Pray the Gay Away - Vol 1 No 8
- Joanne Chastain
- Feb 8
- 6 min read
Christians love homosexuals
This week Mike went to an after-school lecture in the evening attended by about fifty students. The topic was “Pray the Gay Away” and was given by an intersectionalist feminist professor whose stated purpose was to influence the students to think about Christianity as homophobic which equates to hating homosexuals. During the Q & A, Mike challenged through questions about a half dozen of her points and was able to offer more accurate ways of thinking about some points she asserted. This caused some animated and interesting conversation during and after. This entry is about the conversation after.
All I've Ever Heard
As Mike was exiting, some of the students came over and stopped him to talk further.
One said, "I haven't really heard your point of view before. From the time I was in middle school, what was presented in this talk is all I have been taught. I have been told constantly that homosexuality is normal and to disagree is to be homophobic, to hate them. I don't want to hate anybody."
Mike said that the word "phobic" means "fear" not hatred and Christians should neither fear nor hate people who claim to be homosexual. We should love them. He urged, "I don't have to agree with the homosexual in order to love him. If that were the standard, I wouldn't love anybody! There is no one I agree with totally and neither do you!
They laughed. "True!" they agreed.
Mike said, "Do any of you go to church or believe in Christianity?
One muscular football player said, "My father's a pastor. I go to his church sometimes. When I was in middle school, he sent me to a private school so I could play sports, especially football. What I've heard here tonight is pretty much all I have ever heard. I don't think there's really anything wrong with being homosexual."
"Do you read the Bible or study the Scriptures?" Mike asked him.
"I don't have time for that. I have a lot of work to do to get through school. When I'm at school, all this religious stuff distracts me from the real work I'm doing and learning. I will go to church on Sunday but I don't want to talk about it during my school week. I just don’t have time."
"What do you believe about Jesus?" Mike asked.
"I accepted Jesus," he said matter-of-factly. "I'm going to heaven when I die."
"So, does that have any bearing on how you view what you are learning?"
"I hadn't really thought of that. I really don't see how they relate. I need to learn these things at school to get my degree. That's what's important. I don't really mix religion and school. I don't think they really mix."
Not at this school!
A young man was standing beside the football player and had on a t-shirt that said, "Jesus is dope." Mike had seen him before wearing a similar shirt that said, "Religion is drugs." Mike looked with at him with kind eyes. "Tell me about your shirt."
"Jesus is my drugs. He makes me feel good."
"Do you study the Bible?" Mike asked him.
"I read the Bible when I feel depressed. I find verses that make me feel better."
"Do you ever compare what you are listening to in class to the Bible to see if it is true?"
He looked confused. "What? Well, no. Not really. School is school. I am here to learn the material and get my degree. I don't really see what the Bible has to do with that.”
"The Bible speaks to everything." Mike said. "God has revealed Himself to us through the Bible, which is His word to us, and it applies to everything. If you are a Christian, you will love God's Word and seek to apply it to all of life, including school."
"Not at this school!" a girl blurted out. "Not if you want to pass! If you want to talk about Christianity in your classes, why don't you go to a Christian college?"
Mike said, "Do you think that reasoning about things from the point of view of the Bible only belongs in a Christian college? You don't think it belongs here?"
"No, I don't think it belongs here. We are here to learn facts not religion.”
Mike challenged, "So do you see a division between the secular and the sacred? Reason and religion?"
"What do you mean?"
The Great Divide
"Y'all seem to think that there is this great divide between the religious world and what you think is the real world. You seem to think there is this religious or sacred category that is not really reasonable or rational and which is actually only about what happens when you die. It's not about facts. It's not to be studied and learned. It exists to make you feel better and help you in the next life. Right?"
They nodded so he went on. He had their attention. "And then you seem to think there's another world that is the real world and that world is factual and rational, and that's where real life happens. That's the world of what really matters and where you really live. It's scientific and provable and is separate from the religious world. In your views these two worlds do not mix. You seem to think that to bring the religious or sacred to bear on the "real" or secular is to pollute it or mess it up. You don't seem to think they belong together."
The football player said, "I haven’t ever put it out that clearly but yeah, they are different. I don't think the Bible should be talked about in class because it doesn't really apply and not everyone believes it. Religion is about faith and school is about facts.”
Mike confidently said, "Well, what if I told you that they are not separate at all? There are not two worlds but one. Doesn't it make sense that if one God made the whole world, this one God orders and maintains His world and all that is in it. He rules this world and has given His Word to direct us as to how to think rightly and live in it. That being the case, there is no way to understand His world without His manual, the Bible to give us truth. The Bible speaks to everything truly and accurately in principle and precept. It is rational and reasonably speaks to every matter with total truth. Rather than this division, there is actually a beautiful unity! I have a reasonable faith.
Academic Bullying
The group was unusually quiet. They looked skeptical.
The t-shirt guy said, "I've heard you talk about the Bible in class and you're brave. I believe in Jesus, but I have to give the professor what he wants to hear. I have got to make the grade if I am going to get my degree."
"Does that mean you've allowed yourself to be bullied into submission?"
"What! I don't know what you mean!"
"You shouldn't fear having differing views from your professors, and you shouldn't feel like to have to agree with them or you will be punished! And you shouldn't say things in your essays and papers that you don't believe just because you want a grade. That's not honest. I am a student just like you," Mike said. "I do all of the work you do, and I am going for my degree. I'm held to the same standard you are. But I am not here to just spit back what the professors are saying. I want to think about the material and compare it to my worldview and see how it lines up. I bring the Word of God to bear on all my schoolwork without apology because the Word of God is true and reasonable. All my papers and tests reflect this perspective, and I have a 4.0. My professors have not punished me for disagreeing with them as long as I show diligence to do the work they give me and treat them with respect. I don't see how I could do the work without bringing God's truth to bear on it. It is my goal in life to think through everything from God's point of view in an honest, healthy and helpful way."
The group dispersed amiably. No great commitments to follow Christ were made. No obvious conversions or earthshaking confessions, but they are thinking. Their worldviews have been challenged...and Mike was invited to meet a group of them for lunch on Monday to talk more.
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