But should Paul have said no? Did the man not have the right to have his KKK card laminated? After all, Paul has no rights as a Christian. And it was his chance to show this man love by laminating his card, even though Paul is against the KKK and feels they are biblically wrong. Now the man will feel all the more Christians hate him, and he will never become a Christian. All because Paul refused to laminate his KKK card.
And Paul disobeyed the words of Jesus. In Matthew 5, Jesus said if a man asks you for your tunic, to also give him your cloak.... so by Jesus' own words, Paul should have laminated TWO KKK cards for the man and not refused him.
Anyone agree with me? Sounds ridiculous. It did happen though, but replace the KKK card with a gay wedding cake or photography. There is an article going around the internet and has been shared on Facebook by a couple of my deluded friends that use that passage of Scripture to insist that if a Christian baker is asked to bake a cake (or do some other service for a gay wedding), that he should make TWO wedding cakes, because that is how that Scripture would translate and apply in this situation.
But would the woman who wrote it feel the same if it was a KKK card? Or something else as repulsive and wrong?
I have said before I know how rough it is to grow up in the church and be afraid to admit you're struggling with same-sex attractions. The more conservative churches still need to work on how they relate to the issue so that people in their own congregations don't live in fear of what will happen if their Christian brothers and sisters find out their secret. We need to stop the gay jokes, the fear that gay is contagious. We need to get rid of the idea that gay people are child molesters. Too many evangelical churches still have a long way to go on the issue.
However, churches and Christians can go to far with it. The act of homosexuality is still a sin. One the Bible calls an abomination and unnatural. The same Bible says homosexuals will go to hell... among other sinners, but this is the sin of the day that is getting defended and that is running rampant over anyone who stands in the way.
Homosexuality is not the worst sin. On one level, sin is sin. Any sin will keep us out of Heaven, whether it be lying, stealing, or a sexual sin. But the Bible indicates that sexual sins are worse. 1 Corinthians 6:18 says to feel sexual immorality, for other sins are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.
The church dropped the ball long ago, Divorce is a touchy subject, I have friends and relatives who are divorced and remarried, and I love them and don't hold it against them, nor do I doubt their Christianity. What they have done is between them and God. However, even if you take what Jesus said very liberally, the only reason to divorce is adultery (though abuse is a reason too), and if - a big IF - there is any remarrying to be done, it would be the same - adultery..... but Christians divorce and remarry as often as the world anymore and the church winks at it. Virginity and celibacy for single people have become a joke even in the church. Is it any wonder so many Christians and churches are doing the same with homosexuality..... acting like it isn't a sin or a big deal?
But it is a big deal. Ever stop and wonder why this sin has become so much of an issue and powerful lobby? There really is no other sin that is defended so hotly. There is no other sin that even other Christians are demanding we cave to and not risk offending the sinner. Speak out against drugs, stealing, smoking, alcoholism... even abortion, but don't offend the gay people.
And no other group of sinners is demanding total surrender. I just read an article from the New York Times saying that Christianity must be made to embrace the gay lifestyle. That should worry even you people who claim we need to bake the cake.
Why this sin? What is so special about it to cause some Christians to claim we have no rights and must do whatever a gay couple wants for a wedding? Why are these same Christians not up in the air about other sinners?
I am against slavery and racism, but I am also against same-sex marriage, and for the same reasons - as a Christian, I believe both are wrong. So how can we say Christians have to do something for a gay wedding, but not do something for a KKK member.. or some other issue we are against?
Incest is becoming more accepted, and a recent news story told of a girl who is going to marry her father - she may have by now - and move to New Jersey and raise children with him. What if SHE asks a Christian to bake her wedding came, photograph the wedding...... it is a tad bit hypocritical and a double standard to say Christians have to do the service for a gay wedding and not an incestuous one.
And if we keep sliding down this slippery moral slope we are on, we could face other challenges in the future. There is a move on to normalize pedophilia. It is legal in some countries and has been in the past in other countries.. if it is legal, should a Christian bake a cake for the wedding of an adult male and an eight year old boy? What about an adult male and an eight year old girl..... child brides are legal among some Muslims, and as fast as the Muslim population is growing here, it could happen here.
One might scoff, but whoever thought the gay agenda and lobby would be what it is today? That you are the target of hate and destruction for refusing to bake a cake for a gay wedding...... we would never thought it possible even 25 years ago, but we are here.
We have made morality and sin a buffet. What we dislike the most, we avoid. What we like, we pick. The same Christians insisting we must bake the cake, print the t-shirts, etc, don't feel that way about the KKK card or other issues that might pop up. But if you are going to be consistent, you must feel that way. You have a double standard and are a tad bit hypocritical to expect it in one situation, and not another. You need to stop picking up stones with the liberals and gay militants to stone your Christian brother who won't bake the cake.
I am concerned about the direction our country is headed in. Homosexuality isn't the only issue, we are morally bankrupt in general, but the gay issue is the one that is trampling our rights and is trumping religious freedoms every time the two bang heads. It is not wrong for us to have our rights, and being a Christian does not take away our rights...... if someone tries to steal from you, attack you, break into your house, cheat you, charge too much on your phone bill, etc.... you will suddenly stand up for your rights and defend them...... so don't tell me we have no rights when we come against the gay agenda..... we still have our rights and freedoms.
In closing, a few points:
1) We will not win a gay couple to Christ by doing a service for their wedding. They are not unreachable. but if they are so far gone as to marry, it is going to take an act of God, not a wedding cake, to reach them.
2) Yes, we need to love gay people - all people - but doing anything to help affirm their sin is not the answer.
3) Jesus hung out with sinners, but never did anything to help or encourage their sin, so I don't believe He'd do anything for a gay wedding other than weep and plead with them to leave their sin and follow Him.
4) If we surrender on this issue, it will be others tomorrow.
5) Where is the rage about some of these bakers also refusing to do a "happy divorce" cake and Halloween cakes..... if you have a problem with their refusal to do a gay wedding cake, why don't you have a problem with them not doing THOSE cakes? What about the people who were "discriminated against" with those 2 issues?
6) The liberals, gay militants - and sadly some Christians - have screamed discrimination and tried to make it like these bakeries refused to even serve a gay person.... don't do that. They just refused to be involved in doing anything for a wedding.
When I worked at a grocery store, I helped and rang up a few gay people. In my current job at the hospital, I have helped and served gay people........ and I was every bit as courteous and polite with them as anyone else. But if I were in the position that I was asked to do something for a wedding, or print something with a pro-gay message..... I would say no. And any Christian should.
7) We don't do things to affirm other sins, so why is the gay issue the exception?
8) The hate, vitriol, and mob mentality is horrible that has been aimed at these Christians who have refused to do something for a gay wedding.... do you really want to align yourself with that? Do you really think the Christian is worse than those people for quietly saying "no"??
9) If you are using the Bible to justify or try to shame other Christians into doing something that society says is OK and normal - i.e. gay weddings - but fine with Christians refusing to do other things - i.e. KKK related stuff, then you are going by what society wants, not by the Bible.
It is a big issue, and one that has a lot of disagreement on. I don't think a Christian should do anything for a gay wedding or print any pro-gay message on a t-shirt or anywhere else, but that is between them and God. I do however, fault Christians who are fighting the ones who do refuse to do it. Align yourself with your Christian brothers and sisters, not with the ones who will keep demanding more and more until we are not allowed to vocalize homosexuality is wrong. Our pastors will have to marry same-sex couples, or face jail. Christian schools and churches will have to hire openly gay people. That is their end game. No opposition. Total blanket acceptance, and homosexuality viewed as normal as anything else, by everyone.
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