Protesters: hate sin, not sinners

I was coming home last week when I saw a rather sad spectacle: the anti-homosexuality protesters were back on campus. I remember running into them last year and seeing the same circus. Speakers screamed at students and tried to convince them to repent while students mocked them in return. This year saw the addition of a bagpiper among the crowd. He played the wedding march as two men walked arm in arm down the stairs on the side of the Ferst Center.

I remember being really upset about these rallies last year. There was a lot of hate being thrown around. This year, though, I wasn't really upset-just sad. The widespread animosity was exactly the opposite of what Jesus tried to accomplish. I probably should clarify that.

Walking past the group, I saw the protesters holding signs that more or less declared that God hates homosexuality.

With that statement, I have to agree. God hates homosexuality. But does He hate homosexuals? Absolutely not.

Consider this example: say there is a guy dating a girl and the two of them are ridiculously in love. They speak kindly to each other, take care of each other and generally think the world of each other. But time passes, and after awhile, this guy notices that his girlfriend isn't talking to him as much. She isn't spending as much time with him and isn't as close to him as she was before. He starts to wonder what's going on, and he finds out that there's someone else. And it breaks his heart.

That's kind of the way it is with God and sin. He absolutely loves us, but we go off chasing after something else, so he feels what any lover would. He's jealous. He hates whatever it is that steals our hearts away from Him. The difference with Him, though, is that He loves us enough to let us go if that's what we really want.

I hope that this message is what the protest group was trying to convey, but from what I heard, I don't think it was. I didn't attend too much of the meeting this year...it didn't seem worth repeating.

I remember that the protesters had a second point. The group shouted that all homosexuals and sinners in general would burn in hell. When they made it, this claim came with a lot of anger.

Heaven and hell are respectively a place where God is and a place where God isn't. That is their fundamental difference. Where we go when we die isn't arbitrary. God doesn't consign us to one place or the other based upon if He likes us or not, but rather we get to choose.

If we decided to be with God in this life, then we will be with Him in the next. If we decided not to be with Him, then He will honor that decision. He doesn't force anyone to do anything. He won't force anyone to be with Him. All He wants is to love us and for us to love Him.

The whole episode with the protesters reminded me of a story I'd read by an author in Oregon.

He was working at a decidedly liberal college that had a reputation for being a bit wild. Every year, this college would host a festival for its students called Ren Fayre. Students would run naked and high through the streets while campus police kept local police at bay.

The festival culminated in a light show at the college's amphitheater for the students to have something to look at while they were tripping out.

This author was praying with a friend when they had the idea to build a Catholic-style confession booth in the middle of campus.

Their idea wasn't that the students at Ren Fayre would confess anything to them, but rather that they would apologize to the students. When the first person came into the booth, the writer talked with him for a long time, and by the end both were crying. He apologized for all the wrongs that had been committed in Christ's name that were completely against everything for which He had lived.

Their purpose at Ren Fayre wasn't to convince anyone to change. They just wanted to say that they were sorry for what they had done and what they hadn't; for what all Christians have done and what they haven't. Jesus called all of His followers to heal the sick, take care of widows and orphans, feed the poor and, above all, to love one another. He said that the world would know we were His if we loved one another.

I don't know if I can say that the protesters loved everyone when they came. There was too much screaming, too much mockery and too much hate for that to be love. I don't know if they're coming back next semester. They probably will. I really don't know what to do when they return.

Sorry about that.