 25:46. That is discrimination. But it is a just discrimination.
Thirdly, it is clear from the Scriptures that Jesus discriminated regarding homosexuals. Jesus believed, taught and lived by the Old Testament. He quoted it hundreds of times. He affirmed its absolute authority and warned that "unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:18-20. The scribes and Pharisees were the most radical, legalistic observers of the Old Testament laws. The Old Testament is unequivocal in its denunciation of homosexuality. According to Leviticus 18:22 a man "shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination." It is such an abomination that "if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them shall surely be put to death" Leviticus 20:13.
Additionally, Jesus defended the Mosaic law of marriage which taught the life-long union of a man and a woman as the norm - Matthew 19:4-5 quoting Genesis 1:27. Jesus explicitly affirmed the historicity of Sodom's destruction in Luke 17:29-30. Sodom, regardless of silly arguments to the contrary, cultured homosexuality - Genesis 19. Obviously, Jesus' disciples believed that Jesus had an unequivocal position on homosexuality. Peter said that God turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes making them an example to those who afterward live ungodly" - 2 Peter 2:4-6. Paul said that homosexuals are debased and that they will not go to heaven unless they repent - Romans 1:27-30; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. However, they may be delivered from this sin if they repent and trust Christ - 1 Corinthians 6:11. Jude said that the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah are "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" - Jude 5-7.
So would Jesus discriminate? Yes.
Bumping a well stated essay on discrimination!
Yes He would and yes He did.
Everyone discriminates and everyday.
You are correct, we have lost control of the language.
You betcha Jesus discriminated - against sin.
Yup, everybody discriminates.
The issue is not whether one should discriminate, it’s on what criteria we should discriminate and for what purpose.
If I won’t let someone into my store because she’s a woman, it’s probably the wrong reason, if I won’t let her into the men’s room because she’s a woman, then it’s probably the right reason. If her husband has collapsed in the men’s room, then again it would be the wrong reason.
This seems to be an easy question...As with the woman with 5 husbands, Jesus would say “Go and sin no more”
A friend of mine recently said, there are things that God likes, and things that he doesn’t. And we need to know the difference!
Sadly, I don't because I have to work with these people.
If Jesus wouldn’t discriminate then he wouldn’t discriminate against those that discriminate against homosexuality either. In other words he would be tolerant of those that are intolerant of homosexuality.
Another way to look at it is that homosexuals are demanding that Jesus discriminate against other sinners and in favor of homosexuals.
He did not tell the woman caught in adultery, “Go, and keep on committing adultery.” He does not tell thieves they can keep on stealing, or liars they can keep on lying, or heterosexual fornicators they can keep on fornicating, or murderers they can keep on murdering, or drunkards they can keep on getting drunk, or the covetous they can keep on coveting, etc..
Homosexuals are like all other sinners, in that God does not excuse their sins, but will forgive them if they repent and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
What these “gay-friendly” churches want is discrimination in the form of an exemption for the sin of homosexual sex. They want to be told that they don’t even have to try to turn from their sin.
Can you imagine a group of adulterers or thieves who wanted the church to declare that their sins were holy and acceptable?
Indeed. . .words mean things. The Left knows that literally 'changing the dialog' changes minds; changes societies; changes cultures. Political Correctness is not only 'mind-changing' it is a form of collective mind control .
The Left aims for a cultural contingency where those qualities of judgment and discernment; no longer interfere with ANY of their agenda and self-servance.
“In the world it is called Tolerance, but in hell it is called Despair, the sin that believes in nothing, cares for nothing, seeks to know nothing, interferes with nothing, enjoys nothing, hates nothing, finds purpose in nothing lives for nothing, and remains alive because there is nothing for which it will die.” Dorothy Sayers
Thanks for the ping!
It is sad that we cannot have an honest conversation in the workplace anymore.
I had an "honest" comment about homosexuality during a 'diversity' training program about 10 years ago. Things were never the same, and I had to find a new job.
I guess I had the wrong type of diversity.
“...so that even their women turned against God’s natural plan for them and indulged in sex sin with each other.
And the men, instead of having normal sex relationships with women, burned with lust for each other, men doing shameful things with other men and, as a result, getting paid within their own souls with the penalty they so richly deserved.”
(New Testament, Romans 1:26,27)
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