“Don’t get me wrong – I am sure that there are churches and professing Christians whose attitude and behaviour towards homosexuals is something they need to repent of, but I am getting tired of every Bible believing Christian being tarred with the same homophobic brush, when the evidence often suggests otherwise.”

My church, St Peter’s Free Church in Dundee, is a progressive, affirming, accepting, welcoming, biblical church. We even have a rainbow as one of our symbols! In today’s Christian jargon that is to some people a sign that we are backslidden degenerates and to others that we are just exactly the kind of modern contemporary church that today’s culture needs. It’s at that point the latter get confused. They discover that we are opposed to SSM, that we hold to the Bible’s teaching about homosexuality, and that we agree with Jesus that marriage is between a man and a woman. And lo and behold we are turned into demons. ‘Homophobic, unloving, judgemental bigots’ is the judgement made without a trace of irony.

Recently I was involved in a couple of those discussions where the superior ‘liberals’, the ones who just know they are right and everyone else is de facto wrong/unloving/unChristlike accused me and any church that did not accept their re-interpretation of the Bible, of not knowing any homosexuals, encouraging homophobic bullying, and being partially responsible for every transgender suicide! When I asked them to name any church they knew where homosexuals were bullied or not welcomed, they couldn’t. I found it interesting that all their examples were not the result of their personal experience and were vague and anecdotal, even at one stage being reduced to citing Westboro Baptists. Don’t get me wrong – I am sure that there are churches and professing Christians whose attitude and behaviour towards homosexuals is something they need to repent of, but I am getting tired of every Bible believing Christian being tarred with the same homophobic brush, when the evidence often suggests otherwise.

I was asked if I had any homosexuals in my own congregation or the churches I knew and what their experience was. And there was my dilemma – I know plenty but how could I give personal examples without breaching pastoral confidences? I don’t discuss other people’s personal issues in public. And then along came Tom, who greatly helped by posting the following:

“As a teenager I assumed that Christianity was homophobic based on what I saw on the news. I actually thought the Westborough Baptist Church was typical for the US South and that the US South was what ‘real Christianity’ was like. I was the LGBT officer in my student union and the bisexual officer in the LGBT Association. However since becoming a Christian (over 7 years ago) I have never felt excluded or hated. Quite the opposite, the church is an incredible place of love and support. Just in case there is any confusion, I’m talking about evangelical, reformed churches here. Not liberal churches which ‘love’ by telling saying ‘believe what you like, do what you feel, you’re fine just as you are’. The doctrine that we are all sinners in need of grace, and the atonement achieved by the cross, has a levelling and equalising effect. It means we can associated with anyone from any background without being afraid, or patronising, or ashamed. Gay and straight people alike are equally sinful and can be made equally righteous by the Lord. Praise God I had Christians in my life who shared with me the gospel and didn’t just affirm me where I already was!

“PS I’ve seen much more homophobia, ‘gay’ jokes, talking about ‘poofters’ etc., in the secular work place than I ever have in the church.”

I asked Tom if I could use his post and he agreed and added the following, which is also very helpful:

“It really annoys me when ‘liberal’ Christians…claim that evangelical churches are homophobic. It isn’t true but because it gets repeated so often people assume it’s true (as I did when I was a teenager) and it does them great harm by keeping them away from the Gospel. The slander against Christians is one thing but the impact it has on teenagers and others is wicked. There is no better place for the lonely, the hurting and the confused to go than Christ and his church. How evil then, to keep people away from it by telling them ‘don’t go near them, they hate you’.”

What was interesting is that the ‘Christian’ who posted the original accusations against me being ‘unloving’ etc, removed many of his posts and Tom’s as well. I think Tom’s testimony is far more eloquent than anything I could write but let me add the following explanation of why I claim that St Peter’s is a progressive, affirming, accepting, welcoming, biblical church.

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