The power of Forgiveness

There are people, good and upstanding ‘help-your-neighbor-kind-of-people’ who go to church where the pastor thinks homosexual behavior is a sin and accept that as a fact but don’t go out of their way to repeat what was said. They are not ignoring that fact, they just chose not to negatively act on that fact. Instead, they sought the positivity in such situations and brought with them peace, compassion and kindness showing everyone the kind of love Jesus showed when he walked amongst us.

As a writer, I respect those views and accept the fact that homosexuality is a sin. However, no sin is worse than the other and we all sin. Who are we to choose which sin is worse than the other?  

Hence, we acknowledge two things: God is love and love is God. How or who we love comes from our heart and soul. That is another fact. We are not living in a perfect world and the way we choose to live our livestyle is based on our ability to make choices. God gave us the free will to make choices.

As a writer, I have no idea what your personal views are about the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender communities. As a Christian, I know the power of forgiveness and love – that is something we don’t exercise often enough and we need to do more of it so we know that God is listening to us and shows His presence inside our hearts.

Whether the topic is same-sex marriage or just about the general issues related to the LGBT relationships, I cannot speak for anyone but myself but feel compelled to write about those relationships that I have personally seen and witness with family and close friends exercising their free-will and choosing partners or spouses of the same sex.

I do not condemn them, I have no reason to resent or be offended by them as their choices appear to be based on their own love and needs in life. These people, young and old, do not frustrate me or make me angry – they have done nothing to me to fear them or be against them like some act with their hate-crimes.

 I have personally seen how happy they are and give them the benefit of the doubt and reserve my own judgment on their choices. I think God would want me to do that. We sometimes underestimate the power of love and who are we to choose what is wrong or right for someone else? More importantly, what about the power of forgiveness?

This kind of talk should not be on the news but it is. Perhaps it is mainstream media’s way to indict people for choices not in line with their own morality or lifestyles.

However, I take this as another step that shows how much the media is out of touch with current events related to relationships. In other words, I believe the media is trying to wrongfully influence us or persuade us to twist our thoughts towards their opinions and standards. We all know how reliable the news is on the power of persuasion.

I don’t think that LGBT bashing is called for and that leads me to write about the suffering caused by such harassment or bullying by those who don’t take the time to learn more about the LGBT communities and their lifestyle as well as contributions to society.

As a person, I have found love in every person who has ties to the LGBT lifestyle. I have witnessed same-sex marriages making two people happy and relationships that show that two people of the same gender can live in harmony and love each other just like the rest of us. There is no differential there – they are all people who love each other.

If you’re a conservative in America, you’re pretty used to knowing that your favorite celebrities will regularly disagree with you on everything from abortion to LGBT matters to climate change and that is okay as long as you are not persuaded to follow their ideology without freely doing so by investing the time to learn more about the matter.

Everybody gets offended over everything today – it is time to let go of their beliefs and focus on our own. Per independent research studies by the Pew Research Center, as of 2016, 37 percent of adults in this country still oppose same-sex marriage, while 55 percent approve. That means over a third of Americans are still against same-sex marriage.

Meanwhile, among Christians, 54 percent thought that homosexuality should be accepted in society, per a 2014 Pew study—which means that up to 46 percent thought it shouldn’t be. Among Protestants, 44 percent believe that homosexuality should be discouraged in society.

A Gallup pointed out in 2015, fewer than 4 percent of Americans identify as LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender). In contrast, Americans tend to think a whopping 23 percent of the population is LGBT.

That’s not shocking, given how much media and entertainment go out of their way to highlight such couples. Ultimately, same-sex marriage is legal, until everyone in America agrees that same-sex marriage is OK—or at least is afraid to say otherwise.