of gays, bishops and blogs

First, sorry to have been out of touch for so long. I have not only been very busy, but also had problems accessing Blogger. Pages of strange symbols instead of web pages!

Why is it that so many people are obsessed by homosexuality in relation to christian mattters? I sometimes get the impression that Anglican bishops, fundamentalist preachers, bloggers and those who frequent christian forums are more interested in homosexuality than Jesus. Debates rage around gay marriage, gay bishops, gays going to hell and goodness knows what else. What's the worry?

I can't find anywhere that the bible says we have to tell other people how to live their lives, even if they do so in a way that we think is prohibited. On the other hand, I can find plenty of places where we are told to love people and tell them about the love of Jesus. It is then up to them whether they do anything about their lives or not. It is between them and our great God. It is not for us to judge or condemn, but to follow Jesus' example, who did not come to condemn but to save.

And why is homosexuality specially singled out for constant condemnation? Why not christians' own hypocrisy? Why not legalism in the churches? Why not... well just about anything? No, it's always honmosexuality - never greed, pride, idolatry, selfishness or hatred. Oh, of course, such things are mentioned frequently, but the debate rages around matters that should be beyond christian debate.

We should first cast out the planks from our own eyes before we start condemning the splinters in others'. Let's deal first with our seeming inability to love each other, our reliance on self, the constant turning of our backs to Jesus and the use of worldly ways in our vain efforts to be spiritually better. Perhaps then we might have time to focus on those of whom we disapprove. But I have a shrewd suspicion that once we can see more clearly through our own clean eyes, we will notice that Jesus loves imperfect homosexuals just as much as anybody else and offers them the same gifts as the rest of us imperfect heterosexuals.