Seventh-day Adventist Church Should Remember the Greatest Commandment

Editorial | AdventMessenger.com.

A recent publication in the Huffington Post calls upon the Seventh-day Adventist Church to show love towards its LGBT constituency. The person responsible for this publication was attempting to show the inconsistency of the Church because it fails to support or recognize the gay movement. It cited the recent passing of laws in Uganda and Nigeria that criminalizes the gay and lesbian lifestyles and then tries to use those examples to compare the plight of gay and lesbian Seventh-day Adventists who are being maligned by a church that does not "love" them. The article is somewhat confusing; but nevertheless is has received a lot of attention.

The position of the Seventh-day Adventist Church  is very clear and to the point. Now as to whether that position is based upon love depends on what your definition of love is. The church basically says:

"The Seventh-day Adventist Church subscribes to the Biblical teaching that the practice of homosexuality is condemned by God and is forbidden. At the same time the church is strongly opposed to acts of violence, hatred or discrimination against a person because of his or her sexual orientation."

This is a clear-cut position that does two things: (1) It respects and defends the rights of people to live free from persecution. (2) It also shows that you can defend the rights of those you don't agree with. Is that an unloving and unchristian position? We don't believe so.

Who wouldn't gladly welcome the support and defense of liberty and freedom from those who disagree with us? However, we don't believe that this is the real issue. There seems to be a hidden agenda working behind this Huffington Post article. It seems that the LGBT movement doesn't believe that it is enough to show toleration. It seems that the LGBT movement doesn't believe that it is enough to denounce acts of violence and discrimination against gays and lesbians.

It appears the LGBT movement wants the church to embrace the lifestyle and celebrate it. It seems that the LGBT movement wants full endorsement and equal recognition and will never be satisfied until this happens. That seems to be the real motive, which would then make disingenuous and puts into question the validity of their "love" argument.
 
God's loves everyone and wants to restore and renew us all to His image - the image which we once possessed back in Creation when God created one man and one female. Notice the love and character of God:

"The LORD God, (1) merciful and (2) gracious, (3) longsuffering, and abundant in (4) goodness and (5) truth, Keeping (6) mercy for thousands, (7) forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; (8) visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation." Exo. 34:6-7.

 What a wonderful and awesome God we worship! He is six parts merciful, one part truth, and one part justice. Praise God.  God's love is based on principle. It's not just emotionalism. God's love doesn't mean that I have to run away from truth; but rather it helps me to take a stand for truth.

We believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is being faithful to its calling on this issue and we should not confuse what the real issues are under a guise of "love."