Editor,
Since your original article on the Methodist vote regarding LGBTW rights, Blake Lasater and I have held a discussion on the topic. Thank you, ESI, for allowing us this forum for conversation. I love being American where we can disagree and discuss while remaining friends and treating all with respect and courtesy.
For those who may have been lost in the semantics of the Koine Greek, the question we are considering is whether the Bible presents homosexual acts as sin or not. Blake is convinced it does not, and I am convinced it does. This doesn’t make him a sell-out to our faith, nor am I homophobic, intolerant, nor hateful. As Blake graciously mentioned in his last post, we have both seen too many atrocities committed in the name of the church for which our God of love is appalled.
Blake and I are like bridge inspectors who disagree on a structure. He believes and reports that this particular path is safe to travel. He demonstrates the love and grace of God as he believes. I, however, believe the bridge is out and anyone who goes that way is in eternal peril. I do not stand in judgement or condemnation of those who choose that path, but grieve.
It is the love of God working in me that morally obligates me to stand and cry out a warning. What an individual chooses to do with that information is between them and God. Neither Blake nor I wrote the Bible, nor will we sit on the seat of final judgement. We can neither excuse nor condemn.
I invite and encourage any interested reader to consider for themselves Leviticus 18:22, 20:13, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10, and 1 Timothy 1:8-11 and to engage God in meaningful conversation.
Mark Golaway