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Coping With Spiritual Attacks


Gay Christians and gay non-Christians face attacks from some Christian leaders. Gay Christians are faced with the same reality that early Christians faced. In the face of intense perscution, they are called on to live out the love of Jesus Christ. The call is not an easy call, nor is it a call for spiritual cowards. Gay Christians are among the bravest Christians in the world. Gay people who are out of the spiritual and sexual closets are as brave as some soldiers. They are real soldiers for Christ.

The pages that follow give gay Christians and their friends some ideas of how to respond in an appropriate manner to spiritual attacks. These pages are not intended to be a comprehensive guide as to how to respond to attacks in a powerful and a thoroughly Christian manner. People interested in more information about how to respond to attacks on the gay community may want to visit the Soulforce web site.

Receiving spiritual attacks is not a sign that God does not love you. God loved His Son, Jesus Christ, and Jesus was crucified.

Being attacked by homophobic religious leaders does not mean you have not served God adequately. Many gay Christians are serving the Lord faithfully in churches. God will not forget your dedicated service. God is not unfair; he will not forget what you have done, nor the love you have shown for his sake in ministering, as you still do, to the saints (Hebrews 7:10). If spiritual attacks were a sign of God's disfavor, Jesus would not have been the Savior.

The first thing for gay Christians to accept is that there will be attacks made against them. Those who did not understand God's grace attacked Jesus too. Jesus did not promise His followers would have an easier time than He had.

The second thing for gay Christians to remember is that their salvation is secure in Jesus Christ. Attacks from people in churches cannot separate people from God. What can ever part us from Christ's love? Can anguish or calamity or pers_cution or famine or nakedness or danger or the sword? . . . neither death nor life, neither angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, no powers of the Height or of the Depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to part us from God's love in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:35 - 39).

The third thing gay Christians need to do is to determine what is important. No matter what happens gay Christians need to decide they will remain faithful to God. God will honor that decision. The God who saves gives His servants and His followers the ability to remain faithful, to keep their faith in God alive in the face of staggering personal pain.

Gay Christians are called to respond in love in the face of bitter spiritual attacks. That does not mean gay Christians should be the whipping boys for boys for the retarded theologies of those who vegetate in Christian churches. A response to spiritual attacks is needed. The response, however, needs to be one of love, not one of hate.