A young guy trying to stay celibate for God? He’s not religious—he’s just gay!

Oh yes—I really did hear this come out of someone’s mouth. On Love line. Admittedly, Love line is not the most religiously respectful of shows, but Dr. Drew offers some great answers to what are often (at least to me) bizarre problems. But he dropped the ball when he allowed this to be the answer from one of his guests. His response was that the guy might be gay, but he didn’t address the very real dilemma that spiritually conscious kids have in a sex saturated world.

Now, I’m no moral authority, but I do feel that someone should come to this kids’ defense. I have never allowed something as “petty” as my relationship with God to come between a “good time” and me. Of course, I should have. But I’m not that restrained. But for those who are, I give my full support and admiration. Just because many of us are too shortsighted to see the benefits of abstinence, that doesn’t mean that those who aren’t are hiding some big sexual secret. In fact, the suggestion that this particular teenager who said “no” was in fact, gay, is an insult to the ability of a man of any age to work toward something larger than the satisfaction of his libido.

Alan and I talked about this; we think this is a standard response to a person we don’t understand. My favorites are the hypothetical questions about ethical situations—such as, “if you knew no one would ever find out, would you steal something from a store?” If you say “no”, inevitably someone accuses you of being a liar. But that is ridiculous. It is simply a way for a moral moron to “trump” someone who genuinely wants to do right over wrong, whether or not anyone knows about it.

So I encourage all you ethical nay Sayers to open your mind, and quit bringing others down to your level. Instead, try doing some good—and stop worrying whether or not you’ll be noticed for it. You’ll find it easier, in the long run, to believe that a kid might choose to skip sex in order to strengthen his bond with God.

Let Jesus bring out the worst in you!

I was listening to a song about one’s love for God—the main chorus states that “I could sing of your love forever”. And it got me thinking—what does it mean to really know and love God? And the answer seemed so simple; I wonder why we don’t see it more often. To love God is to want to be like him—that love should inspire you to be and do your best. I’m serious—this isn’t one of those goofy billboards that declare, “Pass it on”. It’s really how I think things should be. I mean, when we are in a healthy human-to-human relationship, we announce that that person brings out the best in us. Well, then, shouldn’t we expect that from a human-to-God relationship?
I certainly want to do this—I want to be a better person because I know Jesus and want to be like him.
This is in contrast to much of the behavior we see when encountering Christians at large. The bigotry, damning of souls, snobbery, judgment, and other rotten behaviors all too often describe Christianity. It’s embarrassing, really, and makes me wonder why those people who claim to know and love Jesus don’t want to act more like him.