Straight away, I must mention that the open letter from my friend has occasioned an incredible response. It touches a nerve right in that amazing third paragraph. If you want to know why that letter has been linked, reprinted, and repeated so often, the answer is there. “To those of you who would change the church to accept the gay community and its lifestyle: you give us no hope at all.”
It is counterintuitive. The reader would expect this gay woman to plead for the church to accommodate itself to the times. But she doesn’t do that. Rather, she sees herself as a sinner and reaches for the bracing, redemptive, and cleansing blood of Christ rather than the lukewarm saliva of evolving culture.
I think there is some controversy over whether we should call this woman “a gay sister in Christ” as I have called her. When Justin Taylor posted her letter, he referred to her simply as “a lesbian.” In my view, the author of the letter is clearly a sister in Christ, even though she is still in the gay lifestyle. The more I think on the matter, the more certain I am. My whole life, I have been guilty of a variety of sins. Sins of ego. Sins of putting myself first. Sins of abusing my body in order to obtain pleasure (as with chronic overeating). I think of others who can pass through 50 years in a church with obvious sins of treating others badly without ever incurring displeasure of other church members or having a church discipline team visit them.
Homosexuals in the church, even those in the lifestyle, are in no different position than many of us are. They are sinners who are sinning. So, too, are the Christian college students having sex and still coming to church or any of the other people in the church who have sin in their lives. The definition of a Christian is a person who proclaims that Jesus Christ is Lord and sees him as his/her only hope for salvation. That definition does not entail being without sin. It seems to me that my anonymous friend is clearly in the fold. Indeed, she may be very close to God right now because she is so aware of her sin and so clear in pinning her hopes for deliverance in this life and resurrection in the next upon Him. May we all examine ourselves and our plight so carefully and accurately.
Hunter Baker 
Thanks so much for your post. Resounds with my heart so much. Can I repost these on my blog as well?
Pingback: A Message from a Gay Sister in Christ | Six:11 Ministries
I guess I would ask what you mean by “she is still in the lifestyle.” I never have understood that phrase. Does it mean she has a lesbian lover? Does it mean she goes to gay bars? Does it mean she likes to hang out with gay people or like rainbow flags? Does it mean she is still attracted to her own gender? The phrase, “the gay lifestyle” is too vague – I don’t know what it means.
But for those objecting to the title “gay sister in Christ,” we need to stop and realize the damage we in the Church have done in accepting the categories of homosexual and heterosexual.
The Bible is clear on the categories of sexuality. Lifelong marriage between a man and a woman is the only venue for which God created sexual desire and behaviors. Outside of that category, all sexual fantasy and behavior is sin and sexual attraction is temptation.
But we have taken those categories and overlaid them with 2 cultural categories based solely on attraction, homosexual and heterosexual. We then labeled the one, heterosexual, as “normal” or “natural” and the other, homosexual, as “unnatural” or “perverted.” (Romans 1, by the way, does not pick out homosexual behavior as “unnatural” based on the gender of the persons involved. vs 26, for instance, would not have been read by a first century reader as meaning “lesbianism” but, rather, bestiality. Paul uses a synecdoche (part for the whole) by picking out two prominent sins (bestiality and homosexual behavior) to stand in for the whole list of sexual sins of Leviticus 17 and 18 which includes adultery. The unnaturalness of Romans 1 is not based on the gender toward which the desire points but the fact that all sexual behavior outside of marriage – including all heterosexual behavior – is seen by God as “unnatural.”
So, contrary to Scripture, we have added adjectives to sin that muffle the law in regards to heterosexual sin and intensify the law in terms of homosexual sin. A straight kid, for instance, finds himself faced with a desire toward girls but is able to say to himself, in violation of Romans 1, “this is normal and natural. At least it’s not like I’m homosexual or anything.” In actual fact, because his desires are oriented toward people to whom he is not married his desires are as unnatural as those of his gay peers. Meanwhile the same sex attracted kid is forced by our false categories to see his desires as especially “unnatural sin.” He can not even find comfort in Hebrews 4 because if his desires are “unnatural sins” rather than temptation, then Christ was not tempted as he is and he is separated from Christ.
I think this is why many Christians who face same sex desires do label themselves as “gay Christians.” And I support them in it. They are not necessarily finding their identity in their sexual attractions. In many cases they are asking for help to move their identity from their sexuality to the cross. They are confronting the Church with the unbiblical distinction we have made by which we condemn the homosexual kid as an unnatural sinner while assuring the heterosexual kids that his desires are “normal” and “natural.” By calling themselves “gay” they are asking their fellow Christians, “will you see my sin and my temptations as being no different then your own and offer me the same forgiveness you have received? Or will you cast me aside because you judge your own temptations to be less severe or less perverted than mine?”
Matt,
Your comments are great. I liked Hunter’s post to, but did want to add a sentence saying that “faith lives only in repentance and all unrepented sin is serious”. When we are made aware of our sin, we should flee to Christ immediately!
+Nathan
Good word. Thanks for sharing the letter and your response. I think may need to post some reflects too.
I would urge you to look at “Kyle’s” comments about the sister. He has now twice called her a “c*nt,” and you have not thrown him off your site, even after I informed you about this. Do you have no standards at all? And how, if you support this unfortunate Catholic lady, can you allow her to be further abused on your own site? You have a responsibility to prevent further abuse, and I intend to be her advocate via my site, The Bent Angle. I’m looking at this thread tomorrow, and if I see any remaining abuse of this woman, I will document it. What has happened here is unconscionable.
God bless her. And may she be delivered and and set free. All have sinned and come short of God’d glory. May we all be set free and delivered.
Great post and loved your friends letter.