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If you haven’t heard by now, you should probably check your pulse to make sure you are actually alive.

Dan Cathy, the president of Chik-fil-A, thinks that dudes should fall in love with chicks and marry them.  He thinks that it’s the good Christian thing to do, and believes in it so much that his entire business model is built around the concept of healthy families.  His company donated over $2 million dollars to groups that work with families and counsel those who struggle with homosexuality.

What an evil, sadistic bastard.

Actually, he’s not really.  He’s a good guy, with strong values that drive him forward.  He’s guilty of believing in something and not bowing at the court of public opinion.  Isn’t that what we’ve been asking for from our leaders in Washington?  And yet, this man is being crucified for it.

What a heroic pioneer of the good Christian faith.

Actually, I wouldn’t go there either.  I think that when we lift men up in moments like this for a stance they’ve taken, we construct massive walls and drive huge wedges between our Christian communities and those who are different from us.  Our Christian army status updates aren’t helpful or constructive.  It’s okay to agree with Dan.  It’s not okay to tell other people they can’t disagree.

This is what worries and troubles me the most as we navigate these difficult waters:  We, as followers of Jesus, are too quick to offer platitudes and quote Scriptures decrying things as evil.  I wonder why we aren’t more quick to point to the Scriptures that speak of grace, planks in our eyes, and our sins laying on the bottom of ocean floors.  The way we typically approach these circumstances is too arrogant;  and lacking in the grace, mercy, and courage of the Savior we say we follow.

And that’s extraordinarily scary.

Myself and many others believe that the way the “church” handles this issue over the next ten years will define it for the next hundred.  The reactions we are exhibiting now will determine how our grandkids view Jesus and the church.  So far, we aren’t off to a good start.  We are spending too much energy and time recoiling and defending, rather than engaging and constructing.

It’s not an easy issue.  But faith never asks us to take the easy route.

I know gay people that love God.  Loving God and being gay aren’t mutually exclusive, regardless of your stance of whether the lifestyle is a choice or genetic.  It doesn’t help to tell people that they should just stop doing something that rattles the very core of their identity; as if their “problem” could be as easily solved as eating less oreos to shed a few pounds.

I’m not saying that you have to embrace the rainbow.  I’m not saying that you have to agree to vote things into law that you don’t agree with.  I’m not saying that you have to think that what I think is right.

But I am saying that it’s better to love gay people rather than stone them.

To be honest, I think that homosexuality is a sin.  Just like my porn addiction is.  Just like your overeating is.  Just like the blind eye that we turn on the homeless and the ghettos is.  I just don’t think that the right “stance” to take is to draw a line in the sand, point fingers, and use our Bibles as ammunition.

I hope that God doesn’t treat us like we treat the gays.  What are your thoughts on Dan Cathy and the Chik-fil-A controversy?

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Here are a couple of helpful links if you missed the controversy:

This interview from the Baptist Press

This article from the Huffington Post