I am a born again Christian, and I take it very seriously. Because I believe that the rule book was set by God and not by me I do believe that practicing homosexuality is a sin. But I do not believe that being gay is a sin.
How can those two beliefs coexist in me?
I am fat. Quite fat. I believe the Bible teaches me to be self controlled and to not be gluttonous. And yet, here I am. Fat. Why am I fat if I believe that it is gluttony for me to overeat? Well...because I overeat anyway. I fight this physical appetite every single day of my life. I do not claim it is okay, and I don't suggest that I should be a role model as one who lives a sinless life. I know lots of thin people too, some of whom rarely struggle at all with their weight and have even advised me on how to stop being the way I am. I have tried their advice to no avail. I have some areas that I almost never have a struggle to avoid the sin. I very seldom am envious for example, and I am not stingy. I do swear now and then to my dismay.
I don't know why I struggle so much with food and my weight. All I know is I do. I suspect that I might have been born with this particular propensity. I wonder how I would feel if large groups of people who claim to be loving and forgiving held rallies to condemn me with signs and hatred? I wonder if it would make me want to be in any way affiliated with them? I wonder if I might instead turn to a cheeseburger and decide that I might as well indulge my appetite since it doesn't matter anyway and I know I will be hated for even desiring a cheeseburger. I might even find other groups of cheeseburger lovers and be friends with them instead. I might even start to think that wanting a cheeseburger is a pretty normal thing to want and start to get pretty mad at the people who are treating me this way.
The funny thing is that I have sat in rooms packed full of Christians and admitted to them that I love cheeseburgers and that I eat them even when I know I should not. I even <gasp> told my pastor's wife a few days ago that when I was going through a hard time recently that I turned to food for comfort. I believe I said "everything else feels bad, my mouth could at least feel good." She knew I was not proud of it, and yet she hugged me and that told me I could keep trying, and would succeed one day.
I wonder what would happen if we treated people that way? I wonder if we would be where we are right now with the huge animosity that is being leveled against people like me-Born Again Christians-because a large group of people think I hate them. I don't. I love cheeseburgers too much to point a finger at anyone else.
