Thought of the Day 01.07.09

As a Christian who cares deeply about social issues, I often find myself talking about things that, quite frankly, I wish I could just ignore. But even as I discuss a social ill like homosexuality, I have to note a problem which so many of us have in our thinking about this particular sin: we think it’s special…especially bad. But it’s not.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. It’s very bad. But there are at least two problems in the way so many of us talk about gay behavior. The first is that our emphasis neglects by contrast all the other sexual sins that the Bible equally condemns such as pre-marital sex, adultery, and divorce; evils much more common and thus much more harmful.

But our second error is forgetting just how easy it is to single out for condemnation a sin which does not personally tempt us. Which is why we should tread with the greatest of care in discussing precisely those sins for which we feel no empathy and, hence, comprehend at best incompletely.