If God loves everyone, how does He feel about the LGBTQIA+ Community?
Everyone wants love. All the world wants love. The most popular songs are about love. Falling in love or out of it. Bob Marley sang about one love, the Beatles sang that all we need is love, Taylor Swift, Adele, Elton John, and every famous music artist of all time has sung about it throughout history. Hallmark movies are dedicated to it, romance books become bestsellers because of it, we even have a holiday for it.
The Bible itself speaks much about love:
Matthew 22:36-40
"36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."
Christianity can be summed up in all of one word, Love.
Lin Manuel Miranda famously said, “Love is love is love is love is love is love is love, cannot be killed or swept aside.” and many people today hold to this same concept, that Love Is Love.
The world says love is love but God says that there are forms of it that are not right and thus fall outside of what we deem love. Yet, more and more people are speaking out against that because what they experience falls outside of what the Bible says.
According to the 2021 CDC Adolescent Behaviors and Experiences Survey, roughly 22% of students self identified as Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, other, or questioning.
And these numbers are only continuing to rise as do the depictions and representation of LGBTQ+ characters and relationships in media and as more creators and celebrities come out as queer.
There was an ad that played during Super Bowl 58 that depicted various kinds of people washing the feet of those that they have had growing tensions with in our nation. The ad ended with the phrase, “Jesus didn’t teach hate, He washed Feet. He Gets us. All of us” and then puts up a website that contains the words, “love your neighbor.” This stirred up quite a lot of controversy, much of which originated with Christian conservatives. The overall message was to love your neighbor even if they seem to be your enemy and primarily it was Christians who took offense.
There is a popular saying that states, “There is no hate quite like Christian Love”
So, how can Christians say, “God loves you”, if He seems to hate who “you” are?
It’s easy to say it’s evil when it doesn't affect you, but what if it was a parent or sibling? A child or friend? What if it was them or you? How can a Christian approach someone they claim to care about and tell them that everything they are is wrong?
Why do Christians care who people love?
Matthew 19:4-5
“4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?”
God has made His standard clear. One man and one woman, no exceptions.
Now it can seem easy for Christians to preach against this sin. They tell them to repent from their wicked ways and turn to God. That may work for liars and thieves, for murderers and adulterers, but that’s because they know what they’re doing is wrong.
Yet, so many of the LGBTQ+ community do not think that at all. They may also treat people with respect, show kindness to their neighbor, nor steal. Their only sin, as they see it, is that an ancient book declares their form of love as wrong.
We must remember that this isn’t just a lifestyle choice but their whole identity. How do you tell someone that God loves them but they must change the most pivotal aspect of who they are?
Romans 1:26-28
“26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;”
What is it about their “love” that God says is wrong? If love is the great commandment, then why is God so against others doing it? Is it not possible for 2 people of the same sex to love each other?
Let’s examine some shocking Health Statistics for Same-sex relationships:
Gay men are at increased risk for HIV (44 times more than that of heterosexual men), with 23% of new HIV diagnoses being among young men ages 13-24.
Gay men are also at increased risk of anal papilloma (a virus that can cause cancer), hepatitis (liver disease), substance use, depression and anxiety, STDs/STIs, prostate, testicular, and colon cancer, alcohol use, tobacco use, body image/obesity problems, and 6 times more likely to commit suicide.
Lesbians, meanwhile, are twice as likely to commit suicide compared to straight women, are at increased risk of eating disorders, substance abuse, and breast cancer.
Emotional problems were over twice as prevalent for children with same-sex parents than for children with opposite-sex parents. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youths are 9 times more likely to use injectable drugs. They also are more likely to engage in sexual activity, use cocaine, and smoke marijuana and tobacco before age 13.
In a study of sexual behavior between straight and gay men aged 18-24, it was found that the median number of sexual partners was 4 for straight men and 15 for gay men. For ages 35-39 it was 10 for straight men and 67 for gay men.
Overall, same-sex couples reported shorter relationship lengths than different-sex couples. Around 40% of gay relationships are open relationships or have some sort of extra relational affairs.
A 1998 study also concluded that homosexual relationships may be associated with a lifespan shortened by 20-30yrs.
(See Resources at the end for links to this information)
This does not look like love.
1 Corinthians 6:9 calls them, “…abusers of themselves with mankind,”
It’s not the closeness or the caring that is wrong. It’s the sexual aspect. God made marriage for our benefit. For better families with a father and mother who bring 2 different perspectives and styles of parenting, that have the ability to procreate and the desire to do it. God made it pleasurable so we would desire to propagate as a species. If homosexuality leads to greater health risk, mental issues, and commitment issues, then love is to let them know.
Romans 13:10
“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.”
Sometimes Christians can feel that they’ll just live godly and what LGBTQIA+ individuals wish to do is their choice. Yet, if someone chooses to stay in a burning building, that may be their choice, but one should do everything they can to get them out of there!
Sin isn’t wrong because God simply decided arbitrarily to make it so but because it causes harm. God designed the world to work in such a way that was good. When we go against that design is why we have so much bad. This doesn’t mean that God doesn’t want gay people to find love. Of course God wants gay people to find love. He wants everyone to love everyone. The question is not, “Does God want them to love?”, but what is love?
This is where all the confusion stems from.
Question: Do you love your parents, children, siblings, pets, or friends any less because it’s not romantic?
No, of course not, you would say because I love them so much is why I don’t love them romantically, because love is greater than romance!
1 John 3:16
"Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren."
This is what love is. Self-sacrifice
Love is wanting for someone else’s benefit, even if it comes at your own detriment
We find a disturbing twisting of love recorded in the Bible:
2 Samuel 13:1-2, 14-15
“1 And it came to pass after this, that Absalom the son of David had a fair sister, whose name was Tamar; and Amnon the son of David loved her.
2 And Amnon was so vexed, that he fell sick for his sister Tamar; for she was a virgin; and Amnon thought it hard for him to do anything to her.”
14-15
“14 Howbeit he would not hearken unto her voice: but, being stronger than she, forced her, and lay with her.
15 Then Amnon hated her exceedingly; so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. And Amnon said unto her, Arise, be gone.”
Is this love? It says Amnon loved her? Surely this must be love if he felt so? No, we all exclaim, this isn’t love. This is lust
Lust is desire for one’s own benefit, even if it comes at the detriment of someone else
This is why rape is wrong. Why pedophilia is wrong. Why Beastiality is wrong. Why adultery is wrong. People who practice such things may claim it as love, but love is not about your desire for them, but their wellbeing. If they truly loved them, then they wouldn’t do such things. No matter how strong your feelings may be for someone, if what you do causes them harm, you should not do it.
If love is love and “love worketh no ill to his neighbor”, then this can’t be love.
A priest put it this way, “because we love these people truly, our sisters, our mothers, our daughters. We already carry in our hearts our love for them. When we allow lust to overcome us towards some stranger or someone we know, then it is a lack of love in our hearts…we must repent of this and recognize that our hearts are unloving.” - FR. Spyridon
Notice what is wrong with homosexuality. It is not the close bond between partners, it is not the intense care they feel, nor is it the desire to be around each other that is wrong. It is the sexual aspect. The aspect that stems from lust. The part which leads to all these health issues we find. God made sexuality to fit within a certain box. It’s when we break outside of it, that we get hurt.
In our society we are fed love as though it is a feeling. So, when we feel intense desire we assume that this must be love but it is NOT! This is called love confusion: mistaking the feeling for the real thing. It’s not love, it’s lust. If they truly loved their partners, then they wouldn’t be sexual with them.
1 John 5:3
"For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [burdensome]."
Notice what the verse says, keeping God’s commandments IS THE LOVE OF GOD. That is to say, that God is expressing His love to us by wanting us to follow His rules. People like to look at God as though He’s a tyrant. “God just wants me to follow all these rules!”, but God’s law does not benefit Him. He is the standard that the law describes. He simply is. God is the standard of goodness, so when He asks us to give up something, it means it isn’t good.
This is why God wants us to give this up. He is against it because it is merely a counterfeit.
Galatians 2:20
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Christianity is all about sacrifice. Sacrificing cussing, drug use, hate, stealing, lying, pornography, sex outside of marriage, and yes, even same-sex romantic relationships. But all this is for our benefit. It can be hard to ask someone to give up or change their identity for God. It can be difficult for us to even do it ourselves. But as Christians we find a new identity in Christ. He is who now defines us. Regardless of who we were and what our circumstances are, everything we do stems from this fact.
One may respond, “But I was born this way.” And there is truth to this. We are all born with certain proclivities, desires, and feelings that others may not be. How can someone change something that they were born into? Jesus puts it plainly in John 3:3-7 “…ye must be born again.” This is the foundation of the Christian life. To be set free from being slaves to our desires and be reborn with new desires. Paul even states that this was the case for some Christians who once lived this way, “…and such were some of you…” 1 Corinthians 6:9-11
Our hearts should break for these individuals. Whether they be gay, bisexual, or transgender, they desire the same thing we all do: to love and to be loved. Yet, they have been swept up by a counterfeit created by Satan, who has convinced them that God does not love them and has pitted them against the Almighty. They’ve been blinded that they cannot see. The sad fact is, they are searching for something that they cannot find, because Love cannot be found outside of God.
1 Corinthians 13:6
“[Love] Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;”
So, no, Christians do not hate the LGBTQIA+ community, and yes God truly does love them; but, love does not rejoice in iniquity, it has no pleasure in the abuse of others, but rejoices in the truth. God is love. So, to follow God is to find true love. Love is indeed love, but only if that love is found in Christ alone. Remember that these individuals are still searching for something that Christians have already found. A love untainted by man, pure in all its ways, and able to change even the vilest of sinners.