Love is not a Hate Crime
Then they called them in again and commanded them not to speak or teach at all in the name of Jesus. But Peter and John replied, “Judge for yourselves whether it is right in God’s sight to obey you rather than God. For we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard. – Acts 4:18-20
Dear Friends,
Shortly after the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and they began preaching the Good News of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ, Peter and John were arrested for the content of their preaching. Though the miracle that Peter performed in healing the crippled beggar was without doubt, the ruling classes could not stand to allow the two apostles to continue preaching in the name of Jesus and they ordered them to stop.
Peter and John knowing that obedience to God overrules obedience to civil authority told the rulers plainly that they would not stop preaching the Gospel. A few days later, they were arrested and then beaten for their “crime.”
Last week, the House passed a hate crimes bill that adds gender, sexual orientation, gender identity and disability to the current list of protected classes; race, color, religion, and national origin. While the bill has passed the House, the Senate has no scheduled vote and some believe it will go no further. But this apparent death of the bill has not prevented the debate between “the Conservative Christian right” and the “liberal left” to reemerge over the issue of freedom of speech from the pulpit.
As the debate goes, “the Conservative Christian right” argues that this bill would put pastors who preach against homosexuality at risk of prosecution because their sermon content could be considered “hate speech.” The “liberal left” claims that the bill expressly protects the first amendment right to free speech and the opposition to the bill is unfounded.
I am a member of the Conservative Christian right, but I believe those who are opposed to this bill are missing the point entirely. Their argument shouldn’t be against the bill. Their argument should be against the misunderstanding that preaching against homosexuality is motivated by hate when it is truly motivated by love.
The Bible teaches us that there are a great number of sexual sins that individuals can fall prey to. Leviticus 18, which is the text most often citied in this argument, does not only teach against homosexuality, but also against every manner of incest, adultery and bestiality. Yet these sexual sins never seem to make it into the discussion.
In an attempt to tie preaching against homosexual behavior to the acts of hate addressed in hate crimes legislation, the argument is made that the Biblical punishment for homosexuality is death. Yet death is the Biblical punishment for all of the sexual sins in Leviticus. So should a pastor be arrested if a dishonored wife runs over her unfaithful husband after the pastor preached against adultery? And going even further, the Bible calls for children to be put to death for cursing their parents, yet I don’t see any pastors calling for them to die either.
The truth is that preaching against all manners of sin is motivated out of love for the individual. When we sin, we sin against God and the severity of the penalty for sin is in proportion to the severity of the offense of sin. If we think the penalty is too great, then we do not have a comprehension of the severity of the offense. Our offense against God is infinite and the penalty for that offense is death.
No true pastor wants to see any sinner suffer the punishment for his or her own sin. So they preach against all manners of sin hoping that an individual will repent and turn to the Savior in faith. The pastor hopes for the person to avoid the penalty of death by claiming the death of the Savior as his own. As the apostle Paul wrote in the letter to the Romans, “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin.”
Biblical preaching against sin is motivated by love, not hate. With this understanding, hate crimes legislation is not in opposition to Biblical preaching. True, the punishment for sin is death, but that penalty has already been paid for by Jesus Christ and can be credited to us if we only repent and turn to the Savior in faith.
In Christ,
David
David,
Thank you for bringing this topic to the table. It is certainly loaded with vitriol from both sides.
My faith and study differs a bit from your statement in the third to last paragraph, “… the severity of the penalty for sin is in proportion to the severity of the offense of sin.” A quick look at world history including biblical history and we see that this is not true in an earthly sense. So maybe the argument is that the penalty is dealt in the eternal treatment of our soul.
I believe the wages of sin are death. But after that comes the most important part of the Christian story. Grace! The UNDESERVED gift. He died the death we deserve to SAVE us from our sins. Since None of us are free of sin, none of us can escape death…EXCEPT through faith in Christ.
As Christian Conservatives, I believe our commentary on homosexuality and indeed on the world too often lacks Jesus’ teaching of love. But maybe it also lacks the teaching of forgiveness. Let’s not be so afraid of “cheap grace” that we don’t teach the very means by which our salvation is achieved.
There are a host of other issues in the debate on Christianity and homosexuality, but I am thankful for you bringing the topic of love to the table. As Christian Conservatives, we’ve done a very good job of communicating our judgement (perhaps too good). Now let those among us who are without sin, be the first to cast stones.
Or perhaps we could all stand to revisit Jesus’ ministry to the woman at the well. His judgement was clear on her sin, but it did not pervade His tone. His tone was of love and compassion and acceptance for her as a sinner. Thank God!
Peace and Love,
DD
DD,
You and I are generally in agreement. From an earthly perspective, there does not seem to be justice. This was an issue the writers of Psalms, Ecclesiastes and Job all struggled with. Why is it that the righteous suffer and the wicked prosper? The answer is found in God’s judgment. So yes, the punishment for sin is death and it is eternal separation from God. For those who have only an earthly perspective, there is no satisfactory answer.
And you are right to follow sin with grace because that is the Gospel message. A sinner has to first recognize that they are a sinner, before they think they have any need for a Savior. The two ideas are fundementally linked.
Which is a problem in much preaching today. Some preach only about the sin without the grace. This just leaves sinners frustrated and angry because they are condemned to hell with no hope. On the other hand, some preach grace, but forget about sin for fear of offending someone. This I believe is worse than the first. At least in the first instance, the frustration may lead the sinner to seek some resolution. In the second instance, the sinner is told that their sin is acceptable to God. That’s a huge and dangerous lie.
If we look at the story of Jesus and the woman at the well, it is clear that she is living a sinful life cohabitating with a man who isn’t her husband. And she knows she is a sinner. She comes to the well at the sixth hour (noon) at the hottest point of the day when no one else would be venturing out to gather water. She even tries to hide her lifestyle from Jesus in her answer by saying she does not have a husband, but Jesus knows the truth. So Jesus didn’t really have to confront this woman about her sin, she was fully aware of it. With her sin firmly established, Jesus offers her grace.
True, preaching with the right tone is best. But you can start out with a hard tone of condemnation and conclude with a soft tone of love and grace.
The word Gospel literally means “Good News.” If there is Good News, there must be Bad News. The Bad News is all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. All deserve to go to hell. The Good News is by repentance and faith in Jesus Christ, you will be saved.
In Christ,
David