"Jennifer Knapp comes out of the closet!"

It's all over the news. Larry King did a special on it. It's quite the fiasco really...at least the media has made it that way.

I find in the Christian realm that this has spurred three types of people. There are those who will point fingers, mock it and shut Jennifer out completely. There will be those scrambling for ways to explain that, although they do not judge, they disagree with the lifestyle. And there will be those who think that there is absolutely nothing wrong with (as Jennifer would put it) who Jennifer chooses to love. The problem with this, is that it seems that the first and the latter cases will be at war...while the middle case will be ignored.

I find myself in the middle option. Allow this to be my scramble for an explanation that will most likely be ignored :)

Can you be Christian and still be a lesbian? Is being lesbian different than other sins? Is homosexuality a sin? Tough questions right? Thus...the scramble.

Sin is sin. We're all guilty of it. I would be the first to say that I've had far to much of it in my life. However, when sin goes unrepented and is allowed to continue freely, it can be like "Yeast working it's way through the whole lump of dough" and it can cause a huge separation barrier between you and God. It becomes a LIFESTYLE. But before we point fingers at Jen here, let me ask you this. Can alcoholics go to heaven? Can obese people go to heaven? Can a couple regularly having sex before marriage go to heaven? In every case I just listed, sin had gone unchecked to the point where it became a lifestyle. Even if it seems as minor as gluttony, it had worked it's way in and become a part of you.

Here's where the separation lies. Suppose (hypothetically) Michael W. Smith gets on Larry King and tells everyone that not only is he an alcoholic, but he finds great joy in his alcohol. He feels that he should be able to choose how he spends his money and how he spends his evenings and he's happier now than he's ever been. The problem doesn't lie in the fact that he has a problem...the problem lies in the fact that he has no intention of dealing with it and that he doesn't even see it as a problem. Some might argue that if anyone disagrees with Michael, that they're judging him.

This leads me to a burning question I believe people on the left will argue endlessly. Is homosexuality a sin? What if your born that way? I believe that it is, and I'm not simply saying that because my fundamentalist upbringing me has me programmed to quote a bible verse.

According to a JAMA review of literature re the sexual abuse of boys, only 10%-33% of male abuse victims ever tell anyone about that abuse. The review also found that: "Abused [male] adolescents, particularly those victimized by males, were up to 7 times more likely to self-identify as gay or bisexual than peers who had not been abused." And regarding female abuse victims, one study found that 38% of adult women ages 18-31 who were sexually abused when young [between ages 10 months to 12 years] did not remember that they were sexually abused when young.

If homosexuality isn't a sin...if it's perfectly natural and healthy, then why are sexually abused people 7 times more likely to become gay? And if 38% of abused women don't remember being abused...how many were abused and never found out? I believe it can seem like someone is born gay because they've had that tendency ever since they could remember, but psychologists can almost always trace it back to something UNHEALTHY in that person's upbringing. If it's psycological, and if it's a consequence of something unhealthy, then it's a condition. Even if you disagree with me on this issue...you can't ignore the obvious fact that many homosexuals were sexually abused at one time or another in their life. Even if you don't believe in God, you have to at least see the trend that horrible things can be one of the main factors in some people turning gay.
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Sexual immorality is the only sin committed against your own body. No wonder it so easily becomes a part of you! It is meant to be intimate and so it is easily justified and incredibly tough to break free of once you've become ensnared. It's not like an alcoholic, where it's obviously a problem. It's far more subtle and so it's far more dangerous. It's so personal, that everyone involved takes criticism as judgement. Most don't want to recognize it and so they don't even try to change and so it appears that they cannot change.

Now here's where I'm going focus the heat to the people on the right. Would you point fingers at a girl who was raped as a child and because of that has emotional issues to deal with? How heartless would that be? The thought alone angers me! How is a homosexual any different? Your weirded out by them? Get over it. Jesus hung out with whores and thieves. If a homosexual can't feel welcome in your company, then your as wrong as they are. Lead them to Jesus and leave the convicting to Him...because I'm convinced He can do it far more effectively then you ever will.

So when I look at Jennifer, I'm sad. Not because she's told everyone about her homosexuality, not because she's a homosexual, but because she's deceived in thinking that there is no issue. She's doing nothing to deal with it and so rather than this being an incredible testimony, it's become a reason for others to excuse their sin...especially if they struggle in that area.

No pointed fingers here. No judgement. Jennifer Knapp is an incredible artist with so much talent as a lyricist. She's always been incredibly transparent and Kansas will still be one of my favorite albums of all time. I just hope and pray for her, that God will convict her of what she needs to do.

So, in closing, "Can lesbians go to heaven?" or "is Jennifer Knapp going to hell?" are unfair and obsolete questions, cause I suck at judging the heart, and thank God He's good at it :)