On the issue of homosexuality

I figured I would be writing about this topic sooner or later and with all the uproar over Chick-Fil-A in the recent days now seems to be the time to do it.  Now the purpose of this blog was to highlight parts of the Bushido code  and how I might apply it to my own personal life to make myself a better person.  So you might be wondering what the chicken peddler and the homosexual life style have anything to do with me and this blog.  To explain this I need to dive some years into the past.

There is no real easy way to say this nor do I have any desire (or right) to sugar coat it, but as a younger man I hated homosexuality, more so I hated the homosexual.  Why you ask?  Well most likely an error in my own thinking on the idea of what is good and evil which was fueled by this Bible verse:

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 - "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God."

At the time this seemed pretty cut and dry to me.  If you're gay well then have a good time in hell.  Really that line of thought is to my everlasting shame and more than likely may have coast me some friendships.  Still life is full of surprises and we are given chances to grow and learn and I feel that as I grew older and learned more about critical thinking and became interested in forging my owns ideas and beliefs I did gradually become a better person.  I realized that rudeness and impolite behavior only demonstrated my own insecurities and weakness.   Still the matter of homosexuality was something I struggled with for many years.   I had become friends with some homosexuals, I learned that some people I knew for many years were in fact homosexuals, and they were all excellent people of good character and I just could not just simply accept that fire was all that was awaiting these people.  

So what conclusion did I arrive at?

Simply this.  Jesus said to love our neighbor as yourself.  I want to be treated with dignity and respect.  I want to treat myself with dignity and respect.  I will extend that to all who cross my path.  I have no reason to be rude or disrespectful.  More so I have no right to be hateful.  Hate is a poison the will slowly choke the life out of us all if we allow it a place within ourselves.  Furthermore I've come to believe that the door to heaven is open to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

So the common theme here is one of

RESPECT

Now more than ever I think we need to seek to understand each other.  Even if we do not agree, we can at least agree to disagree and give each other the measure of respect we all deserve.

"Come now, let us reason together," Says the Lord. - Isaiah 1:18.

Brandt