An Unpopular Viewpoint

I was going through some older writing and found the article below. I wrote it in 2005 during the time when we lived in Topeka. My background is in Human Resources, although I don't work in that capacity at this time. Topeka was going through a ballot process to determine whether or not to make homosexuality a protected class in Topeka, at least in terms of hiring decisions.
My viewpoint is not a popular one among Christians. I have received some of the harshest criticism ever from Christians because of the opinions I express below. I expect to receive more by reprinting this article. So why reprint it?
Because I believe the greater truth (beyond the homosexual issue raised here) remains very pertinent in defining who Christians are and how Christians are perceived by others. We are to be a "peculiar people". That doesn't necessarily mean that we are to do our best to alienate others; on the contrary, we are to strive to have "good report" from those outside of the faith.
The homosexual issue is but one of a host of issues that Christians seem to have mis-handled over the years, ignoring clear teaching from the Holy Writ. God help us bring honor and glory to Him.

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As the whole world by now knows, Topeka voted this week on whether or not to rescind the action of the Topeka City Council when they approved placing homosexuals into a protected class regarding hiring. The protected class status may also apply to housing and other areas…I don’t know for sure. The vote was rather close, but the voters affirmed the action of the Council. We now have one more protected class in the City of Topeka.
Conservative Christians, by and large, came out on the side of not offering legal protection to homosexuals. The more politically moderate or liberal Christians (yes, those people really exist) may have voted either way. The whole community was polarized, however, by the vote. National news media were here and much to-do was made of the whole situation.
You know, the really sad part of all of this is that there needs to be protected class status for homosexuals (or any other persons) at all. What have we done as a society to cause honest, God-fearing people in positions of authority to conclude that this society needs to put legal protections in place benefiting homosexuals, women, people of color, the aged, or whoever else has been afforded that status?
The short answer: we have discriminated as a society against women, people of color, the aged, the homosexual, and others in our hiring processes and in other areas. And we have done it so much that honest, thinking people are now saying, “Enough.” Even those who wear the name Christian are not innocent, and in fact may be some of the more blatant offenders over the years.
Since I am a Human Resources professional, I’ll use hiring as an illustration. Why, in heaven’s name, would I as an H/R professional pass over a qualified individual that I am certain will do a competent, decent job for me in favor of someone less qualified and less experienced, just because the more qualified person is a woman, or Hispanic, or a homosexual?
Isn’t it inherently in my best interests and in the best interests of the company for which I am hiring that I place the most qualified candidate in the position? Why would I even think of doing any differently? And if I am a Christian, I am even more duty-bound to “do good to all men” and do the best job for my employer that I possibly can. To do anything else is shortsighted, narrow, bigoted, and foolish.
As a Christian Human Resources professional, why would I discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation if I don’t also discriminate on the basis of whether or not the person is cohabiting, an adulterer (either male or female), had a child out of wedlock, had sex under the age of 16 (that’s rape in Kansas regardless of consent), or had an abortion? Why don’t I discriminate based on whether or not that person has broken one of the Ten Commandments, or has failed to love the Lord, or love his neighbor? Why do I single out the homosexual for special discrimination?
Could it be that I don’t really think that adultery or cohabitation is as heinous a sin as homosexuality? Could it be that I as a Christian actually think that some sins are not soul-threatening and others are? Could it be that I am “too close” to the “heterosexual” sins of cohabitation, premarital sex, or adultery to be objective? Could it be that my son, daughter, niece, grandchild, or even I myself am guilty of one or more of those sins?
Do you see what I’m trying to say here? I don’t condone homosexuality in any way, shape, or form. I believe that an unrepentant homosexual is in grave danger of losing his or her soul for all eternity and that I have an obligation as a Christian to lovingly teach and encourage repentance and right living. But to single out the homosexual for special discrimination, while glossing over or ignoring other sinful activities that also will cause grave danger to the soul, is (and I’ll repeat) shortsighted, narrow, bigoted, and foolish.
We, by and large, have as a society made our collective bed. And we as Christians have been some of the worst “makers” of that bed. And now we, as a society, and as Christians, have to lie in it.