Yesterday I read this
article written by a homosexual young man who attended Liberty University. It’s worth the time to
read.
It reminded me of a Larry King interview with Larry Flynt shortly after Jerry Falwell died. You can find it in two parts here and here. Falwell had sued Flynt over a disparaging ad that had appeared in Hustler magazine.
But later the two developed a friendship, a bizarre Odd Couple, who disagreed with each other about everything, but genuinely cared about each other.
The two stories remind me of the power of authentic people, displaying love, in one on one conversations.
It seems to me, part of the reason the Church in America gets a bad rap is because we spend more time talking about issues than talking to people.
I understand the draw of the media to sensational sound bites and the desire to box complicated people and issues into neat “us and them” categories. I also understand that we deserve a lot of the flack we get.
Christ said people will know we belong to him by our love for each other. But loving each other is hard, so we choose instead to be known for our stance on gay marriage, abortion or our political affiliation. We choose to be right instead of loving. It’s a tragedy.
If at my funeral someone says, “Well, at least he got it right on gay marriage,” I will sit up in my coffin and weep. I’d rather hear, “Jeff was weird, and he and some weird beliefs about stuff, but the dude loved me and maybe that means God does too.”
It reminded me of a Larry King interview with Larry Flynt shortly after Jerry Falwell died. You can find it in two parts here and here. Falwell had sued Flynt over a disparaging ad that had appeared in Hustler magazine.
But later the two developed a friendship, a bizarre Odd Couple, who disagreed with each other about everything, but genuinely cared about each other.
The two stories remind me of the power of authentic people, displaying love, in one on one conversations.
It seems to me, part of the reason the Church in America gets a bad rap is because we spend more time talking about issues than talking to people.
I understand the draw of the media to sensational sound bites and the desire to box complicated people and issues into neat “us and them” categories. I also understand that we deserve a lot of the flack we get.
Christ said people will know we belong to him by our love for each other. But loving each other is hard, so we choose instead to be known for our stance on gay marriage, abortion or our political affiliation. We choose to be right instead of loving. It’s a tragedy.
If at my funeral someone says, “Well, at least he got it right on gay marriage,” I will sit up in my coffin and weep. I’d rather hear, “Jeff was weird, and he and some weird beliefs about stuff, but the dude loved me and maybe that means God does too.”
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