Calling Something Sinful is Not Hateful

I saw a video a while back of magician Penn Jillette describing an encounter he had with a Christian man after one of his Vegas shows. The man offered him some kind words and a small Gideon’s Bible. Jillette is an outspoken atheist, but whenever I’ve seen him engage with theists he has always been, in my opinion, fair and kind. How he reacted to this man’s gift was no different. He says in the video he has a lot of respect people who proselytize and then asks a convicting rhetorical question, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” See the video for the full story:

I was reminded of this video while thinking more about the Phil Robertson “anti-gay remarks” controversy that I recently wrote about. In that post I feel I didn’t make it clear enough that I agree with what Phil Robertson believes concerning the morality of homosexuality. I would not have said it the way he did, but I completely agree with him nonetheless.

The Bible is crystal clear about God’s design for human sexuality in Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his mother and his father and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”  Jesus Himself affirms this in Matthew 19:4-6 “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let man not separate.” There’s no need for me to cite Leviticus or any other passage because God Himself made it clear: sex is for marriage between one man and one woman. Any sexual act that is not within the context of marriage between one man and one woman is sinful.

A more in depth look into sexuality will require a future series of blog posts. For now, let me just say that I agree with what the Bible says, and what Christians for 2000 years have believed about marriage. I know that believing in this and saying it publicly will likely get me branded by some as a bigot, homophobe, or a hater-much like how Phil Robertson is being branded now- but I don’t believe this is fair.

Calling a sin a sin is not hateful. Christians declare that all people are sinners, not because we hate them, but because we love them. We don’t call people sinners to make them feel bad for the sake of feeling bad, but to demonstrate their need of the gospel. Everyone needs the gospel. Homosexuals, heterosexuals, atheists and Christians all need the gospel. Believing in the gospel is the only way to find peace with God and inherit eternal life. Believing in the gospel means you recognize that you need a savior, and the only way you can recognize that need is to realize that there is something you need to be saved from. To really understand the good news of the gospel you must be aware of the bad news of our natural, fallen state.

If you are a homosexual, let’s set that aside for the moment. Let’s assume for the sake of argument that homosexuality isn’t a sin. Have you ever told a lie? Have you ever been envious of something someone else had? Have you ever been impatient? Have you ever become angry because something didn’t work out exactly the way you wanted it to? If you said ‘yes’ to any of these questions then you are a sinner and you need the gospel. Homosexuality is not the worst sin in the world and if you are a homosexual it’s not the only sin of which you are guilty. Your sin probably pales in comparison to mine. I am in no way superior to you or more righteous than you. I need to be saved from my sins just as much as you. Being homosexual doesn’t exempt you from the gospel because there is no sin that makes you unworthy of the gospel.

Christians believe that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Rom 3:23-24).  We believe that God “being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ” (Eph 2:4-5) We believe that God “has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son” (Col 1:12). We believe that in Christ everlasting life is possible, but to receive this free gift, one must have faith in and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and repent of your sins. The only way you can repent of your sins is to realize that your sin is in fact, sin.

My hope and prayer for this post is that you would walk away with at least a little bit better understanding of where Christians are coming from when we call certain things sinful. I’ll ask Mr. Jillette’s question again, “how much do you have to hate someone to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?” I believe that to properly share the gospel and tell you that everlasting life is possible requires me to tell you that we are all sinners. While it may be uncomfortable to label some things as sins, to not do so would be, in my opinion, very hateful.

Blessings