Are Christians to Blame for Gay Teen Suicides?

John Shore created the video below and used it to ask if Christians have some culpability in gay teen suicides in an article at the Huffington Post. ¹ The question of whether or not there is a gay teen suicide epidemic has also been raised.²

The video did not make me mad, but it did annoy me. The caricature of Christians portrayed in this video annoyed me more than anything. I can say that I don’t recall ever having a conversation with anyone like the one portrayed above.

But then I thought of a few other things.

Is this really the message that the world gets from Christians concerning homosexuality and other sins? Do we really walk around condemning people to hell? Have Christians not been clear enough that our position is not simply “gay people go to hell” as if hell was set-up exclusively for homosexuals? Have Christians not been clear enough in their views so that the world cannot differentiate between Christian values rooted in God’s holiness and the morality of a bully?

Or is it that the world simply hates Jesus Christ and His gospel that offers forgiveness of such sins so they will not listen?

How can Christians do a better job of sharing the gospel with loving kindness without compromising the position that homosexuality is a sin?

Shore, John. Are Christians Culpable in Gay Teen Suicides? ↩
Radford, Benjamin. Is There a Gay Teen Suicide Epidemic? ↩

tagged as homosexual agenda, homosexuality in apologetics,Culture,morality,theology

The above article was posted on November 1, 2011

CD-Host

What group is persecuting gays in America? Do you have any examples?

I assume you mean of gay persecution. OK up until a year ago gays were being expelled from the army. To this day sodomy is still a violation of the UCMJ while vaginal sex is not, which clearly has desperate impact.

Gays are not permitted to marry in most states and even in states that due allow for gay marriage Federal law does not treat gay and heterosexual marriage equally.

If you want a specific example that is unquestionably Christian: Christian Legal Society v. Martinez which is a case about a student group (the CLS) at Hasting's college which wants to deny all membership to homosexuals on the basis of sexual orientation.

Many states still prohibit homosexual couples from adopting or caring for foster children.

In Louisiana there are laws being directed against gay partners assuming voluntary paternity when biological waive their rights. In particular Lousiana refuses to consider the biological parent's spouse to be a partent. So for example if a child raised by his biological father and his father's lover and his father dies he may forced into foster care even though his father's lover has identified as a parent and the child considers him a parent.

Tennessee has just made it illegal for local governments to have civil rights protection in employment for gays. This was in response to Nashville creating protection.

Should I keep going?

12 comments

Newest | Oldest

Justine Fleurimond

god dosent approve gayness but he said we still have to respect gay people not bully them to death i just wish that the kids who got bullied and did suicide get ressurected when His kingsdom comes

Ken Cook

Yeah Keep Going....

Gays have the same marriage rights as the rest of us... they just don't want to use them. They want to redefine and create new 'rights' which aren't rights at all.

Marriage is a blessing by the state for several reasons, not the least of which is the production of the most valuable resource to any society, namely people. Gays Can do that too, and if they do and marry to do so, they will receive the benefits. The reality is that Gays DO NOT WANT to use the rights given to them.

That isn't Persecution they is personal rejection.

Mark

Keep going? Nah, I'm just waiting for the persecution part.

C.L. Bolt

CD-Host's understanding of rights and equality is terribly flawed. Rights pertain to the level of the individual. There are no such things as "gay rights" anymore than there are such things as "straight rights." There are, rather, individual rights. Homosexuals in the U.S. possess all of the very same rights that I do as a heterosexual, because rights pertain to the individual, not some other category.

Wait a second... What Rights and Equalities are Gays Lacking?? Last I checked they have the same rights as the rest of us....

At this point the foremost opposition to gay rights and gay equality is coming from Christians. The battle over gays in the military being a perfectly good example. The polling over gay marriage, is another one. And in particular Christian groups have been very strong opposed to establishing protection for sexual orientation either via. anti bully statutes or via. applying civil rights law.

Christian political causes like the values voters forum raise money in opposition to the "gay agenda".

You have:

a) Organized opposition to gay civil rights.

b) Strong claims that gays in their being are particularly sinful.

c) Support for systematic persecution in the public sphere.

d) Unofficial persecution mostly carried out and supported by Christians.

Why wouldn't the world perceive Christians as being aggressively anti-gay? What other group is persecuting gays in America?

Christiane

At least . . .

the question is asked . . .

Bible Verses

The only lesson to be gleamed is that as Christians, we must, at all times, clearly enunciate the message of Grace, Mercy, and moral discipline that comes from relationship with God. But to draw a straight line between a religion of Love and bullies is like drawing a straight line between American atheist ultra-liberals and Stalin. Both believed in no God and socialism - but no one would say that American liberals are in some way responsible with the 56 million people that Stalin killed... would they?

Joe Blackmon

As well he should be, since that video doesn't show what he, I, and other Christians actually believe.

you are 'annoyed' ?

Are Christians to Blame for Gay Teen Suicides?

Related Posts:

About the author