With the media aglow about the first open homosexual being drafted into the NFL, how should Christians feel? The powers that be haven’t hidden their giddiness. Good luck trying to Google “Michael Sam” and finding anything in opposition. President Obama called it “an important step forward.” And woe to anyway who dares protest. After Sam kissed his boyfriend on national TV, a Dolphins player was immediately slapped with a fine after he tweeted “OMG” and “horrible”. In the US media, all intolerance of homosexuality is now verboten. 

Homosexuality is called an “abomination” in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 and any Hebrew dictionary will tell us that the basic meaning of this word is an “abominable, detestable, offensive thing.” In fact, Leviticus 18 lists a number of sins (e.g. incest, adultery, child sacrifice, bestiality) but “abomination” is mentioned only in reference to homosexual intercourse. This no doubt points to the revulsion associated with homosexuality. Plainly then, not all sins are created equal.

As gay activists Kirk and Madsen have said, “almost any behavior begins to look normal if you are exposed to enough of it.” Indifference is the first step. Opposing homosexuality with our personal choices (“I personally would never do that”) but not our emotions (“Hey, everyone can do their own thing”) is the one thing we must not do. When homosexuality is paraded on TV and celebrated in textbooks, our children should see anger on our faces, tears in our eyes, and fear for our country. But when Dad “ho-hum” flips the channel, shall we really expect our families to conclude: that was a detestable thing in God’s sight!”

The first question is not: is it hate speech to oppose homosexuality? Rather, the question is: are the words we say true? Because lesbians effectively argue that a father is irrelevant, and because gay men likewise argue that a mother is unnecessary, and because homosexuality is destructive to the home and society, our urgent resistance is far from hateful. It is loving.

Of course we are to love homosexuals, interact with them, and seek their conversion. “God Hates Fags” is not the way to win them. But just as loving the zoo should never lessen our repugnance of man with beast sex, so should loving our neighbor not weaken our abhorrence of man with man sex either.