Imagine that you are a parent of a teenage son, and one day he comes home from school and blurts out, \u201cI\u2019ve started doing drugs. Am I going to hell?\u201d<\/p>\n
How do you answer?<\/p>\n
What if he said, \u201cA few years ago, someone at school gave me a Playboy, and I been masturbating to it several times a week. Am I going to hell?\u201d<\/p>\n
Or, \u201cMy girlfriend and I have been having sleeping together for about three months now. Am I going to hell?\u201d<\/p>\n
Most Christian parents, I think, would rightfully be alarmed at such confessions, but few would tell their son that he was going to hell. Most parents would seek to help him through these<\/p>\n
But what instead, your son said, \u201cFor a few years now I\u2019ve been attracted to other guys, and over the last few months, I\u2019ve started having sex with another guy at school. We love each other very much. But someone told me today that unless I change, I\u2019m going to hell. Are they right?\u201d<\/p>\n
Now how do you answer?<\/p>\n
Most evangelical Christians, when confronted with this hypothetical scenario, respond by saying, \u201cOh, that would never happen with my son. You see, he had involved father, a mother who wasn\u2019t domineering, and he was never sexually abused as a child. Studies prove that most gay men have had at least one of these things happen to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This, of course, is not an explanation of how you would respond if your son \u201ccame out\u201d to you, but is rather a denial of its possibility. It is a non-answer.<\/p>\n
Which is why, I suppose, most Christian families are shocked and completely unprepared when such situations do happen to them. We have been caught unaware and unprepared. We never thought it would happen to us, and so we didn\u2019t think about what we should do or say if and when it did.<\/p>\n
However, in a world that increasingly welcomes and accepts those of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transsexual (LGBT) orientation, Christians must open their eyes and ears to what LGBT people are saying about God, the Scriptures, the church, and human sexuality. This is especially true if we want to minister among them.<\/p>\n
Furthermore, the LGBT issue is increasingly being brought up on television and in politics. Numerous\u00a0states are passing laws legalizing same-sex marriage. Therefore, it is vitally important for Christians to know how to respond to these situations, not only in truth, but also in love.<\/p>\n
Andrew Marin is one Christian who is pioneering the way.<\/p>\n