God Doesn’t Hate Fags

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Earlier this week I wrote a critique on a woman who was interviewed on Fox News. She was from Westboro Baptist Church, and their website has the inviting address of GodHatesFags.com. There are many, many things I can critique about this church, but one thing I wanted to break down was their statement about God hating “fags.”

According to Proverbs 6:16-19, there are six things that God hates and ‘fags’ is not one of them. [1] Furthermore, it is common Christian wisdom that God hates the sin, but loves the sinner. The problem with sin is that our sin is inherited from Adam. We are born unrighteous and will never achieve the righteousness that God demands of us while we are on this Earth. God is perfect, righteous, and just; it wouldn’t be fair to Him or to us to allow sinners in His presence. In other words, we are good enough to be with God, but the sins we commit (and have inherited) have separated us from God’s righteousness. Jesus died for our sins so that we could attain the righteousness (through Christ) that God demands. This righteousness is touched on briefly in 1 John 1:9 where through Christ we will be cleansed from unrighteousness if we confess our sins. [3]

So now that we know that God hates the sin and not the sinner, let’s analyze the statement of “God hates fags.” By the chuch’s statement of “fags”, I’m going to assume the church is referring to homosexuals. Now what sin could homosexuals possibly be committing? Well, in the Bible, homosexuality is a sin and is condemned rather harshly.[4]

Ok, so homosexuality is a sin. Does that mean that God hates homosexuals? Not quite. The statement of “God hates fags” breaks down like this:

  1. A person is a homosexual or lesbian because they engage with people of the same sex.
  2. According to the Bible, this behavior is a sin.
  3. God hates sin.
  4. Therefore, God hates fags.

Now if that logical breakdown doesn’t have you scratching your head, perhaps a better analogy will work. How preposterous is this logical breakdown?

  1. I hate swearing.
  2. My friend Cesar swears.
  3. Therefore I hate my friend Cesar.

The logical breakdown of “God hates fags” doesn’t make any sense. Just because someone commits a sinful behavior does not put them on God’s “hate” list. You have to remember that God loved the world, and he loved it so much that he sent his son down to Earth in order to “save” us from our sin (John 3:16). We were all sinners when Jesus was born. We’re still sinners. Does that mean that God hates us all? Of course not.

Hopefully my analysis of the statement of “God hates fags” provided some logical and biblical insight into why “God doesn’t hate fags.” Oh, and just for the record, I’m not too fond of the word fag, but I had to use it in order to the dissect the statement logically.

Notes

  1. Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)

    16 There are six things the LORD hates,
    seven that are detestable to him:

    17 haughty eyes,
    a lying tongue,
    hands that shed innocent blood,

    18 a heart that devises wicked schemes,
    feet that are quick to rush into evil,

    19 a false witness who pours out lies
    and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.

    The list isn’t exhaustive.

  2. 1 John 1:9 (NIV)

    9If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

  3. 1 John 1:9 is in the context of talking to those who already believe in Jesus for salvation.
  4. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NIV)

    9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

    The verse above does not imply that homosexuals automatically are going to hell. It just lists examples of what unbelievers typically are like and says, “Do not be like this!”

Related posts:

  1. Monthly Survey – Is ‘Semper Fi Fag’ Free Speech?
  2. Blog Rerun – Morality and Homosexuality
  3. Westboro Has Almost Too Much Attention
  4. Should We Judge Who Deserves Death?

Oct12

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