“Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS: to those who by perseverance in doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life; but to those who are selfishly ambitious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, wrath and indignation. There will be tribulation and distress for every soul of man who does evil, of the Jew first and also of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For there is no partiality with God.

I think the issue of homosexuality in Christianity is often a distraction from doing the actual work of Christ. Romans 1 speaks of the sinfulness into which humanity has fallen and specifically references homosexuality as being something that was not a part of God’s created order. However, this passage also lists greed, arrogance, disobedience, lacking in love, lacking in understanding, and lacking in mercy, as being outside of God’s created order.

Can you be a gay/lesbian Christian? That’s like asking, can you be an arrogant Christian? I have met many of both.

As Christians we are not called to stand on street corners and call people sinners; we are called to love people and be examples of Jesus Christ.

When we choose to judge someone else, it says far more about the state of our own heart than about the person we are judging. If I see evil in someone else’s life, I need to ask myself why that evil is so apparent to me. Typically, we are very good at seeing, in the lives of other people, the sins we are committing.

We cannot return the world to God’s created order. We can, however, care for all people living in this world. We need to love and defend all people; people openly living outside of God’s order.

What is the role of an openly LGBTQ Christian in the church? What is the role of an openly arrogant person in the church? To do that which God is calling them to do.

Now everyone can be unhappy with me.