Once again Pope Francis has made a shocking statement regarding homosexuals and the role of the church. The pontiff answered questions from reporters while flying home and was asked to address a statement made by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who told a conference in Dublin in the days after the deadly Orlando gay club attack that the church owes an apology to gays for having marginalized them.
Pope Francis responded by noting that gays must be treated with respect and then stated, “I think the church must not only apologize … to a gay person it offended, but we must apologize to the poor, to women who have been exploited, to children forced into labor, apologize for having blessed so many weapons”
Is the pope wrong in his answer?
I would respond by saying the pope was not clear on the offence that needs an apology in the first place. After all, we are to treat all people with kindness and respect regardless of their sin, however, these days offence is a broad term that is abused by many just looking for an offence.
The bible itself describes the gospel, as an offence to this world, so is the pope saying that the church should apologize for the gospel of Jesus Christ? I would hope that is not true.
The Lord teaches us that we should always bring the truth in love but that does not mean we should compromise that truth. One way we should do this is to teach against all sin, not just sexual sins. When the text requires that we discuss sexual immorality, then we should teach what the scripture plainly says and usually all sexual immorality is paired together so that we are not attacking anyone but dealing with all who need to appeal to the grace of the Lord.
We are to treat all people with dignity but we are to dignify them with the truth not teach acceptance of certain sins because we like them better and dealing with them will hurt someone’s feelings.
If Pope Francis is teaching that the church should apologize for declaring the truth of scripture and instead deny the gospel, then he is wrong and should not lead anything because of his error but if he is stating that everyone should be treated with respect and taught the truth until it is accepted that is a different matter.
The Lord does not desire us to remain in our sin because it brings death and it is cruel to the sinner to allow the destructive nature of sin to go unaddressed. It is not pleasant to hear that our lifestyle choices are bad will lead to our destruction.
A recent look at health data shows that not only is homosexuality sinful but that it affects the health of the people engaged in it and not for the better.
It is not pleasant and is really downright offensive to know that Jesus preached “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” because no one wants to stop doing the things they enjoy and yet that is what He is calling on us to do.
