Dogs & Doghouses

Some messages get amens, some don't. Or, to quote a now deceased pastor I used to know, "We all have our favorite parts of the Bible." Divorce message (not popular because most churches now have divorced people in them), covetousness messages (not popular because that's what our culture revolves around), and messages about how we are immune to violence and what our entertainment industries do to us in the privacy of our own homes aren't popular because the average American watches between four and eight hours of television a day. These are just a few, you get the point I'm sure. BUT I know I'll get a rousing round of amens, each and every time, if I just preach against homosexuality. That seems to be the straw to break the camel's back. I wonder why that is?

I've been told that a sin is a sin. And by that is meant there is no ranking of the sins; that no particular sin is worse than any other particular sin. This reasoning places something like lying right up there with going on a killing spree. I'm not totally convinced of this, but let's just take it at face value (you might want to run that one by Ananais and Sapphira - Acts, chapter five). Though of course, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).

So here's what brought this all on. I was thinking the other day that I know some Christians who could, if they dressed in yellow, pass for haystacks. They are that big. Like, grossly, morbidly, I never want to see you in shorts, obese. And I'm thinking, nobody is born morbidly obese, just like nobody is born a homosexual and that living a lifestyle of obesity has many related health problems and causes many societal ills, just like living a homosexual lifestyle. And furthermore, obesity limits what people can do for the Lord. It hurts their wittness (just like trying to live for Christ as an unrepentant homosexual would). But for Baptists, nobody seems to notice (or perhaps nobody wants to notice) the great big sin that is prevalent in many assemblies all across the United States. I believe that's called hypocrisy.

Mat 23:23 - Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier [matters] of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone. (24) [Ye] blind guides, which strain at a gnat, and swallow a camel. (25) Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.