It’s a beautiful day people. The sun is shining, the wind is
blowing, the waves are crashing. Ok, you can scratch out that last part lest
you think that I am in coast but I am pretty sure that the waves are crashing.
Beach crashing. Talking about crashing, why is it called gatecrashers or is it
crushers? I know it means guys coming to a place uninvited but crashing. Ooooh.
Now I get it. Gatecrashers, as in they
crash. No? You are not getting it? Smh. Okay let me lighten your load. Lemme
break it down. You see, a crash is something unwanted, it happens without
expecting so when you gatecrash, you surprise the gate. You get it offguard and
get in. Ideally, the gate should be closed. I know. That is the silliest explanation
of gatecrashing ever given but do not blame me. I shall refer you to the Oxford
Advanced Learners Dictionary. The meaning of gatecrashing is expressed there.
The etymology of the word however, is not explained. My bad, I lost you at
etymology? Etymology basically means the origin. Keep up with the language will
you?
Anyway, where was I? This habit of mine of digressing is
becoming quite concerning. Well, I heard it happens to really bright people so
I guess I am blessed. An active mind I tell you. Could be a burden at times. So
many thoughts, so many wonderful ideas. See? I digressed again. It’s a struggle.
Hehe. How fitting, considering the title of this post.
Ah! Finally I have led myself to what I am supposed to talk
about, or is it write or is it speak? Anyway, the message. Well, I am just from
watching a movie called Reconciliation. Very good movie. It’s a Christian movie.
I highly recommend it to you. By the way, before I continue. Christian movies
have a way of bringing tears to your eyes. I don’t know if it’s just me but I think
in all the Christian movies I have watched, at one point I have had balancing
tears in my eyes. I so hope I will not regret confiding in you. My manhood is
at stake here. Or as my good friend Newnex once put it, my manhood is at steak!
I still laugh about that to this very day. That one should come under the title
“The struggle of our language.” Before I redigress, yes. I do have those
moments of balancing tears when I watch a movie and there is a sad part. Don’t you
dare judge me. It is not my fault that you have a hardened heart. God will
soften your heart someday.
I know you are expecting me to go ahead and tell you the
plot of the movie but that is too mainstream. I am not telling you! However,
watching the movie made me wonder. Okay, I may have to tell you some part of
the movie. The movie is about this guy who had a wife. Now, the wife was
pregnant and about to give birth (what else would she give). However, during
the pregnancy, the guy started getting distant with his wife. He wouldn’t attend
the birth classes (never understood the need for those), he only went for one
doctor’s appointment with the wife, he suddenly got too busy with work to the
extent of having to go sign a deal on their wedding anniversary. As usual, the
wife felt bad. She caught (pardon my translation, it is for the sake of my
international audience). So during the day when the guy was signing the deal on
a Sunday after church, the wife got a call from a hospital asking for the
husband. She said he wasn’t there but they could leave a message. She was told
that her father-in-law wanted to see the son that he only had a few days to
live. This was weird because her husband’s father had passed away years ago.
Anyway, when the guy arrived home, he found the house decorated, candle-lit
dinner, romantic dinner tables…look at all the ladies going “Awwwww.” The guy trying to be enthusiastic, he’d
brought a bouquet of flowers. However, he noticed that his wife wasn’t happy.
He inquired why and that’s when he was told about the call. Of course the
shock, trying to settle down and explain himself. To cut a long story short,
the guy had cut off all links with his dad because the dad was gay. He wanted
nothing to do with his father and changed his name to his mother’s maiden name
when he was 18 and that was the reason he got distant when the wife got
pregnant because he feared having a bad relationship with his son as he had had
with his father.
Anyway, that is just a preview of the movie. What caught my
eye with the movie was how they handled that issue of gays or rather, the issue
of homosexuality. Well, one thing is that, homosexuality is regarded as a
really bad evil. Like, it is really bad. Gays are usually stigmatized, guys
talk bad about them. I do know that it is wrong. It is very very wrong as a
matter of fact. However, this is the thing I found interesting with regards to
the movie is how it was handled. It gave me a new kind of approach. Let’s look
at 1st Corinthians 6:9-10
“Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of
God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor
adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (ESV)”
From the verse, homosexuality has clearly been mentioned.
But so has sexual immorality, so has adulterers been mentioned. Now, let us put
our thinking hats shall we? Which is the greater sin? Which one is considered
more wrong when you put adultery on one hand and homosexuality on the other
hand? I know my answer. Homosexuality is the worse one. I mean, how does one
man sleep with another man? And not like sharing a bed but like having sexual
intercourse. However, let’s go back to the Bible. Adulterers and homosexuals
both suffer the same fate. Now here is the thing. I am not here to pass
judgement or any condemnation. I love John 3:17. Look at you all shocked. John
3 does not end in verse 16 my dear one (for guys just don’t read the dear
part). It says
“For God
did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world
through him.”
Well that is the thing. Many of us, especially Christians,
cannot come close to gays. You cannot greet them as normal people. That is where
many Christians flee away from. Gays do have it rough. Here is the funny part.
Christians will have hands and arms wide open for adulterers, fornicators, you
know, guys who are struggling with sin but want nothing to do with gays while
they are also God’s creation. One thing that I learnt from that movie is that,
in as much as homosexuality is a choice, it is also a challenge that people face.
The same way that we, as the youth of this generation, are faced with many
challenges, challenges like masturbation, pornography, fornication, the older
generation (our parents generation) are faced with adultery (Adultery is so
rampant that ‘Mpango wa kando’ is a normal and accepted thing) is the same way
that gays are struggling. Some of us who are blessed with good looks say that “I
can’t help it that ladies flock me” and “Don’t hate the player, hate the game”
and so you flirt and cheat because it is your weakness. The same way that time
and time again you find yourself fornicating despite being a Christian. The
same way that every time as a guy you find yourself lusting after a hot mama,
or a hot chic. Guys accept it as a struggle and are willing to help each other
through it. You know, counseling each other, reading scripture but when it
comes to gays, theirs is a struggle of the faith just like the rest of us. It
is a desire of the flesh also. It is weird, but it is true. It is a desire of
the flesh. They are attracted to fellow men or fellow women. Therefore, my
challenge is, as Christians, let us not take the high road of
self-righteousness in a way where we look down at gays while ourselves we are
struggling with other forms of immorality. Whether we like it or not, gays are
in the same boat as the rest of us. It is for us to pray for wisdom on how we
should deal with this problem. Because castigation is not the solution,
stigmatization is not the solution. Disgust and hatred is not the solution. It
is hard but James 1:5 says
“If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask
God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to
you.”
Gayism is part of the struggles our faith and it should be
treated as such. Like all other challenges, people may not change but let us do
our part. Have a blessed day and a blessed week.
In other news, witness 417 of the International Criminal
Court just said that Kalenjins are “Tall, thin and black” I am bewildered. My
identity is lost. I am definitely black but the other two…
