I met a fellow traveler the other night, out in front of a store where we both had been shopping. This is a strong Christian parent whose adult child has recently married a same-sex partner and is now having a child with that partner. These are not marginal "Sunday Christians". These are strong, long-time, dedicated Christian parents. There was clearly pain and confusion about how to approach the situation.
"We don't want to show approval for the sin," the parent said.
Point well taken.
I remember clearly a conversation Steve and I had at Burger King with another strong Christian couple a few years ago, who were facing the same situation. The Christian father felt ambilvalence about grandchildren who were conceived and parented in a same-sex marriage.
This is the message I felt impressed to share several years ago, and it is the same message I shared this week:
Many children have been born through the centuries as a result of sinful beginnings: unwed parents, rape, incest, just to name a few. The children conceived in these circumstances had absolutely no control over their beginning or the home they were born into. As Christians, we need to look to a loving God to know how to love ALL people created in His image, those conceived in a legitimate marriage and those conceived in sinful situations.
How do we show love to a same-sex couple and their children without showing approval of the sin?
I shared the story of watching a baptism this summer at Yosemite Bible Camp. Kenny Cowger baptized his two neighbor boys. Kenny has coached one of the boys in youth football out in Madera Ranchos for years and it was a real joy for him to baptize these boys. The boys' parents came up for the baptism. They are divorced and both are remarried, so there were two sets of parents there. After the baptism, Terry Cowger arranged all of the kids and parents for a family photo. This was an exciting time!
There is no way that our church was showing its approval of divorce by sharing in the joy of this family's sons being baptized. But we were not shunning these parents or refusing to allow them to participate in a spiritual highlight for their children because they had suffered divorce.
These are complicated issues and they call for God's love and grace and wisdom. May we lift up in prayer those who have to make difficult decisions and offer them our unconditional love and support as they struggle to find God's will in the midst of imperfect circumstances within the families who they raised in the nurture and admonition of the Lord!
--Posted by Mama O
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