New Gay Religion Paradigm

According to Christian Post.com psychologists are working on a new paradigm to help people whose sexual feeling conflict with their religious beliefs. On the surface this idea sounds great. Everybody could use help dealing with unwanted feelings. However, the paradigm seems to be to affirm them in what ever course they choose to go. If you think your religious beliefs take precedent fine, or if you think your sexual desires take precedent well that's just fine too. This paradigm just makes my skin crawl. Talk about the ultimate in post-modern psychology.

While on the surface I agree with psychologists that homosexuality is not a mental disease, I do disagree with them on the issue of it being right and normal. It is a manifestation of sin rather than a psychosis and needs to be treated as such. It should not be ignored nor should it be affirmed. The article reports a sad truth that many people who feel same sex urges and are deeply involved in Christianity are often conflicted and self loathing. Now while it is good that they do not like how they feel, it is wrong that they should be in such despair. Where there is such despair the gospel is not being preached and perceived attitudes may scare them away from seeking help. Now one of the men interviewed did seek help but he sought help from places that are American Evangelical in nature and so are likely to be very law based. No doubt these people need the Law like the rest of us miserable sinners but they also need the Gospel if they are ever to be free. One does have to wonder why their turmoil is viewed as greater than that of heterosexuals.

Is it because heterosexuals have easier outlets for seeking help? Are we more accepting of heterosexual sins? I think it is both. We already are too tolerant of couples living together or just having sex without moving in with each other. Many times we just wink, wink, nudge, nudge over such deviance, but we never adopt a serious tone with these couples. Meanwhile, we are yelling and screaming about how homosexual acceptance is a serious threat to society. This double standard gives people the idea that we treat people bound by the sin of homosexuality as something more evil and hated than heterosexual sin.

I think it is time we seriously considered how we are handling the issues of sin. We need to less time singling out a specific sin and more time condemning all sin as equal and above all follow up with the Gospel. At the same time we need to help these people deal with their sin and part of that is going to be setting up an atmosphere of trust. It is easier for people to seek help when they feel trust in others and trust is hard to come by when we give off a perceived reaction of rejection. Such perceptions come out when we focus too much on one sin and in how we talk generally. As much as it pains me to say, the pc crowd is right it is hurtful to poke fun at somebody just because how they feel and such actions are going to destroy trust.

The only question is, how do we have an atmosphere of trust yet condemn the sin when the sin is so closely associated with their core identity? Quite frankly, I don't have the answer to that question.