Jesus Would Discriminate

You may have seen the yard signs around town asking the question, "would Jesus discriminate?" You may also know that they are part of a $55,000 public relations campaign by the homosexual Metropolitan Community Church of Indianapolis to persuade people that opposition against homosexuality is unChrist-like. You should also know that this is a shameful campaign promoting an immoral lifestyle and that the subtle proposition that Jesus would not discriminate in regard to homosexuals is as flimsy as a house made with fractured toothpicks.

First, we should not take it as a given that discrimination is always wrong. Discrimination is both Biblical and experiential. Everyone discriminates. Parents discriminate in the choices they make for their children. We discriminate on what movies we choose to watch or not to watch. We discriminate in our voting choices on Election Day. The members of the Metropolitan Community Church discriminated in their choice of spending $55,000 to defend homosexuality rather than to support a Crisis Pregnancy Center, or print Bibles, or defend persecuted Christians in Muslim lands. To discriminate is merely "to make distinctions in treatment" (Webster's New World Dictionary, Warner Books, 1990). In fact, to imply that discrimination is somehow unChrist-like while discriminating is hypocrisy. Jesus never condemned discrimination. But He did condemn hypocrisy. Of course, discrimination can be wrong if we make distinctions for the wrong reasons, or if we do the wrong things in those distinctive treatments. But there is nothing wrong with discrimination. We must do it. Quite often we do it based on our moral values.

Furthermore, the Bible discriminates. Jesus discriminated. For example, the Old Testament teaches that God chose the Jewish race to reveal Himself to them and bless them like no other people at that time - "He declares His word to Jacob, His statutes and His judgments to Israel. He has not dealt thus with any nation; and as for His judgments, they have not known them" Psalm 147:19-20 (compare Deuteronomy 7:6-11). That is discrimination. Jesus told the citizens of Capernaum that "if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day" Matthew 11:23. But those works were not done in Sodom, though they could have been done there, and Sodom was destroyed. That is discrimination. Jesus said that when He returns to earth that some will "go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life" Matthew 25:46. That is discrimination. But it is a just discrimination.

Thirdly, it is clear from the Scriptures that Jesus discriminated regarding homosexuals. Jesus believed, taught and lived by the Old Testament. He quoted it hundreds of times. He affirmed its absolute authority and warned that "unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven" Matthew 5:18-20. The scribes and Pharisees were the most radical, legalistic observers of the Old Testament laws. The Old Testament is unequivocal in its denunciation of homosexuality. According to Leviticus 18:22 a man "shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination." It is such an abomination that "if a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them shall surely be put to death" Leviticus 20:13.

Additionally, Jesus defended the Mosaic law of marriage which taught the life-long union of a man and a woman as the norm - Matthew 19:4-5 quoting Genesis 1:27. Jesus explicitly affirmed the historicity of Sodom's destruction in Luke 17:29-30. Sodom, regardless of silly arguments to the contrary, cultured homosexuality - Genesis 19. Obviously, Jesus' disciples believed that Jesus had an unequivocal position on homosexuality. Peter said that God turned "the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes making them an example to those who afterward live ungodly" - 2 Peter 2:4-6. Paul said that homosexuals are debased and that they will not go to heaven unless they repent - Romans 1:27-30; 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. However, they may be delivered from this sin if they repent and trust Christ - 1 Corinthians 6:11. Jude said that the homosexuals of Sodom and Gomorrah are "suffering the vengeance of eternal fire" - Jude 5-7.

So would Jesus discriminate? Yes.