Bringing home the work of the gospel

John Stonestreet was an attendee and panelist at this week’s conference called The Gospel, Homosexuality, and the Future of Marriage, hosted by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. Stonestreet, a fellow with the Chuck Colson Center for Christian Worldview, said the conference highlighted the deep divide between the two sides in the debate over homosexuality and gay marriage.

One of the consistent messages of the conference was the need for Christians to show love to their LGBT neighbors. And that message seemed like news to some of the gay and lesbian leaders at the conference. “We’ve done a whole lot more hating the sin than loving the sinner,” Stonestreet said, adding, “The divide on this issue is so deep, so vast, that was considered to be a revolutionary idea, that we actually need to love those who consider themselves part of the LGBT community … and we need to treat them with inherent dignity and respect.”

Ordinary Christians should take that as a challenge, he said.

“We can’t outsource the work that needs to be done on biblical sexuality and marriage to national leaders,” he said. “Everyday Christians have to take responsibility on what it means to love those of the LGBT community that are in their own neighborhoods and in their own lives and in their own backyards.”

In this week’s Culture Friday segment, Stonestreet and I also discussed Houston Mayor Annise Parker’s turnabout on subpoenaing the sermons of pastors who are suing the city. At issue is the city’s non-discrimination policy, which gives gender-confused men a legal cause of action to sue if they’re blocked from using Houston ladies’ rooms.

Hear more of that conversation on The World and Everything in It: