Hypocrites and homophobia

Hypocrisy. It is a word that has followed Christians around for a long time. Roman and Greek actors were called hypocrites. Actors wore masks on stage that showed a particular emotion or mood. So the word was adopted with the meaning of one that habitually wears a mask regardless of how one actually feels, an actor.

And hypocrite is a word that I can say reveals more about the character of a person than the mask worn.

I have my own masks of exaggerated expressions. I have melted them on, keeping myself safely secure between myth and reality. I wore them the same way those actors used their theatrical masks to appear and reappear in several roles without being identified as one specific character.

I could win awards with my great performances! Life should be extremely rewarding. Except that my soul longs for peace within itself. It aches to rest from the constant role play and exchange.

Although hypocrites are extremely entertaining and captivating, if life becomes one role play after another, where is the real life lived? I want substance.

What prompts me stop to and grab a mask? I would say it is for acceptance, for accolades. I want to be loved!

But is that love or is that acceptance?

Christians are commanded to love. First, to love God with all heart, soul and mind. Then to love our neighbor as we love our self. That is a selfless action that checks selfish love. It balances.

So is it selfish of me, am I being a hypocrite when I don't agree with same-sex marriage?  When a man wants to love another man openly or a woman wants to openly love another by marrying her.

Well, I have to go back to what my faith commands. True, it does say "love one another." And it says this: "Love is patient, love is kind, loves does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong doing, but rejoices with the truth." Having that as my basis for love, I use that basis, along with scriptures that condemn homosexuality as a sin. It says it.

And Jesus taught on marriage and divorce because it was as much a problem for people then,  as it is now.

In Matthew Chapter 19 Jesus said "the Creator made them male and female and for this reason a man will leave father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore, what God joined together, let man not separate."

I am divorced. This scripture applies to me and speaks to me.

Marriage practices have changed so much from the original design--multiple wives, concubines, people marrying, but divorce practiced.

Jesus said that is not how it should be, but later in Chapter 19, he tells the disciples "The one who can accept this should accept this."

And I can accept that way of thinking. It is proper for me to accept that way of thinking.

Romans 1:26-28, "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions.."

I desire love, true unadulterated love. A love that my Father finds sincere and not hypocritical. 

Praying for you and for me---In love, Ashley