Loving the LGBT Community

It's pretty rare I link to something on Challies.com, but... :)

This is good stuff. 

How can we both love and preach the Gospel to the LGBT community? Is it possible to say "I am your friend" AND "You need Jesus"? And what happens when the topic of sexuality comes up? 

This is a great first-hand account of someone who's preaching the Gospel AND finding acceptance among the LGBT community- not in spite of preaching the Gospel, but probably because of it- and probably because of HOW he does it. I don't know that I'd copy this style to the letter, but as a broad stroke outline and a call to befriend cultures we might feel uncomfortable around (and who might have reason to be uncomfortable around us) I find it both inspiring and convicting. (In that vein, I've recently felt like I need to be reaching out to the MANY Muslims who live in our neighborhood- this area of SW PDX is a hub...)

Here's the article:

I have talked to quite a number of gay men now—almost all of them white and middle aged. Many of them came out of the closet after having been married with kids. For whatever reason, 85% have come from Catholic backgrounds. That means that much of my evangelistic groundwork has already been covered. There is no need to explain that the bible has two testaments, or who Moses or Abraham were, or convince them of the historic factuality of the resurrection; for the most part, they believe it. I’m finding it’s the authority of scripture that I need to deal with the most.

When I first meet someone at the coffee shop and they ask me what I do (which is a natural “in” to introducing the gospel) they assume that I must be a liberal gay Baptist minister, because otherwise what would I be doing in their coffee shop? (The first man I talked to had only just broken up with his boyfriend, a Methodist pastor.) I begin by asking them questions. I get them to do all the talking for the next 45 minutes. I ask them about their job, their background, their family life, their personal life and what they believe and why so I can get a picture of their epistemology and worldview. Needless to say, I frame my questions in an inquisitive, slightly naive, polite fashion, not in an interrogative, formal way. Gay men love to talk (at least the ones in this coffee shop seem to) and people in general today enjoy discussing “spirituality”. Then, out of politeness, they will inevitably ask me what I believe. So I tell them the gospel, starting with Genesis 1, laying out for them the biblical storyline and worldview.

...

I do all this because I love the LGBT community. They are a community comprised of individual eternal souls. Sadly, they are culture that has almost no contact with biblical Christianity in any form. How many drag queens can count a born again Christian amongst their friends? Very few, to our shame.

Read the rest here