The Intolerance of Those Who Preach Tolerance

Why is the gay and lesbian community so proactive in preaching tolerance for their homosexual lifestyle? Why do they seem so easily offended by those who do not agree with them? Why do they preach love and acceptance, but many of them seem to get so hateful and angry with those who are committed to traditional values? Why do they preach tolerance, but often seem so intolerant and hateful to those who disagree with them?

The gay community is seeking ‘equal rights.’ Homosexuals only want to live open and peaceful lives unashamedly in a community without fear of rejection or discrimination. This I am sure is true, but I do not believe that this is all they want. The reason that they are so easily offended is because deep down they know that their lifestyle is unnatural. They know better, and are constantly looking for justification and affirmation for their unnatural desires. They have inward guilt, yet they desire to free themselves from this guilt by having others tell them that they shouldn’t feel bad for feeding and indulging in their unnatural passions. Equal rights are not all they want. What they really desire is for others to reassure them that it is okay to be homosexual.

In an attempt to ease their inward guilt, they seek to obtain the outward confirmation and approval of their friends, peers and society. To obtain the approval of society the homosexual community is attempting to carry out these seven steps below:

1. Seeking to Convince Themselves that their Unnatural Desires are Natural

First, they desire to convince themselves that they were “born this way.”  By a simple observation of the design of the male and female body, it is easy and natural to see that men and women are designed for each other. This is easy to learn, and even children do not need any external instruction to come to this conclusion. Furthermore, the world would not continue past the next generation without men and women procreating. Men and women are made for each other and everybody knows it. God’s Word forbids homosexuality, but even if it didn’t, nature itself teaches us that homosexuality is unnatural (Rom. 1:26-27). In fact, even straight people who support homosexuality cannot deny that homosexual acts are something that they find inwardly disturbing. Homosexuals, I believe, know that their desires are unnatural, and therefore they feel the need to convince themselves otherwise. Otherwise, why would it even matter if they were “born that way” or if they simply chose to live that way? I do not feel the need to justify to myself or to others that I prefer Dr. Pepper over Pepsi. Why do they feel the need to justify their desires for the same sex (as if they can’t help how they feel), if their desires are natural? One of my gay friends admitted to me that he had to work past the shame that he felt the first few times he engaged in a sexual relationship. His partner told him that his feelings of shame were a natural experience, and the key to move past this feeling of shame was to dwell upon the fun and excitement rather than upon the shame. "To not think about it", was the counsel. The point is that homosexuals know that their lifestyle is shameful (at least for those who are not completely hardened), and it is because of their guilt that they feel the need to blame their passions upon something other than their choice.

2. Create Support Groups to Ease Their Conscience

Those who practice any sin seek to find others who do the same to provide some level of comfort (Rom. 1:32). These support groups are designed to suppress guilt by the group reassuring its members that they are not alone. There is comfort in numbers. The larger the support group the better. Thus, it is natural for homosexuals to group together to find comfort in a network of peers that does not pass out judgment, but rather helps smooth over their guilty conscience.

3. Blame their Inward Guilt upon External Norms

If homosexual desires are natural, and if homosexuals cannot help the way they feel, then where does the guilt come from? The third step for the gay community is to blame their guilt upon something outside of themselves—such as the traditional norms that have been shaped by Christian values. They claim that their inward guilt stems from the external social norms that have been imposed upon their conscience. ‘I wouldn’t feel guilty if my conscience wouldn’t have been shaped by society’s unwritten rules,’ so they think. ‘Christianity and traditional values are to blame for my inward shame.’ Thus, they seek to blame their guilt upon man-made external norms rather than upon their own innate knowledge of what is right and natural.

4. Attempt to Change Public Perception

Therefore, the goal is to change the values and norms of society. This is the fourth step. In an attempt to deliver themselves from their guilty conscience, rather than repenting before God, they seek to change social perception and create new and more tolerant social norms. It is not sufficient, for many of them, that they convince themselves that homosexuality is natural; they feel that they must convince the rest of society. If they can change public perception, then they can change the social norms of society. If they can change social norms, then they believe that then they can live out their desires without any sense of guilt or inward condemnation. This is why they are so proactive.

5. Condemn and Hatefully Judge the Opposition

To justify themselves and speed up the process of changing the norms of society, the gay community will condemn those who disagree with them as haters and bigots. They have effectively done this by labeling and grouping all opposition as ‘homophobes.’  Some would even consider this article as propagating ‘hate speech.’ But why? Why do they want to call this hate? I do not hate homosexuals, and I do not want anything bad to happen to my homosexual friends. In fact, whatever I could do to help them I would seek to do. Even with my love for them, I believe homosexuality is unnatural. Why would they condemn me as being full of hate because I disagree with their lifestyle? Why are they so ready to call those who disagree with their lifestyle haters? I believe it is because they desire to hush their own conscience. They feel that the only way to do this is by hushing and censoring those who disagree with them. Therefore, they are attempting to turn the table around and blame those who publicly condemn homosexuality as the guilty and hateful party. If they can make it politically correct to support homosexuality, then heterosexuals will not only feel pressure to support gay marriage, they will be scared not to because they do not want to be labeled as a homophobe. In essence, they want to throw their own guilt upon those who oppose them.

6. Seek to Place God on Their Side

For the homosexuals who remain religious, they realize that they will never have a clear conscience until they are convinced that God sanctions their lifestyle. It amazes me how many professing Christians are seeking to condone homosexuality by only focusing upon the doctrine of the love of God—as if the Bible had nothing to say about homosexuality. If I said, "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", these professing Christians would call me hateful. But this is what God has said in Romans 1:26-27. In response, some say that the Bible has human error, but if that was the case why do these same professing Christians use the Bible to convince themselves that God accepts their lifestyle. How any homosexual can say that he or she believes in the God of the Bible and at the same time hold to a Christianity that sanctions unnatural sexual passions is beyond me, but this is exactly what many have sought to do. Even worse, some churches, who are willing to tickle people's ears to gain a larger following, openly tell homosexuals what they want to hear. Regardless, making homosexuality acceptable within Christianity is another means of artificially easing one’s guilty conscious.

7. Censor the Opposition

Last of all, because of the inward guilt that comes from their unnatural passions, it only takes one person to oppose their lifestyle for some of them to be offended. The problem, when they are honest with themselves, is that their conscience agrees with those who disagree with their lifestyle. Therefore, the gay community will not be content with merely obtaining equal rights, but will forcefully push their agenda until they obtain universal acceptance, and legally censor all opposing voices. It’s their guilty conscience that is the problem, and they will do anything to suppress the truth—even to the point of suppressing others who oppose their lifestyle. Let’s not fool ourselves, the censorship of free speech is where this battle ends. Canada is proof of this, and America seems to be following right behind.

To answer the question of why the gay community seems so intolerant towards those who disagree with them, it is because they so desperately desire to live their unnatural lifestyles without experiencing the inward guilt. And it seems that the gay community will go to any length to remove their guilt while hanging onto their sins.

Thankfully, God has provided all of us a real answer to our guilty conscious—repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Christ died for sins, even the sin of homosexuality. Homosexuals, along with liars and adulterers, can have a guilt free conscious because of Christ—but only if they are willing to acknowledge their sins and seek forgiveness and deliverance from their sins by trusting in the full atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ.