Straight paths through crooked roads

Is it bigotry or accountability: separating the act from the actor.

In some parts of the U. S. a moral person would be considered a bigot.  That is because sexual conduct is a subject of morality.  If a person believes that the Bible is correct and tries to live by its teachings, then they may be considered moral.  However, if they go to the Castro district of San Francisco, they may be accosted by a resident and told to get off of the streets because they are a "breeder".  Breeder is a term used by some homosexuals in the "Castro" to refer to "straight" people, that is to say, heterosexual people.  The assumption seems to be that "breeders" may look down on "gays" as less human than themselves.  Looking down upon another person that one deems to be less of a person than they are is an act of bigotry.

Biblically moral people in California supported the passage of Proposition 8 in 2008.  There was a great controversy over whether or not homosexual people had the "right" to be "married" in the eyes of the law.  The homosexuals and their supporters said that every person should be treated the same in the eyes of the law and therefore to deny gays the right to be married was unconstitutional.  Biblically moral people held that law related to marriage comes from some moral source and therefore that the laws related to marriage needed to protect the sanctity of a normal heterosexual relationship of one man and one woman.

Homosexuals and their supporters see this thinking as bigotry.  Biblically moral people see it as wholesome normalcy.  How can this controversy be understood? 

If a person assumes that what one does is the very same thing as who a person is, then it would be logical to say that some people think that they are above others in classes among human beings.  This is how you get a caste system in a society.  However, the Bible says that God is no respecter of persons.  That is to say, no one human being is greater than another because of such things as wealth, social position, birth into a certain family, etc.  Jesus Christ did not come to save the superior people, he came to save all people.  Jesus Christ did not come to save sin.  He came to save people out of and from the power of their sinful natures and their sinful acts.

Under Biblical truth, we have all sinned because we are all by nature inclined to sin.  Once a person accepts Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, has been forgiven of sin and been given the gift of the Holy Spirit to overcome the burden of the sinful nature, that person is not a superior person, or a greater human being than another  person who is still caught in sin.  The redeemed person is simply redeemed by the acts of God.  These same acts of Godly redemption are available to the homosexual, to the thief, to the gossip, to the liar, even to a politician.  God separates the sin from the sinner.  He redeems the sinner but condemns the sin, that is if and only if the person is willing to repent from their sin.

If a person says, "No, you Bible beaters are just bigots who are trying to get me to be like you are," then, the person is refusing to acknowledge sin as real to themselves.  They are choosing to believe that they have no such guilt.  They are justifying themselves by claiming that they are not bigots like the Bible beater is.  Therefore, they are superior as human beings to the bigot.  Then, they have themselves become the bigot.  Now, they say, "Get off of the street, you breeder."

By the way, the Bible also offers salvation to a bigot.

How evil is being made to look like good, and good to look like evil.

We know that our society today is really a mess. What was once good is now seen as evil and what was once unthinkable evil has now become accepted as good.  Exactly how is this possible? 

The answer is a perversion of what Christ said in Matthew 23:23.  Satan has taken what Jesus said there and has scrambled it into half truth that becomes powerful deception.

What Christ was saying to the Pharisees in that verse was that they had neglected the "weightier matters of the law."  He directed them to consider "judgment" or wisdom, "mercy" or compassion, and "faith" or faithfulness, depending upon the translation you are studying.  These three elements interact with one another in a balance.  Judgement can mean condemnation but also wisdom to discern.  The law that comes from wisdom is by its very nature meant to be a benefit to those it guides.  Mercy is not meant to excuse people from obeying the laws of God.  Mercy is designed to allow the repentant person to put their mistakes behind them and go forward in the way they should have been going in the first place.  We are faithful to that in which we genuinely place our faith.  This faith is active faith.  This faith causes us to be consistant in acting with wisdom in the framework of mercy. 

Thus, we should not hold back from correcting our child because we did the same kind of thing when we were young.  We need to discard the idea that if we are not perfect we cannot express a problem which we have discerned.  The basis for correction isn't our personal perfection.  It is truth.  If it is truly harmful, then we need to say so.  The older brother who is a heroin addict is perfectly in the right to advise his younger sister to not do what he has done to himself.

The deception of Satan comes, in just one example in this way.  Compassion is lifted high above wisdom.  Therefore, forgiveness is a matter of excusing others who have done the same thing that we have done.  They point to the idea that Christ said that if you see your brother has a speck in his eye you should first remove the beam that is in your own eye.  In other words, we have no right to be critical of others.  This allows people to do things that are self destructive or are mutually destructive under the banner of personal freedom to do so.  How many times have we heard the idea that "It's my life, leave me alone." "What gives you the right to judge others?"

The answer is that judgement in a biblical sense means that we extract a price out of the person we are judging. We have no right to sentence people to jail, or to extract a fine.  Nor should we.  However, we do have an obligation to tell the difference between good and evil and to live by it.  And, in compassion, we need to tell our neighbors about critical issues where they may be saved from great sorrow. 

By the way, Satan has labelled faithfulness as an unneccessary burden.  Sometimes, he labels it a "guilt trip."  The very idea of husbands and wives being faithful to each other is quaint.  Even the idea of making a public commitment to be faithful to each other in the sight of witnesses is so "old school." 

We used to call it a marriage.  However, it is that sense of faithful commitment that reminds married people that deep love is far more than physical attraction, even more than friendship.  Deep love is a choice that comes before the feelings do and must remain constant even though feelings change.  That commitment, that decision to love even when not every loving action seems to be returned, is vital.  That kind of love comes from God.  It is the kind we all need.  It is the kind of love that He has for us.  That kind of love is essential in both a marriage and in a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Well, the process of making good look like evil is to say that wisdom is not compassionate.  That way, we can find reasons why we can be excused if we get a divorce even if the matter is only based on a whim of changed feelings.  To keep the married couple together when they have differences would be jugmental and uncompassionate.  We can find reasons for abortion of an unborn child because to deny the abortion would be a failure to have compassion on the mother.

This process described above results in destruction of bonding between father and mother, between parent and child, between the growing and maturing child and other people.  It is how Satan destroys people:  half truth that distorts what Christ teaches.