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The Conservative Church's Response to Homosexuality:
A Quantum Leap of Honesty and Relationship

The Time Has Come!

Site Launch: 05 Oct 1999, Sonia B.

During the last few years, the issue of homosexuality has become a focus of increasingly heated debate in all realms -- religious, political, clinical and academic. As conservative Christians have grappled with how to address a shifting moral climate, the intensity of harsh words -- often motivated more by fear than by genuine disagreement -- has increased on both sides of the divide. Unfortunately, violence against gay people has also increased, or at least the extent of it has become more evident. Same gender attracted youth continue to be estranged from (or unable to confide in) families which, however well-intentioned, find themselves unable to integrate their beliefs about sexual morality with a solid, unconditional love that transcends fear -- the love they have themselves received from God. And countless lives are driven to "critical mass" because the only messages about "gay" seem to focus on sexual behaviour rather than the need for all persons -- regardless of sexual attractions and history -- to seek and trust Christ. It is no wonder that gays so often feel unwanted, unsafe and the objects of double standards.

This website exists to inspire an alternative response -- one which is true both to conservative religious convictions regarding sexual morality, and which is genuinely respectful towards persons whose convictions differ from traditional understandings -- upholding both righteousness and justice, and humbly extending genuine respect: wholehearted love unmarred by fear. The public rhetoric which portrays gays in general as dangerous, and predatorial does nothing to promote righteousness -- rather the opposite. For if we speak into our surrounding culture, bearing witness of what we believe to be God's standards for sexual morality, we cannot neglect to speak into the culture concerning His standards for how we are to treat one another. Within the culture and from our pulpits we cannot neglect to proclaim a just and respectful response to persons with same-gender attractions -- because it is truly His response.

The love of God can heal the wounds of the culture wars, for such love values and respects each person unconditionally, honestly and with care engaging while seeking no favors in return. The Gospel can transcend the emnity which devastates families, churches and communities, for the heart of God listens intently beyond inflammatory rhetoric and reaches into the deeper needs and concerns. It is possible to be in this world but not of it -- to apply Biblical principles and contribute to the greater good in the world around us without taking on vain, cynical motivations or a partisan agenda.

This project will not seek to adopt any side's political viewpoint, but rather to prayerfully look at the issues and offer reflections and principles so that each one who reads and considers them may reach, prayerfully and thoughtfully, creative alternatives to the caricaturized positions predominant in today's landscape. The conclusions which each person may come to upon wrestling the issues may be diverse, but they will be honest, genuine conclusions, informed not by voters' guides and the imperatives of "us" against "them," but by quiet dialog that reaches to deeper realities. What is needed is a safe place to seek His heart, not compelled by reactive, defensive applications of either liberalism or fundamentalism -- but shaped in honest prayer and humble conviction.

The humble yet almighty Shepherd Who intervened on behalf of those who were hindered from the house of worship and Who withstood the teachers of the law on behalf of an outcast woman bids each one to seek His face -- to earnestly seek to discover in each instance and each moment what He would do.