Tim Wildmon

AFA president

September 1994 – “I do not want you to send me your magazine any more,” says the caller or the letter writer. “I’m tired of seeing all this stuff on homosexuals.”

Thankfully we don’t get a lot of the above here at American Family Association. But we do get a few such calls and letters each month.  Some will say we’re mean-spirited or even hateful to homosexuals.

Others will say they are just plain sick and tired of hearing and reading about the subject. Hey, my hand’s up. I’m in that crowd myself.

So why all the fuss? Live and let live, right? Well, I wish it were that simple. Allow me to share AFA’s position on the issue of homosexuality.

When I was in elementary school the school system began to offer what was called “string programs.” The idea was to get youngsters interested in learning to play the cello, violin, viola and the like. Like so many things in life, I wanted to play the cello but I didn’t want to practice. I was always a better orchestra player than soloist. (In other words, I sounded a lot better mixed in with a large crowd of other string players. I guess you could call it getting lost in the crowd. But it was good for the audience and my parents that I was lost.)

A nice man taught me and many others how to play these stringed instruments. As best I can remember, he was a patient, kind, well-mannered teacher. And years later, after I had moved on through school and my musical career came mercifully to an end, I learned that this gentleman was a homosexual.

Anyway, somewhere between the time I took lessons and the time I learned he was homosexual, he had moved away. The point is, this man did not flaunt his immoral behavior. He lived his life and so far as I know didn’t bother anyone or try to recruit anyone. He – like so many former and practicing homosexuals I’ve read about and talked to personally – may have struggled daily with this sin. It may have been something he was ashamed of.

Now there I go using the “s” word. Who am I to call homosexual behavior a “sin”? Well my frame of reference for truth is the New Testament book of Romans, chapter one. I encourage you to read the entire chapter. (For those who remain in rebellion against what God thinks of all sorts of sinful acts, not just homosexuality, it’s not a pretty picture.) Verses 24-27 read:

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Now if you’re like me – one who looks to the Bible for what is right and what is wrong – I don’t see how you can escape the scriptures which state that homosexual behavior is a sin. And I could point to other scriptures, but suffice it to say homosexuality displeases God greatly.

The problem as we see it here at AFA is not so much the homosexual men and lesbian women who live quiet and peaceful lives, the problem is with the organized effort and political agenda of the radical and not-so-radical groups who at their minimum try to morally equate homosexuality with heterosexuality. There is very obviously nothing natural or normal about homosexuality.

These groups – such as Queer Nation, ACT-UP, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), etc. – have been fighting across the country for special civil rights status and liken their cause to the plight of black Americans in the 1960s.

It’s not the same thing.

Blacks are identified by skin color, and skin color is benign. Homosexuals are identified by how they behave. It is what they do to one another sexually that defines who they are. If we – as a society and government – are to give special status to someone because he behaves a certain way sexually or otherwise, where do we stop? How absurd! Should we also grant special civil rights status for groups of people like the North American Man/Boy Love Association (NAMBLA) whose motto is “Sex before eight, or it’s to late?”

Homosexuals should repent of their sin and turn to Christ for forgiveness and restoration. However, if they will not take that path, they should keep their lifestyle to themselves and quit trying to force the general American public to embrace it and call it normal. It is not normal, natural or moral behavior.

By the same token, no one – especially someone who calls himself a Christian – should act violently towards homosexuals or toward anyone for that matter. We should treat the homosexual with love and compassion, and as someone for whom Jesus Christ died. In short, we should hate the sin and love the sinner.

The problem in today’s political climate is that if you speak in any way against the sin, you automatically become a “homophobe” or a “hatemonger.” I don’t think there is a lot we can do about that except try to live a life of love, kindness and conviction as did Christ.

When Jesus confronted the woman who was caught in adultery he didn’t stone her, but he also didn’t dismiss her sin. In fact, he closed by telling her to go “and sin no more.” He demonstrated loving kindness but he also told her to quit behaving a certain way. This is the attitude Christians should take toward homosexuals.

AFA will continue to run articles about the homosexual movement and political agenda in the AFA Journal. And I’m sure we will continue to be called “hatemongers” and “homophobes.” That’s unfortunate because, with God as our witness, we do not hate anyone. And I’m sure we will continue to receive phone calls from time to time asking to be dropped from our mailing list because of this issue.

But this is where we are in America. Some people just don’t want to be bothered I guess. And if we pretend this civil war of values doesn’t exist, then maybe it will go away. It is to our peril if we think as much.