Separating God from the Church

I was just reading a forum about last week's Compass about Guy Sebastian's church which is an evangelical Pentecostal church in Adelaide. The forum posters were talking about the whole homosexuality issue, and some people talked about their experiences in the church that eventually drove them away from the church.

I get so sad reading these people's experiences. If only they knew that God loves them more than they could know and is probably weeping for them and their terrible experiences with the church. If only they knew that the Christians who caused them such pain aren't accurate representations of their Father in heaven.

I don't know. I mean, of course, as Christians we can't shirk our responsibility to be salt and light to the world by setting a good example. But sometimes I wish that society in general would cut the church some slack. At the end of the day we are all imperfect humans and are all trying to do our best with the lives that we have. Then again, by virtue of the fact that the Church is holding out the promise of more- i.e. higher moral standards etc- we really deserve everything we get for our hypocrisy.

I pray that God would make me more and more like Him everyday.

On the homosexuality issue- people were talking about how if God has 'made' someone a homosexual (i.e. it's not a 'lifestyle' choice) then it's unfair that He should then demand that celibacy be the only option for him/her. Firstly I think this misses the point- it's definitely not about what is 'fair' and 'unfair'. That would be like someone saying "I have a predisposition to kill people. Therefore it's unfair that there are laws against murder." But then I wondered....what is it about? Why is homosexuality so abominable to God? I mean, in my example above, the reason we have laws against murder is because it causes harm other people. But, if one gay person finds another gay person and they carry on and have a gay old time (just bringing some levity into this otherwise serious discussion), how does that directly cause harm to anyone else? What's so bad about it that God specifically hates it? I understand why God hates divorce. You just need to look at the hurt and pain that it causes to people, and its far reaching consequences. Perhaps the consequences of someone 'coming out' are similar. Hmmm.

Anyway those were just some thoughts of mine. Will continue to mull. Hmm.