WWJD about a gay wedding cake?

  The issue of homosexuality and same-sex marriage has become a complicated one, and unfortunately a political issue. The church has messed up from the start, painting gay people as perverts on the same level as child molesters, and many Christians have no love or compassion for those dealing with that issue. That has led to multitudes of teenagers and adults hiding their struggles from their church, the very place we should all be able to find love and share whatever we struggle with - even THAT. It isn't much fun to grow up in the church hiding what you are, who you are...... hearing others ask for prayer for their struggle or issue, knowing if you shared THAT, you would be ostracized and feared. We do tend to shoot our wounded.

  Some people who struggle with same-sex attractions just keep hiding their struggle, never being able to confide in even their pastor or best friends. Some walk away from the church and find community and fellowship in the gay community and accept and give into their struggles. Some can't handle it and kill themselves. 

  But it is just another sin. Granted, there is a militant group that has an agenda who will not be happy until you aren't allowed to even say it is wrong, until they get no push-back from whatever they want, even encouraging kids in elementary school to experiment sexually with the same gender.

 So what is the church to do? Do as some have and toss out what the Bible says? No. One does any sinner any favors by ignoring their sin and letting them think they are OK. We need to love and try to win gay people to God.

  Many Christians feel Christian business owners must cave and bake cakes for gay weddings, print t-shirts for gay pride parades, etc, and loudly declare that is what Jesus would do, and that is what God would want us to do. Oh, we so easily decide what God would want us to do and what Jesus would do, even though the WWJD fad has faded into history. But how often do we take the Bible and study out what God wants us to do, and what Jesus would truly do? Even most Christians come to their own conclusions based on how they were raised, drawing from church and family teachings, but so rarely praying and using the Bible.

  Would Jesus truly bake the cake, print the t-shirt? Would He go to a gay wedding? He hung around sinners, but if the Pharisee was having an orgy, did He provide the food for it? Did He ever, and would He ever do anything that would participate and look like an approval of any sin? I have thought it out and here are my conclusions. Some would say I hate gay people, which is truly ironic for anyone who knows me well to come to that false conclusion. Some will just scoff at my conclusions because they just know what we should do, and it isn't what I and others are saying. But what if you're wrong?  And what will you do when you are faced to do something to affirm sin? This is what I believe, based on what I know of God and the Bible.

The issue is becoming more and more widespread. Christian business owners refusing to do certain things for gay customers and getting sued and vilified:

The Christian couple with a photography business asked to photograph a gay wedding

The Christian videographer asked to video a gay wedding

The t-shirt company owner asked to print t-shirts for a gay pride event

The inn owners who were asked to rent their facilities out for a gay wedding

The church who was asked to rent out their pavilion on the beach for a gay event

  Each of these people, and more like them, faced lawsuits, were vilified by the gay militants, media, and sadly many Christians. 

The state of Indiana just passed a law to protect religious freedoms in cases like these. And the country is in an uproar. People are vowing to boycott the state, and as usual there are Christians lining up against the idea of protecting the rights of Christians. They write articles, go on talk shows, write blogs and Facebook posts decrying Christians who dare refuse to be involved in a gay wedding. They join the ranks of those screaming homophobia and discrimination. They insist that anyone in those situations must do it, that as Christians we cannot refuse, and that Jesus Himself would bake the cake, photograph the wedding, perform the same-sex wedding ceremony (that will be next). But are they right? They claim to be. They claim we are wrong who disagree, and claim to have an inside track on what Jesus would want and what He would do were He in those same shoes.

  But are they correct?

  Gay people are not evil - well most of them. The militant gays have become the bullies, and I would say they border on being evil. But the average gay person is not for Christians' heads or out to seduce your kids. Many just want to be left alone and live their lives quietly, some of them staying "in the closet." They all don't march in parades and sue Christians. But they all have something in common: They are guilty of committing a sin the Bible calls an abomination and unnatural. They are in the list of people who will spend eternity in hell unless they turn to God and leave their sin behind them. It is in there. Believe me, I know those verses well.

  And we all want and need someone to love. I can't have that and live for God, but I still wish for it and empathize with the multitudes of gay people wanting relationships and marriage with the special one in their life. But it is still wrong. It is still a sin, no matter how much they love that person.

  We need to love those caught up in that sin, but never, ever give in to approving of it in any way.

  Here is a question: What makes the gay issue so special that we should give into it? 

Some of these same bakeries that will not make gay wedding cakes will also not bake divorce cakes or Halloween cakes. Where is the rage and cries of discrimination?

If someone asks to make a cake for the KKK, should they be forced to? My brother-in-law refused once to laminate a KKK card where he worked. If the same logic is applied, he should have had to do it, right? If you read that and are OK with him doing that, but not with someone refusing to do things gay-related, then you do not make sense. Sorry, but you don't.

  There are a couple of issues that make it different:
1) What society at large is OK with
2) Who has the loudest voice

  The divorcee' who is refused a cake is probably not going to make a big deal about it. The gay couple... they are just looking for an excuse to publicly shame a Christian and make a scene. They don't want tolerance, but total acceptance with no one to stand up to them or disagree.

  The KKK? Most people hate them, so they would never have a case. But if the same logic is applied, no one should have the right to refuse them. They are wrong, but so are the gay couples according to the Bible.

  Here's what bugs me the most about these situations:

Christians insisting we must capitulate and saying that it is  what Jesus would do. At the risk of doing what they are doing - putting words in Jesus's mouth and saying what He would do - I don't believe that He would.

But, I can't believe He would, or expect us to do it.

The Bible says homosexuality is a sin, an abomination, and unnatural. Even if the two people love each other, it is still a sin. So would a holy God make a wedding cake celebrating what He calls an abomination? Would He print t-shirts to celebrate a parade celebrating a sinful lifestyle, a parade where all kinds of sinful behavior and nudity is on display? Would He rent a building He owned to celebrate sin?

  I can't imagine Him doing that..... so why are other Christians so hard on we who are very most likely doing what Jesus might do? I can't even imagine Him attending some other weddings after what He said about marriage, but I won't open a can of worms and name THAT out.

  Even many Christians have made gay people a special case. Incest is starting to be more accepted, and a young girl recently married her father (in another country). Should a Christian bake a cake for THAT wedding? Pedophilia is also gaining some support among very liberal and radical psychologists. What if NAMBLA wants t-shirts printed or a cake baked. (NAMBLA is the North American Man-Boy Love Association).

  People can argue and try to weasel around it if they want, but you cannot say it is OK to refuse to do certain services for some people, and not gay people. Granted, pedophilia is illegal here in this country, but the NAMBLA organization exists here, and it is legal other places and has been legal at other times in history, but it could be legal here some day. So my point remains, will the same Christians who insist we must bake the cake, print the t-shirts, rent the building.... will they apply the same reasoning to other sins? You can't pick and choose.

  There seems to be the idea that if we want to win gay people, we have to surrender to them and do whatever they ask, but baking a cake or anything like that will not win them. 99.99% of them will just be happy they got a Christian to do what they wanted.

  The next step will be forcing ministers to marry gay couples. Already in England, a gay couple was suing to force churches to marry them. Many of them will not be happy until that happens. Already in one of the states where same-sex marriage is legal, judges who marry individuals have been told they have to marry same-sex couples. In a country where religious freedoms are rapidly disintegrating, it is only a matter of time until they demand it of ministers. And I am sure those who refuse will face the same backlash that these others are facing now.

  I read an excellent book on this subject recently, Compassion Without Compromise. We need to love the sinner, have compassion on them, but never, ever compromise. No gay person will ever be won by doing anything to reinforce their thinking that they are OK the way they are.

  As this country slips further down the slippery moral slope, more and more things will be accepted and celebrated that we never thought would be. Christians will face more and more instances where they will be asked to do things that violate their beliefs and freedoms. Today it is gay marriage and other gay related things. Next up is the transgender movement. Tomorrow it will most likely be incest. What will these Christians expect from us who side with the pro-gay marriage crowd? Will they side against us on those issues also?