…like homosexuality and religion:
A California mayor’s comments saying that homosexuals are committing sin that will keep them out of heaven have caused uproar among activists…
…In a Nov. 16 interview with the New York Times, Mayor Osby Davis of Vallejo, California discussed issues of religion and politics in the Bay Area city of 120,000 people, the California Catholic Daily reports.
Discussion turned to the school board candidate Bishop Lou A. Bordisso, an openly homosexual prelate in the American Catholic Church, a church not in communion with Rome…
…Asked by the New York Times whether there are some faith communities “where gay people are not welcome,” Davis replied that God loves “anyone who is gay and anyone who is not gay.”
“The sins that keep you out of heaven are not the just those sins of being gay, those are sins of lying, murdering, unforgiving, all kinds of sins… So when you look at someone who is gay, you see them as someone Christ died for and you look at them as if they are in fact committing sin and that sin will keep them out of heaven.”
So, what is happening? Well, some people in the gay rights community and sympathizers are demanding the mayor resign or that the city recognize “gay pride” day…which is, in the end, a way of saying that the city should honor some people for speaking up about their sexual views while condemning the mayor – and, by extension, all Christians – for speaking up about their sexual views. Thus the weird world of the Age of Lies we live in.
Of course, all the mayor is saying is basic, Christian truth – it is not what you are which keeps you out of heaven, but what you do. You can be gay until the cows come home and get in to heaven – what will keep you out, if you are to be kept out, is your actions…the things you consciously choose to do knowing as you do them that they are wrong, and then you never seek forgiveness…never have a contrite heart over your errors. This isn’t hate, as some gay activists might put it – its the old, old Christian ideal of hating the sin, loving the sinner. If you don’t like this worldview, then you’ve got a major malfunction of your own to deal with.
There is a great simplicity in Christianity – Christ died for the remission of our sins and all those who believe in Christ will be redeemed. But what, exactly, constitutes belief in Christ? Who has really accepted Christ? While we can make some solid assumptions about some people who are likely in heaven – we call them Saints in the Catholic faith; thus St. Francis is someone we are as certain as any human can be that he’s in heaven – we can’t really say for certain if any particular person is in hell. Even the very worst sinners may have had an act of genuine contrition before death and even at the last moment have accepted the salvation Jesus offers to all of us. We can see lots of indicators that a person has rejected salvation, but we don’t know if they really have.
The problem here is that some people, it would seem, want us to say that what we know is bad – sexual relations outside of marriage and cut off from the gift of life – are good and won’t in any way risk a person’s salvation. Or, failing our public assertion of this, we are to keep silent about our views. This is un-American – and, also, counter-productive. Everyone must know what everyone else is about – if you are gay, you must know that I, as a Christian, condemn utterly homosexual relations. It wouldn’t be fair for me to hide such a view from you – and it would be unfair to the gay person to not have the alternative view placed in front of him…because unless there is a multiple of things to choose, there is no choice.
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