It seems that the July issue of Charisma magazine is devoted to the "Church's Gay Dilemma" and nothing better demonstrates this very dilemma than the pair of articles that are running in the issue.
One article by Ronald J. Sider, president of Evangelicals for Social Action, while not supportive of marriage equality, wrote a piece arguing that for the church to remain relevant Christians must repent for their bigotry toward gays and get their own houses in order:
First, change the widespread perception that Christians generally, and evangelicals and charismatics in particular, hate gays; second, set our own house in order by dramatically reducing the devastation and havoc in our families caused by heterosexual disobedience.
Our changing the public perception dare not be a tactic. We must truly repent of the deep, widespread anti-gay prejudice in our circles.
We must ask forgiveness for our failure to condemn gay bashing; repent of our refusal to walk gently and lovingly with young people in our churches struggling with their sexual identity; and stop elevating the sin of homosexual practice above other sins.
That piece ran alongside an article penned by Lou Sheldon, president of the SPLC-certified hate group the Traditional Values Coalition, entitled "The Plan For A Gay (Domi) Nation" in which he ranted about how the media, liberals and gay activists are carrying out a "plan for combat and the conquest of a nation":
Unfortunately, that matters little to homosexual activists bent on legitimizing their lifestyle at the expense of ruining our nation’s morality and killing millions along the way due to the serious health ramifications of homosexuality (which I don’t have room to expand on, though there are numerous that remain unaddressed by most media, beyond AIDS).
The prophet Isaiah was speaking of people like this when he wrote, “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Is. 5:20). Everything in the homosexual culture has been turned upside down, and the men and women who fall into this lifestyle, for whatever reasons, are subject to every sort of evil. They are dying of terrible diseases in record numbers, and still many refuse to admit or even recognize what it is that’s killing them.
This is the crisis of our time. It’s the very face of evil. From the college campus to the media centers of New York and Hollywood, people who should know better are buying into an agenda that could destroy us, and they’re doing it in a big way. They are not concerned for the safety of others, they refuse to respect reasonable limits on their behavior, and they are targeting kids and young adults to become vocal advocates for their lifestyle.
Though victory against such an evil onslaught will never come easy, it will also never come until the church awakes from her slumber and becomes the visible expression of Jesus Christ, raised from the dead in the power of the Holy Spirit, in this fallen world. The homosexual agenda will never be defeated by mere laws. This war will only be won by a church awakened and determined to stand for the righteousness of God. It is my hope and fervent prayer that, before it’s too late and the agenda of death and destruction has overcome us utterly, God’s people will rise.
So what was that Sider was saying about needing to repent for having "tolerated genuine hatred of gays in our midst"?
