What Really Matters, Why Should I Care?

I was raised in a liberal republican home. I know that sounds like an oxymoron. It didn't sound right even writing it. This is one of the reasons I hate the whole party issue because no one conforms 100% to what any party stands for anyway. But that was yesterday's blog, I digress.

The fact is, although my mother, a single parent, was liberal in many ways - she wasn't religious, believed everyone has a right to follow their own heart and that homosexuality was just an alternate lifestyle - she was also hard right in many of her views concerning financial, social and ethical issues. She registered, and most of the time, voted Republican.

We all come to our own conclusions based on environment, upbringing and ultimately our own gut feelings about morality. Despite my mother's liberal views and having a close homosexual family friend, I always believed same sex relationships went against nature. After becoming a Christian and learning what the Bible has to say on the subject, that innate value was affirmed.

What do I care if homosexuals want to get married? What do I care whether a person chooses a same sex relationship? What's it to me anyway?

I cannot be a Christian, profess to believe the Bible is the inerrant word of God and look the other way to blatant sin. That applies to adultery, rape, incest, stealing, idol worship and same sex relationships as well as any other sin. Sin is sin. We're all tempted in one way or another and can't justify sin simply by saying it's natural and acceptable. It may be natural to desire sin because we do after all have a sin nature. But that doesn't make committing a sinful act acceptable, no matter what man says.

In the end, the only opinion that matters is the One who created us and the rules to live by. He created those rules for our own protection. Our choosing of sin through the ages has led to the mess our society faces today. The following are a few verses that tells us what God thinks of homosexuality:

Lev. 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination."

Lev. 20:13, "If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death. Their bloodguiltness is upon them"

1 Cor. 6:9-10, "Or do you not know that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, 10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, shall inherit the kingdom of God."

Rom. 1:26-28, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. 28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper."

Well, you might say, that's our belief. Who are we to tell others what to believe or what they ought to do or not do? For starters, those who want this lifestyle accepted as mainstream, are forcing it taught in the public schools as a normal lifestyle. Watch this...what they're teaching your children in school.

My deep concern beyond the justification of the immediate sin, is what comes next. A nation doesn't decline overnight. Debauchery is an insidious character chisel that seeps into the morals of society gradually, the way acid corrodes a surface. If we bow to the baser human lusts, what's to stop the eventuality of pedophiles decrying the right to follow their lusts?

To the one who follows the homosexual lifestyle and thinks Christians are unkind and judgmental, I say we are all sinners - all fall short of the glory of God, according to Romans 3:23. All lust after some forbidden territory. The only difference between the homosexual who persists in giving into sin and the rest of us, is the moral or Christian man's decision to obey God and refrain from sin - to admit our sin, confess and repent. Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Do we see death resulting from the sin of homosexuality? Let's just say AIDS isn't killing heterosexuals at the same rate homosexuals are succumbing to this deadly threat.

What's to keep people from doing whatever they please? Why do we make laws? What are our laws based on? At the core of every human being is a longing for decency, the desire to be right with God, to connect with and please our Creator. Despite the lure of sin, the desire for good prevails.

What really matters? That we are all the children of God, He has given us tenets to live by for good reason, because His laws guide us to safety and good health.

Why should I care? Because God cares. And God knows best.