I am engaged in this present study in the spring of 2020. Donald Trump is President of the United States, and months ago I have made it known to my Christian brethren that I don’t think he is qualified to be our president. However I was told that I shouldn’t judge him, because Christians aren’t supposed to judge. Nevertheless, when I brought up the subject of Obama being our president, well, that was a different story. He was a terrible president. Why? President Obama was a family man. He loved his wife and children—the husband of one wife, by the way. President Trump, on the other hand, divorced his first wife and married another. He is a self-confessed womanizer, and even made the claim that, if Ivanka wasn’t his daughter, he’d be on her like flies on …whatever! And, my Christian brethren love this man! Go figure!
Why is President Obama hated by many of my Christian brethren? I don’t know for certain, because no one told me. However, I think I have a fairly good idea, as to why. It may be, because Obama did so much for the gay community. Mustn’t do that kind of thing, if you’re a Christian! Really? Well, I believe President Obama had a great deal of compassion for folks, something our present leader lacks. President Obama had compassion for the children who were needlessly gunned down in their schools, and he had compassion of gay folks, who have been bullied by many in our society and forsaken by many of our churches. Obama did what he could. However, the question of homosexuality isn’t a social issue, nor is it a political one. Rather, it is a theological issue, but our churches have for the most part failed to address it properly. Nevertheless, whether his actions were correct or incorrect, President Obama didn’t lack compassion of the gay community. Compassion! Now that’s a word that is pregnant with meaning. We can say that we love gays from afar, but we cannot have compassion for them from afar. Compassion requires getting in the trenches with someone, and feeling their pain, and standing with them in their rejection and mistreatment by others. Words have meaning and compassion is a word whose portrait is painted with many colors.
Jesus had compassion for folks, and it is for this very reason that he healed whom he did. And, because he had compassion for folks, he was characterized as a friend of publicans and sinners! Obama is characterized as a friend of gays—sinners! I don’t know, but that certainly looks like a WWJD thing to me!
If we would draw a line in the sand, saying this matter is too far, too great to endure, too evil to be associated with, where would that line be drawn? Would it be drawn with gays on one side and straight folks on the other? That’s unfair to say, some may tell me. Well, I don’t think it is. While there are certainly some exceptions to the rule, most of my brethren would make sure they are on straight side of that line. Nevertheless, I need to ask, on what side of the line would Jesus be?
The scriptures testify that Jesus ate with sinners;[1] he was their friend! What would a friend do for a friend? A friend would stand with his friend in a time of trouble. He would be a gazingstock for folks who bully, exclude and terrify his friend, because friends stand with friends, feeling their pain and enduring their trouble, and never complaining while doing so. Friendship, like compassion, is a Jesus thing, too! It is a WWJD kind of thing. Jesus was a friend of sinners, and friends eat together!
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[1] This doesn’t mean homosexuality is a sin, but it is said to be sinful by men. Homosexuality, in as much as I am able to tell from scripture, dishonors men, but it is never said that it dishonors God. It dishonors men in that it is impossible for a homosexual relationship to add another human to mankind. If everyone were strictly homosexual, mankind would be wiped out in a single generation. While it may be a legitimate relationship in itself, homosexuality cannot fulfill the prime directive of increasing and multiplying over the earth. In this same vein, neither could a eunuch add numbers to mankind, yet Daniel was made a eunuch in Babylon (Daniel 1:3-6) and, not only was he well beloved by God (Daniel 9:23; 10:11, 19), but no one else in scripture is mentioned as serving God in Babylon except for Daniel and his three eunuch friends. Under the Law, such a person couldn’t enter the assembly of God (Deuteronomy 23:1). Nevertheless, the Lord commanded through his prophet, later, saying that any eunuch that is obedient to the Lord would be received in the Temple of God, and they would have a name, which was better than the names of (natural) sons and daughters in the Kingdom (Isaiah 56:4-5). I believe this would hold true of gay relationships, as well.
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