The synopsis: in 1987, when very little was known about the AIDS virus, a gay man in Williamson, West Virginia who had AIDS chose to swim in his small community's swimming pool. This set off a firestorm of controversy, and when Oprah visited the small community and opened up the mic for people to air their opinions, a common theme was that AIDS is God's rightful judgment on homosexuals, that people were disgusted by this man's lifestyle, and that the man, Mike Sisco, was less of a human being (made clear by the opinion that he shouldn't have the same rights as heterosexual, HIV-negative people). The crux moment came when a man angrily proclaimed, "I'm repulsed by his disease and I'm repulsed by him," amidst a clapping and cheering crowd.
Before I start to dive into what the Bible says about these topics, I think it's utterly heartbreaking that, upon being asked by Oprah why he thought he'd be welcomed back home if he had AIDS, Mike Sisco said, "Because I felt I was dying and I thought they could overlook the fact that I was a homosexual and see that I needed some compassion and to be in my hometown." That just ripped my heart out, because he was right. He should have received love and compassion from those who say they know Jesus, not hatred and condemnation. More on that later.
So, now, 23 years later, Oprah is revisiting the fieldhouse, the place where she taped the original show. She's playing the tape of that show for the same people who said those horrible and hurtful things.
First, Oprah sat down with Mike's sister Tina who spoke up for him and defended him. We learn that Mike died 7 years later, and that he did find love and acceptance from his immediate family before dying. However, even after he died, a family member called to say that Mike shouldn't be buried by his mother and her family had to have her casket moved to another cemetery in order for him to be buried next to her. That said, Mike's bravery in taking the risk to educate people gave another of his sisters the courage to come out as gay herself.
Jerry Waters is the name of the man who yelled about being repulsed by Mike Sisco, who also insisted that all people with AIDS be quarantined. He's 60 now and seems more subdued. He says he's embarrassed that he was so forceful but also insists that he's simply a passionate person. He sounds a lot more 2010 now, saying he thinks essentially that people should be able to do whatever they want to, including be homosexual, so long as it doesn't affect him. There are some bits with him disagreeing with a doctor who accused him of fear back then, and the doctor (who does seem a little smug, to be honest) insisting that he was right 30 years ago and he's right now. I'm glad Oprah drew attention to the fact, without affirming Mr. Waters' harsh attitude back then, that part of the problem in 1987 is that people were hearing conflicting reports from the CDC about how you could get AIDS. It did seem to keep changing as far as what was safe and what wasn't. Still, this isn't the heart of this show so I won't spend a lot of time here.
Where it gets very interesting is Oprah saying to Mr. Waters that what was missing from him and the entire room full of people, most claiming to be there in God's name as Christians, was compassion. Mr. Waters, upon being asked by Oprah if he owes Mike Sisco's family an apology, basically says he's sorry they lost someone but that Mike brought it on himself to come to a small community where people wouldn't be as understanding as in a big city with a large gay community. I like what Oprah and the sisters said--who are we to decide where a dying man should have to go to find community? Who are we to say he can't come home to his family?
Gotta give Oprah some credit here: once again, she says to Mr. Waters that the bottom line is that he regrets what he said. He affirms this but pulls the whole, "Who hasn't said something they regret?" card, and if I were Oprah I would sure tell him that is a bunch of cockamamie cop-out BS. She's still respectful to him, despite how bad he looks compared to the rest of the people sitting there with him, because he doesn't seem truly repentant, just embarrassed that he acted like an ass in front of the entire nation on the Oprah Show. The woman practices what she believes and I give her credit for that. Christians, including myself, could learn a thing or two from her.
The next two people are an interesting contrast. One is Cynthia, who was a high school senior in the audience in 1987. She was so appalled at the way people from her town acted that she didn't speak up out of fear, and she seems somewhat haunted by the memory of Jerry Waters and his anger in particular. Bob "Bobby" Webb is where it really grabbed my attention.
Bobby, "...went to the show because [he's] a Christian and the Bible says that [the gay] lifestyle is wrong. And if the Bible says it, [he] believes it." His opinion in 1987 was that he was uncomfortable to even be in the same room as Mike Sisco. He says now that he has had a complete change and that he is a Christian and what he said wasn't right. Bob apologizes to Mike's sisters for the statement he made, and says that God's number one rule is to love everybody. He emphasizes that he doesn't approve of the lifestyle because the Bible says it's an abomination (such a loaded word our culture! I know the Bible says it, as I quote that verse later, but it even makes me shudder a bit) but gay people are human and should be loved like every other human. As Oprah goes to break he turns around and apologizes to the sisters, and really seems sincere. As a Christian, that sure is a relief!
Next is Eugene Thorn, who knew at age six that he was gay. He knew Mike Sisco and was 10-years-old when the Oprah show happened. He was there but specifically remembers thinking that there was no way he would come out openly gay, despite being called a Tiffany and treated poorly. He's now openly gay and HIV-positive. He feels that Mike Sisco was a hero in that he paved the way for people like Eugene to live "undetectable" as gay and HIV-positive. He now lives in Cincinatti, but says that small towns like Williamson persist in struggling to accept people like him.
Nina Blackburn was a stay-at-home-mom who attended the show to find out what was being said. She now feels that her ignorance led to her saying things (essentially that Mike Sisco put children's lives at risk by getting in the swimming pool) that she wishes she hadn't said. Oprah talks about the lack of compassion from "god-fearing" people in the room. Bobby thinks there was compassion, because he didn't wish the disease on Mike Sisco, but Oprah quips that there is no way you can watch that tape and say that people had compassion.
Next, the post-show press conference shows Oprah insisting that the ignorance and hatred toward Mike Sisco was an American problem and not a small town problem. Nina, back to the present day, says that fear overrode people's compassion. Asking the room to raise their hand if they believed AIDS carriers should be quarantined resulted in the vast majority of hands being raised. Oprah tells us that 23 years later the show still gets letters about Mike Sisco. Steven from California shares how Mike Sisco changed his life, because he was one of the first people Steven had ever seen on television who admitted that he was gay. Steven was inspired that if Mike Sisco could go on the Oprah show then Steven could come out with more courage to his family and was inspired to become a nurse with the hope of helping AIDS patients. This led to many tears from all three of Mike's sisters, and Oprah ends by saying that Mike impacted many people's lives, and "Mike Sisco, this one's for you" with the last image being his picture, name, and life span.
Whew.
Ok. Just the recap was a lot! But this is a topic I think about a lot and have never blogged on. I'm praying for wisdom, clarity, and that my words would accurately reflect God's heart as He makes it known to us in the Bible.
I think that, even less than the AIDS issue, this show was really about someone being a homosexual and people's reaction to that. Sadly, the least loving and least Christ-like treatment of homosexuals in our nation come from those who call themselves conservative, evangelical Christians. I am among those who believe that to act out homosexuality, be it in the mind or physically, is sin, yet I'm very careful to ever bring this up because I know how quickly and easily I, and those like me, are lumped in with those who hold up signs that say, "God Hates Fags". My hope is to carefully walk through what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, and the accusation on the show that AIDS is God punishing gay people, while speaking the truth in love.
First, if I'm stating that homosexuality is sin, I need to back it up with scripture. Here are a few verses that I believe are most clear and straightforward, leaving no doubt that God does not accept homosexual acts as righteous and acceptable in His sight.
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.
Leviticus 18:22
Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
I Corinthians 6:9-10
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.
Romans 1:26-28The point in each of these verses is that God did not intend that men have sexual or emotional relationships with other men, nor women with other women; it's a sinful twist on God's intent that one man marry one woman and that their marriage relationship reflect the great marriage in heaven between Jesus Christ and His bride, the church. However, sinners decided that they wanted what they wanted; the sin ranged from homosexuality to all sorts of other idolatry, putting other earthly and fleshly things as their priority over obedience to God.
To be clear, sin is sin is sin. The Bible never says "God Hates Fags". It does say that God hates pride, though, and it's tragically easy for Christians to pick on homosexuality as a worse sin than the sin they commit. First of all, any Christian that has too much to drink just sinned just as much as a gay person. Oh, but so many Christians just never drink! Well, any Christian that idolizes their spouse or their children, or overeats, or gets anger in their heart toward another person just sinned as egregiously as a gay person.
Secondly, I would venture to say that many Christians who are repulsed by homosexuality will not be able to stand before God and be found pure of ever having dabbled in it. Homosexuality isn't just two men having sex. How many heterosexual Christian men get turned on by the thought of two sexy women getting sexually physical? How many men have taken it a step farther and watched pornography showing just that? Or, how many single women have thought that fantasizing about men would dishonor their future husband and so they fantasized about women instead? Or, again, even watched porn showcasing women and not men for that same reason?
And, thirdly, it is rare to find a Christian, even one who truly and authentically loves and adores Jesus and seeks to live for Him, who has never struggled with lust. Maybe it was never toward the same sex, but heterosexual sin, whether it's in the mind, watching porn, or getting physical with another person who isn't their spouse, is SIN.
God hates sin. God wants people to live for Him, love Him, know Him, enjoy Him, and glorify Him. That was His intention in the garden. But then sin entered the world, and God loved mankind--that's you, reader, and me, and Oprah, and Mike Sisco, and Jerry Waters--so much that He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to come to earth, be born of a virgin, live sinlessly, and eventually be murdered on a cross, shedding His innocent blood on behalf of us all so that those who accept this free gift of grace could be presented by Christ as acceptable to God because Jesus is acceptable to God and we belong to Him. Jesus' sacrificial death on the cross allows for anyone who receives Him to be forgiven for their sin, ALL of it, and have a restored relationship with God the Father. That is the gospel.
Jesus did not die for me more than He died for a practicing homosexual. My sin is just as egregious, ugly, and deserving of death as his/hers. This is true for all Christians and so I will definitely say that this American Christian cultural obsession with homosexuality is just absolutely detestable and people with hate and pride in their hearts will face judgment for it.
One area to be careful is that some Christians go to another extreme and try to say that a practicing homosexual is made that way (well, not the practicing part, but you get it) by God and that it's not sin. This simply isn't true. However, a Christian can belong to Jesus and love Him and struggle with homosexual temptation and still be a Christian, bought by Jesus' blood and bound for eternal life in heaven. What matters is the heart--is someone actively seeking Jesus and trying to repent of that lifestyle or is the person essentially blaming God for being that way and not seeking Him for the power of the Holy Spirit to obey God and put their sin of homosexual desires and lusts to death? God knows and tests the heart and Jesus will testify to God who belongs to Him and who doesn't; this goes for homosexuals and heterosexuals alike, as it's not about sexual preference. Again, it's about the heart and God judges the heart.
The next piece is AIDS--many claimed 23 years ago in that fieldhouse that God was basically reaching down from heaven and punishing gay people by giving them AIDS. That's simply not truth. Pain and death breaks God's heart; just this morning I read John 11, where Jesus wept as He saw Martha, Mary, and others weeping over the death of their brother and friend, Lazarus. We weren't meant to know death! Death entered the world through sin, and Jesus conquered it in that Christians will live eternally with God in heaven and no longer be separated from God, to death, by sin. Until Jesus returns and creates the new heaven and new earth, sin and death will continue to ravage the earth.
Part of sin and death are various diseases. Some diseases are random, inexplicably afflicting people and it just doesn't seem fair. Google Kate McRae--a beautiful, sweet little 6-year-old girl fighting for her life against brain cancer. On the other hand, certain behaviors make us more susceptible to some diseases than others. Lung cancer afflicts some who never touched a cigarette in their life, yet smoking cigarettes highly increases the likelihood that someone will get lung cancer (and a host of other diseases; my great grandmother died from emphysema yet smoked until her last hospital visit, the one from which she left headed for the morgue). Heart disease isn't only among the obese, yet those who eat poorly and don't exercise skyrocket the likelihood that their death will be related to a failing heart, diabetes, high blood pressure, and the like.
So, finally, it is not only homosexual men or promiscuous men and women who contract the HIV virus and eventually die from AIDS related causes. However, yet again, choosing to engage in those behaviors does make it much more likely that this will be the case. Is this God reaching down and smiting the cigarette addict, the fat person, or the gay person? No. It's the result of sin and its effects of bringing pain, disease, and death into the world. God's will is that none would perish, but He's patient, wanting people to know Him and He gives chance after chance for people to meet Him (2 Peter 3:9). I don't think it's a stretch to say that God is not sitting in heaven hoping, even enacting, pain and suffering on people. One spiritual being utterly thrives on pain and death, and that is the enemy, Satan.
Here is a great clip that I think well describes the heart of God and why He is not the perpetrator of evil. The whole thing is amazing, telling the testimony of a sweet woman who was hit on her bike last year here in Seattle and nearly died, for whom the result of living brought many painful surgeries and lifelong effects. But if you skip to 7:26, that is where Pastor Mark (the preaching pastor at my church) describes his response to her asking if God did this to her. In sum, yes God is in charge, but no He did not do this to her. God is good, He is love, and Jesus' suffering for us so that we will not experience hell is the greatest expression of God's love for us.
So, no, God is not sitting in heaven angrily striking gay people with AIDS because He's so full of wrath over their disobedience. Yes, there is a link between a gay person who chose to enact their sinful desires with the consequence of contracting AIDS, but even in that it's the result of sin and death, not God punishing sinners. He already punished Jesus on the cross, and plenty of punishment awaits in hell those who do not receive Jesus' forgiveness of their sin.
Final thoughts: we can receive the truth that God loves people and that means we're quick to love and slow to judge. We can reject the idea that God accepts homosexuality and that it's not sin and thus we should say it's ok.
We can redeem the message that we should have compassion for people. This is not a compassion that says it's ok to keep practicing homosexuality; we should love and have compassion for a gay person suffering from AIDS while also having the courage to tell them that Jesus loves them and He forgives them for ALL of their sin. If they receive Jesus and repent, we should lovingly keep pointing them to Jesus and pray for them and be humble about the fact that we, too, are sinners, while never telling them that it's "ok to be gay". It's not, but as I said before, but neither is it ok to be proud nor hateful nor in denial that our sin is just as ugly and just as effectively nailed Jesus to the cross.
This compassion means that we actually live like Jesus, who sought to know and understand people before He named their sin, and even after naming their sin exhorted them to know and love Him as opposed to condemning them (see: the woman at the well). The fact that Jesus is the person people are sinning against, and not us, and that He is so gracious and compassionate should humble us. It's about Jesus and His glory, not us and ours. Let's start living like it!
I pray that this accurately reflects God's heart, is in line with the truth of His Word, and that if you have never heard these things before that the Holy Spirit would minister to you to trust what He says and not write God off because you have seen people claim to represent God yet act with hatred toward others.
I'm very grateful Oprah did this episode. As I said early on, I've thought about these issues for a long time but, clearly, my heart and beliefs about the issue aren't exactly Facebook-post friendly, so I've kept quiet and never articulated them. It's also nearly 1 a.m., I'm exhausted, and just praying this post isn't chock full of typos!
My dear friend Bekah noted that she appreciated me saying what tomorrow's episode is about, and I think that's a great trend to keep going! Up tomorrow: the hostages from the recent tragedy of the gunman rampaging the Discovery building describe their experiences.
Tami, I like your take on this. I agree - homosexuality is a sin, but we are all sinful. We need to remember that everyone has struggles with different kinds of sin. Although we should not support the sin, we can still love the sinner. If it's a brother in Christ, we need to confront them of their sin... but if it's an unbeliever they will not be convicted of their sin until they come to Christ, so all we can do is share the gospel with them and live by example as best we can. One of my church's pastors actually preached on this topic a couple weeks ago, and it was a pretty good message. Here's a link to watch/listen to the sermon if you're interested: http://www.canyonhillscommunitychurch.com/Resources/Media/397196.aspx
ReplyDeleteBut, what the pastor said is pretty much in line with your thoughts. :)