Disclaimer, I am annoyed by the word bully.  This word covers everything from calling someone a name to actually physically hurting someone in a big way.  Now GLBT community practically owns the word and every time the church stands up against homosexuality it gets labeled as being intolerant and pro-bullying, but the truth is the church was anti-bullying long before everyone else jumped on board.

Since the beginning of the human race there has always been someone bullying someone else.  As a matter of fact it didn’t take long before bullying led to murder in the story of Cain and Able.  Of course it wasn’t always so severe Jacob simply decided to steal Esau’s birth right and Josephs brothers simply sold him into slavery.  Jesus was bullied by religious hypocrites who were threatened by what He was teaching.  It still happens today, but there isn’t one group of people that owns the anti-bullying platform.

From the beginning Israel and then the church have been called to be a blessing to the nations, to Love God, and as a result to love others.  In reality it is the teachings of found in the Bible and especially in the teachings of Jesus that promote true tolerance and love.

In Romans 5:8 Paul reminds us of the love Jesus had for us: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  Earlier in Romans 3 Paul reminds his readers of their sin and how that sin angers God.  God’s love is in spite of His anger.  That is true tolerance.  The Gospel message is in itself the greatest anti-bullying message there is.

Let’s think about this.  Our sin (not matter which one you choose to focus on) offends God to the point where God has wrath towards those who have sinned against HIm.  God the Son then chooses of his own volition to sacrifice himself and be the victim of one of the greatest exhibitions of bullying ever to be displayed.  He does this for the purpose of saving those who have sinned against Him and causing Him to become angry.

During his ministry Jesus taught things like turn the other cheek, love your enemies, and forgive those who have sinned against you.  Some might say the church has lost its way and no longer teaches such principals.  To be sure there are some churches where this may have happened, but overall this is simply not the case.  Instead what has happened is that those who don’t like what the church says about their particular issue say the church bullies those they disagree with and that the church is intolerant.  In reality the church is calling all sinners to repentance to receive the grace provided by Jesus on the cross.  The idea that the church is intolerant is, for the most part, an urban legend caused by a misunderstanding of the message found in God’s word.

The church is called to love and accept, but it is also called preach the truth and the truth is often a stumbling block for those who would rather hang on to sin than accept the grace provided by our Lord and our God.

Let’s take a few minutes and consider the preponderance of the Biblical evidence that homosexuality is indeed a sin.  Even though it is a sin there is no Biblical evidence that this sin has any different eternal consequences than any other sin.  This is not a salvific issue and it is not the most important issue for Christians to deal with.  It is however controversial in our culture. See my previous posts here:  Post 1 – Post 2 - Post 3 - Post 4 - Post 5.

Here is a summary of the evidence:

• Gen. 2

This passage teaches us about God’s design for marriage in a positive way.  Notice it isn’t about “love” as much as a covenant between a man and woman.  It is the context in which procreation is possible.  The family unit was designed by God with children in mind.  As a matter of fact Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply…to fill the earth.  Whether this has already been accomplished to the liking of God doesn’t matter, this is what the covenant of marriage was for.

• Lev. 18 & 20

Yes it is true that this is the Old Testament and we need to be careful as to what we apply and what we don’t apply from the Old Testament. It is also true that there are many things we do apply from the Old Testament.  If these two passages were the only passages relevant to the issue of homosexuality I too would simply suggest that this may be cultural and we should ignore it.  That is not the case.  We have all kinds of passages that teach about sexuality.  Sex outside of marriage is considered a sin in the ten commandments, with Abraham, 1 Cor. 7, any of the places the word fornication is used, and many others.  We also have the New Testament Passages that confirm this command and I would argue that Paul’s language in 1 Cor. 6:9 suggests that he was virtually quoting the Leviticus text out of the LXX (Septuagint).

• The teaching of Jesus in Mark 10
• And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”

No, Jesus does not mention homosexuality here.  What he does mention is marriage and God’s intentions.  Nowhere in scripture do we see any hint of a positive case for homosexuality and we certainly do not see any hint of same sex marriage.  We do see a positive case for a man and woman getting married.

• Romans 1

This passage is very clear in regards to homosexual activity.

• 1 Cor. 6:9 & 1 Tim. 1:10

These two passages are very clear in spite of what many have suggested.  When we look into the original language we don’t see more ambiguity, we see more clarity.  See my last post for a more thorough examination of the language.

Conclusion

The case against homosexuality isn’t based on one passage, but several.  Perhaps one could argue away a couple passages, but there seems to be a consistant message throughout scripture.

• Marriage was designed with a man and a woman in mind.  Procreation isn’t just a benefit, it is part of the purpose of marriage
• Jesus words reaffirming the original intent for marriage
• Sex outside of marriage is a sin
• Homosexual practice includes sex outside of marriage and is therefore a sin
• The multiple texts dealing specifically with homosexuality all condemn the practice
• There is not one single passage in the Bible that promotes homosexuality in any way

There is a preponderance of evidence against the practice of homosexuality for a Christian perspective.

We are almost done with this series of posts.  I think we may have a couple more to go.  This is the last one that will deal directly with Scripture.  The author of the Soulforce article again tries to claim ambiguity in this passage.  As in all the posts so far I am summarizing and trying to stay concise as apposed to going into great depth.  If you missed the last 4 posts you can find them here:   Post 1 – Post 2 -Post 3-Post 4.  I want to reiterate that I am not writing these posts to harm or offend anyone.  We all have sin in our lives and are in need of the atoning sacrifice of Jesus.  Paul, in Romans, reminds us that we should not simply go on sinning just because we have grace.  This is simply an attempt to bring clarity regarding whether practicing homosexuality is a sin or not.  That’s it.  People who lie or cheat are sinners.  The difference is that we all pretty much agree that those things are sin so we don’t argue about them most of the time.  That said I have had more arguments with teenagers about whether certain types of cheating are sin or not than I have had about the issue of homosexuality.  The difference…one gets more media because there is more controversy surrounding it than the other.

1 CORINTHIANS 6:9 AND 1 TIMOTHY 1:10

Those who defend the practice of homosexual activity like to cause ambiguity where there is none.  These two passages are perfect example of that technique.  I will quote 1 Corinthians 6:9 which is very similar to 1 Timothy 1:10:

“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality…”

At first read this appears pretty clear, but if you look at the Greek (not to in depth) it becomes less clear.  There are two words here that elude to homosexual activity.  The first word does not appear in the Timothy passage but it does in 1 Corinthians 6.  That word is μαλακός which appears to mean effeminate and might be referring to young boy who are mature.  That said we don’t know that for sure.  I might point out that there is a word in the Greek for Pedophilia and Paul choses not to us that word here.  Because Paul choses not to use that work here it makes me think it is more likely that Paul is referring to homosexual behavior as that is a reasonable translation of that word as well.  You might be thinking wait a minute, there is some questions here and I don’t want to condemn anyone based on something that may or may not be condemning homosexuality…I agree so let’s move forward.

The next word that is used here is ἀρσενοκοίτης.  The author of the Soulforce article and many other claim that no one really knows what this word means.  It’s a great mystery and some guy a long time ago guessed at its meaning and decided that “homosexual” would be a good guess because of the last word we talked about.  Well that is simply not what happened.  In fact something much more scholarly happened.  What we actually have here is a combination of two words:  ἄρσην which means “male” and “κοίτης” which refers to “another man”.  You might be thinking that doesn’t exactly slam the door shut.  No I suppose it doesn’t, but when you consider the fact that Paul is a Greek speaking Jew writing to Greek speaking people and you consider that he was probably using the LXX (Septuagint) which is a Greek translation of the Old Testament and finally you consider the fact that these two words are the very same two words that literally lay next to each other on the scroll in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13 where God’s law speaks clearly against homosexual practice that door pretty much slams shut.  Paul was simply combining these two terms not to cause ambiguity, but to bring clarity.  Baseball, football, database, and software are just a few words we do this with in english.

When you consider that these two words were used together in the 1 Corinthians it seems that Paul is clearly condemning the practice of homosexuality.  These words are really not ambiguous.

The Soulforce author points out that Paul’s writing has been used to support slavery and other deplorable practices.  Let me join her in saying I along with her condemn such horrific practices and does the writings of Paul when correctly understood.  Just because other people have taken the writings of Paul and twisted them to mean something they do not mean does not mean I or others who believe homosexuality to be a sin are doing the same thing.  This is a logical fallacy and simply saying others have done something horrible does not mean that is what the rest of us are doing.

In the next post I will summarize the Biblical evidence that practicing homosexuality is a sin.  I would like to point out here that I have not spent much time talking about what this would mean for Christians and what we should and shouldn’t do regarding this issue.  Though I have certainly developed some thoughts along these lines I would rather leave that to people who spend more time helping those who are struggling with this issue than I am.  I will include some links to those organizations in my last post on this topic.

For those who were anxiously awaiting my third post in this series, I’m sorry.  Life has been a little crazy.  Even now I am currently transitioning to a new position at my church and preparing to go back to school at Denver Seminary this coming August.  I also recently participated in a debate with a Muslim Imam.  I will be posting some video and doing a few blogs about Islam and the debate.

In case you missed the first three posts, you can find them here:  Post 1 – Post 2 - Post 3.  Alright, let’s dig in:

Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13

The author of the Soulforce article found here basically suggests that since this is Old Testament and the Holiness code, it doesn’t matter.  To some degree the author is correct.  The law in the Old Testament (mostly found in Leviticus and Deuteronomy) need sto be split up into three groups.  Those groups are:

• Ceremonial Law

Romans 1:26-27

 Conclusion

What we are beginning to see is a consistant message throughout scripture.  The next post will continue by looking at 1 Corinthians 6 and 1 Timothy 1.

For those who were anxiously awaiting my third post in this series, I’m sorry I didn’t have it done on time.  In case you missed the first two posts, you can find them here:  Post 1 – Post 2.

Finally we get to dig deeper into the passages in scripture that deal with this issue.  I will admit in this form of media we can’t give a scholarly treatment of these passages, but I don’t know that one is needed in order to deal effectively with this issue.

Let’s take a look:

GENESIS 2:21-25
THE CREATION STORY

In the article offered by Soulforce they suggest that the creation story is all about God.  In many ways it is absolutely about God, but that is not all it is about.  This becomes evident when we consider other scriptures that talk about the created order.  Often the created order is referred to in other Scriptures like 1 Cor. 11, 1 Timothy 2, and others.  The creation narrative doesn’t directly mention gender roles, but Paul refers to it in that context.  I’m not trying to make a statement about gender roles, I’m just pointing out that just because a passage doesn’t directly deal with a specific issue doesn’t mean it has no value when discussing issues that are not the primary target of the given passage.

We can go a step further here.  Though the creation narrative doesn’t directly deal with same sex relationships, it does deal with marriage and procreation.  This passage does give as at least a partial purpose for marriage and sex and that is procreation.  This of course does not necessarily mean that sex is only for those purposes.  In other words in the creation narrative sex and family is defined in a certain way and we should pay attention to that.

The authors list of heterosexual relationships that don’t produce children is an attempt to point out that children are not what is in mind when God created and gave us the institution of marriage and sexual relations.  It is important to point out that exceptions prove only that there are exceptions to what is an otherwise good rule.  For example:

• Couples who are unable to have children is only about 15% depending on what stats you look at.  So the general rule would be that 85% of heterosexual couples are capable of having children.
• Couples who are too old to have children likely could have had children when they were in their child bearing years.
• Couples who choose not to have children are making a conscious choice and taking action to prevent what wold otherwise be the natural outcome.
• People who are single is the lack of a relationship.

The creation story does not condemn same sex relationships, but it does give us and idea as to what God’s intentions were.

GENESIS 19:1-14
THE STORY OF SODOM

Though one could  make an argument that this story does deal with homosexuality, it is not as clear as many of have made it appear.  For this reason I would rather focus on other passages.

Next week we will look at a few more passages including Leviticus & Romans 1

Homosexuality and same sex marriage has become a very hot topic and those who believe the Bible says it is a sin or that the government should not recognize same sex marriage have become reluctant to speak out.  There are several reasons for this, but one of them is not being able to deal with the personal attacks, faulty arguments, and accusations of those who believe homosexuality is natural and the government should recognize same sex marriage.  Too many have also been convinced that they were wrong in believing that homosexuality is wrong.  That is why I am taking the time to write a series of blogs dealing with some of the more common arguments used by the pro-homosexual crowd, specifically those proposed by Soulforce.  This being the second post in the series, you can read the first post here.

Premise #2

“Historically, people’s misinterpretation of the Bible has left a trail of suffering, bloodshed, and death.”

This premise has a grain of truth to it.  Certainly there are times when people have misinterpreted the Bible and then proceeded to do terrible things.   The list of examples given, in some cases, lacks historical context.  Even if all of the examples given are true that does not mean the Bible is being misinterpreted in this case.  Correct interpretation has lead to great good being done throughout history.  Think of the work Samaratans Purse, International Justice Mission, Compassion International, and many, many more.  Women being freed to vote, the end to slavery, churches that run to the aide of whatever community has been harmed by hurricane, tornado, or other natural disaster are all done in the name of Jesus, Christianity, and the Bible.

I’m not sure how the fact that misinterpretation of the Bible has lead to harm and bloodshed matters in this case.  In order for this to matter the author needs to show that the Bible has been misinterpreted in this case.  So far this person has not done this.  Fortunately the author admits, “Most of the people I know who say “the Bible condemns homosexuality” would never condone these acts.   Most Christians have no idea that the people killing gay and lesbian persons go around quoting those few verses of Scripture as justification.”  So let me be clear this kind of action or any kind of hate expressed towards gay people should be condemned by all Christians.

Premise #3

“We must be open to new truth from Scripture.”

This premise is based on the idea that some have misinterpreted the Bible and should be open to correcting their belief.  This of course goes both ways.  In other words the author of this article could be the one who is wrong and no belief is without consequences.  We should not be open to new truths, but we should be open to changing our minds if our beliefs are mistaken.  Still the author has not given any valid reason for believing the Bible does not teach that homosexuality is a sin and given what appear to be pretty strait forward passages on this issue the burden of proof would be on those who are pro-homosexual.

I do agree with the author when they say, “I believe with all my heart that the Holy Spirit is still teaching us. When we reconsider the texts that are used by some people to condemn God’s gay children, we must fervently seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance, or we risk being misled by our own prejudices.”  What I don’t believe is that the Holy Spirit is teaching something different from what the original text intended.  There is nothing in Scripture that suggests the Holy Spirit would ever do that.

Premise #4

“The Bible is a book about God — not a book about human sexuality.”

Certainly sex is not the purpose of the Bible, but that does not mean the Bible doesn’t have anything legitimate to say about sex.  The Bible isn’t about war, but it does address the issue of war and gives us good principles by which we can judge whether a war is just or not.  The bible isn’t about parenting, but it does have a lot of valuable things to say about parenting in the book of Proverbs for instance.

No the Bible isn’t about sex, but it does say a lot of things about sex.  What is interesting is that right after saying the Bible isn’t about sex the author then lists several verses dealing with sex.  The Bible talks about incest, rape, fornication, procreation, beastiality, adultery, purity, and homosexuality.  Song of Songs is a book in the Bible that talks a lot about sex.  There are more than 70 verses in the NIV that use the word “sexual.”  There are countless more passages that deal with sexual topics.  It makes sense that if God created people he would have a lot to say about how they would relate to each other and since sex is the means by which procreation takes place it would also make sense for him to have something to say about that.

Next week we will begin to deal with some of those passages that talk specifically about homosexuality.

This video echos the mantra of so many people today.  Saying, “I hate religion, but I love Jesus” doesn’t say what people think it does.  What people don’t understand is that as soon as you say you believe in something…like Jesus…you have dogma which means you have religion.  Jesus was not anti-religion, he was anti-bad religion.  There is a difference and it is worth pointing out.  Instead of bashing all religion we should be defending good and true religion.  James 1:27 says, “ Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world.”

Republican may not mean Christian, but neither does Democrat.

Religion may have started some wars, but not all religions are equal in this way.  Some religions seem to be more violent than others.  For instance the Crusades were to defend Jerusalem against the Muslims.  In the last century more people have been killed in wars that were based not on religion but ideology.  Communism and Naziism are non-religions ideologies responsible for very bloody wars.  In reality non-religious ideology has cause more death and war than religion…so it seems that as a general rule religion is less bloody than non-religion.  To read more about this, click here.  When you begin to consider the good done by religious organizations like Samaritan’s Purse, International Justice Mission, Compassion International, and many, many others it seems religion and especially Christianity does not start wars but instead ends unjust wars and protects those who are in need of protection.

Religion does build churches, but most of them are not huge.  Even the huge churches often do feed the poor or support organizations that do.  This platitude sounds good, but is simply untrue.

Our church along with many others has a ministry specifically to help those who have gone through divorce to heal.

Some religion is behavior modification, but not all.  If he is talking about Christianity, he needs a theology lesson.  Salvation (justification) comes by grace, but that is not license to sin.  Sanctification is the process of becoming more holy.  Sanctification does include behavior modification.  If Christians go on sinning they are called hypocrites, but if they don’t then they are legalistic.  It’s a no win situation.

“I aint judgin, I’m just sayin quit puttin on a fake look”  That sounds like judging to me, he seems to be claiming that many are being hypocrites.

“I love the church, I love the Bible, and yes I believe in sin.”  Apparently the church is not part of a religion…I’m confused.

Jesus and religion are not opposite.  Jesus is the work of God, but the church is the Bride of Christ not a man made invention.

“Religion says do, but Jesus says done.”  Let’s not forget the Bible says do and so does Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount among other places.  There are plenty of commandments in the Bible and if I’m not mistaken there are ten written by the finger of God himself (The Ten Commandments).  It is true the actions of Jesus accomplished what the law could not, but that does not give us reason to ignore the commands of God.

Let me end this post by saying this guy gets the gospel right and I am thankful for that.  My concern is that he seems to group the church and religion together and he does a pretty good job of bashing them both.  The church is the Bride of Christ, the chosen vehicle to deliver the gospel to the world.  Though the church needs to be corrected from time to time, we should defend, cherish, and love her.  Christianity is a religion in spite of of this popular platitude.

Recently Rick Lawrence of Group Magazine published the results of a survey of 20,000 plus teens answering the following questions:

• What would you like to do More of in your church’s youth ministry? (these results were published in the latest print version of Group)
• What is your biggest challenge in growing deeper in your relationship with God?
• What is your biggest regret in your relationship with God?
• What is your biggest hope in your relationship with God?
• If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

I found the published results to the first question to be mostly bothersome and frustrating.  It seemed to me that there was too much emphasis on games and activities, hang out time, and other similar types of things.  What was encouraging was what came in at #1 even if only by a little bit…Learning about Jesus.  This isn’t the story though.  The story, in my opinion, is what is found in the rest of the survey published online here.

As a dad for the last 13 years I have slowly learned that what my child wants is much different than what that child needs.  Is it really surprising that students want to have more fun?  No, of course not.  What is surprising is the number of parents, youth pastors, and leaders that listen to this and go no further.  Teenagers are adolescent minds that have not fully developed.  This does not discredit their answers; it just means that those of us with fully developed minds (some more than others) should take this into consideration when reading these results.  Example:

• The #1 answer regarding what they want more of may be learning about Jesus, but Help in understanding the Bible (our primary source regarding Jesus) doesn’t show up until #12 followed by learning about the New Testament, sermons that focus on the Bible doesn’t show up until #36, a Bible study that focuses on a book of the Bible doesn’t show up until #38.

America has been blessed and teens in America have seen the blessing but not the cost.  Because of this and other cultural factors they often see what they want, but don’t realize what is required.  This survey brings this perception to the forefront.

The most significant question asked was “What’s the biggest challenge in growing deeper in your relationship with God?”  The answers were no surprise.  The top 3 answers can be boiled down to two:  schedule and parents.  Even busyness is a parent issue.  Parents model the importance of spiritual things by how they manage their time and it is the parents role to help students learn to manage their time.

There are many other significant observations that could be made.  I think this survey is important and should be read and gone over by every youth ministry professional that can get their hands on it, but I want to end by bringing things full circle.

Students may want to learn about Jesus, but don’t want to study the Bible, they want to go to church because it is fun or because their friends are there, but they don’t want to listen to good teaching.  Some may want to be more spiritual but aren’t willing to participate in spiritual disciplines.  The job of the Youth Pastor is to help students fall more in love with God.  That doesn’t mean we don’t do the fun stuff they want, but it does mean we often do things they need,  but don’t necessarily want.

So what?  Well, that is up to you as a parent, youth pastor, or youth leader.   As we think about our philosophy of ministry we could ask these kinds of questions:

• Am I giving students enough of what they need?
• Am I helping students understand what is required in order to get what they want?
• How do we give students enough of what they want (keeping it attractive) and at the same time make sure they are getting what they need?
• What is it that students need?  What is the most effective way to give that to them?

Not to long ago I had a long Facebook discussion about the issue of homosexuality.  That particular discussion was more political in nature and did not address (at least not in depth) what the Bible has to say on the issue.  An organization called Soulforce has, as one of its resources, an online article that addresses what the Bible says about this issue.  I might point out that according to their web site Soulforce does not claim to be a faith based organization.  Still, the arguments used are the typical arguments used by those in the homosexual community.  It is for that reason I will be addressing these arguments over the next several weeks.  Their article can be found here.  Well, here it goes.

There are a couple of things I noticed about the introduction to this article that were bothersome to me.  The author does not reveal who they are.  I looked for a by line at the beginning and the end of the article and did not see one.  Second, it was also bothersome to me that this person claims to have studied at a conservative seminary, but does not say which one.  The identity of this person and the identity of the seminary do not change the validity of the arguments presented, but I find it odd.

The author has 8 premises and the first one is this, “Most people have not carefully and prayerfully researched the biblical texts often used to condemn God’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender children.”

There is probably some truth to this statement.  Most people are not pastors and have not learned the skills necessary to study these things on a scholarly level.  Most people probably haven’t taken the time to read a book or look up all the passages in Scripture that deal with homosexuality.  The assumption in this statement is that if they had carefully studied this issue they would come to a pro-homosexual position.  Just because most people haven’t studied it, that doesn’t mean that all of those who believe the message of scripture speaks of homosexuality as a sin have not studied it.  As a matter of fact many who continue to speak against homosexuality have studied this issue very carefully.

The author spends time in the introduction talking about the importance of “rightly dividing the word of truth” and then under the first premise this person speaks about Biblical ignorance.  This person then lists three things about the Bible which they believe most Christians do not know.  Those things are:

• Jesus says nothing about same-sex behavior.  (true, but Jesus does talk about marriage)
• The Jewish prophets are silent about homosexuality. (again true)
• Only six or seven of the Bible’s one million verses refer to same-sex behavior in any way — and none of these verses refer to homosexual orientation as it’s understood today.  (This statement is not true)

This last statement is disturbing.  For a person who claims to have 50+ years of studying the Bible and claims ignorance on the part of others, it amazes me that they would think there are one million verses in the Bible.  There aren’t even one million words in the bible and there are approximately 30,000 verses in the Bible (Check this here).

I realize we have not yet started to deal with Scripture itself, but we will begin to do that next week as we deal with the next two premises the author presents.  They are:

“Historically, people’s misinterpretation of the Bible has left a trail of suffering, bloodshed, and death.”

and

“We must be open to new truth from Scripture.”

I have been often told that Christians would be viewed in a more positive light if they were for things, not against them.  This has often been said to me by Christians and non-Christians alike.  So here are some things Christians should be for:

• Christians should first and foremost be for loving God.  What it means to love God is a little more complicated, but 1 John 3 suggests that obedience is how we show God love.  This often means accepting God’s commandments as good and true even if we don’t particularly like those commandments.
• Christians should be for loving others.  Of course this is often misunderstood as well.  We like to talk about love being kind, patient, gentle and so on;  perhaps we should consider all of 1 Corinthians 13 when we think about how to describe love.  Love “does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in truth.”  This means if we are to be for loving others we cannot simply accept wrongdoing even if a person claims that wrongdoing is part of who they are.  This leads us to the next thing we should be for:
• Christians should be for the truth.  Being for truth often means exposing that which is untrue…of course that is where Christians are told they should be for more things rather than against them.
• Christians should be for showing compassion, but that does not mean we don’t speak truth.  Instead this just means we speak truth in the most compassionate way possible, we minister to those in need, and do what we can to lift up the oppressed.
• Christians should be for right/holy living.
• Christians should be for marriage between a man and a woman.
• Christians should be for protecting the life of the unborn.
• Christians should be for getting as many people involved in a relationship with Jesus as possible.
• Christians should be for seeing people go to heaven.
• Christians should be for a good work ethic.
• Christians should be for personal responsibility.
• Christians should be for the public expression of faith.

Being for certain things means that you are also against some things, so here are a few things Christians should be against:

• Christians should be against anything that undermines what they are for.
• Christians should be against changing our theology because of life circumstances (though life circumstances are a good reason to reevaluate our theology).  In the end our theology should come from Scripture and be applied to life.
• Christians should be against separating our faith from public life or any area of life.
• Christians should be against evil.
• Christians should be against hell.

When Christians speak against some things it is because of what we are for.