Christianity and the Hate Crimes Laws

Homosexuality is a sin in both Judaism and Christianity. In deciding how churches should respond to the growth of the homosexual agenda it is important that churches and the faithful understand what scripture says and how we should react to the world. Having a firm base of knowledge is essential to keep one’s self focused on serving God and protecting ones family from the influences of the world.

The book of Leviticus is one of the books that contain the laws of God that He gave to Moses. Since Jesus said that the Law God gave to Moses will remain with us until the end of time, what is found in Leviticus is also the law for Christians. Jesus was quite specific in what he said, and those who think that the law was nailed to the cross are gravely mistaken.

Leviticus 18:22 says, "You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination." Not only does God say it is wrong, but he calls it an abomination. It is no simple sin, for God ranks homosexuality along side bestiality, idolatry and child sacrifices. The first question for us to answer is homosexuality only a sin for Jews and Christians? Considering that, God utterly destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for it perversity and neither city practiced either Judaism or Christianity it is safe to assume that God means this as a universal law for all of mankind. The simple fact is that neither Sodom nor Gomorrah knew it was a sin, but they were destroyed none-the-less.

Now what are we to do about it? Once again, Leviticus is very clear in what God proscribes as punishment. Leviticus 20:13 states, "If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put to death. Their blood shall be upon them." This is a very serious matter. To take a life is to take away any chance of redemption; still the law is the law. This brings us to the third question we must answer, for if the law says homosexuality is wrong and must be punished can we simply ignore God’s commandment?

The simple answer is no, we cannot. The practical answer requires we use reason and trust in the words Jesus gave us. God gave us the ability to reason, for a reason, and he has called on us to use it in keeping his law. Let us look at the motivation behind Leviticus 20:13 in light of the words of Jesus of Matthew 9:12, "Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.” One could reason that putting to death homosexuals was an extreme form of “isolation” to prevent an infection within the community. As a preventive measure Leviticus 20:13 would serve that function. If we accept that Leviticus 20:13 is meant to keep homosexuals out of the community of those trying to obey God’s laws, so the homosexual lifestyle does not “contaminate” the weak, then we have an alternative to Leviticus 20:13 that does not need to be violent or final.

Before Jesus came into the world sin was not treated as a curable disease by a doctor, sin was treated as a criminal matter. Some might say during that period the cure was worse than the disease. A person was judged to have committed a sin and if found guilty they were punished as the law specified. As disciples of Jesus, we not only have an obligation to follow the law, but also to follow Jesus’ teachings. Jesus told us “judge not, least we be judged,” and he also told us that when executing judgment, only those without sin should cast the first stone.

We must always remember the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:10-32. The story of the prodigal son tells us that a son abandoned his family to live a life of sin in a far away country. One day he realizes his mistake and turns his back on that foreign country, which is the sinful lifestyle he was living, and decides to return home and ask his father for forgiveness. The father also has another son, the eldest son who never abandoned his father, that is he never sinned and he is angry not at his brother but at his father who is now rejoicing his sinful son has put an end to his sinful life. After listening to his eldest son the father and says, “Son, you are always with me, and all that I have is yours. It was right that we should make merry and be glad, for your brother was dead and is alive again, and was lost and is found.” God wants us all to turn away from our sinful lives, and if we physically seek to impose the death penalty on a homosexual we are robbing God of the greatest joy He can have, the return of a son.

We live a world of different cultures and faiths, and the simple human being in me wants to say that all people have the right to live to their fullest potential and to seek happiness. The Sunday Christian in me wants to say that it is not up to us to be judge, jury and executioner, if I act in such a way then in essence I legitimize others imposing their will on me. Live and let live has become the mantra of both humanists and Laodiceans. Failure to act within the spirit of God’s law only brings this life style into my life and your life in one form or another. It is easy to see it happening already. Our children are being taught in public that homosexuality is appropriate behavior, and sharing our faith with someone is becoming a subversive act of treason. If we do not act, we become assimilated into a politically correct culture, forever loosing our identity as a children of the living God.

Acting appropriately within the spirit of the law is what is needed by the community of followers of Jesus. So the final question is how to execute the death penalty that is called for in Leviticus 20:13 without taking a life, and without breaking the law of Caesar? The Amish, a no-violent Christian sect, have a tradition of shunning a sinner. Shunning is for all intent and purposes a death sentence without death, for the shunned are people that dead to the community. This way the person cannot socially interact with the community and thus unable introduce the community to their sin. We must remember that when Leviticus was written the community was Israel, and both secular and spiritual communities were one. We on the other hand live in a place where the communities are divided. Secular laws require we define the term community to reflect this division of church and state, therefore we need to divide the community from the public and physical community of nation states from that of the personal and spiritual community of our chosen faiths and associations. Set apart the community that we are required and forced to live in from that of the Community elect to join by our subservience to the laws of that Community.

The public community becomes all theses places where the laws of nations take precedence, these are the public places, while the private community is that of our homes and churches where governments exercise either no or very little influences over. Until the age of the governments of men ceases to exist and are replaced by the Kingdom of Heaven, this becomes the only sane way of living in a world where a sin is a virtue, and a lie is the truth. We cannot direct the faith of the world we live in, but we can live in world directed by our faith.

The sinner who is shunned from the personal community of those who are faithful to the laws of God are not welcomed in our churches in order that they can morally legitimize their sin with the blessings of our faith. We cannot allow our churches to authorize their lifestyle with apostolic jurisdiction by ordaining them, by marrying them or by allowing them to become the spiritual guardians of the youth. The reason God proscribes punishment for breaking his laws is so that there is a consequence for sinning, and if we accept that the reason God was so severe that he told Moses to put homosexuals to death was to prevent them from introducing homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle into the community, than “shunning” is a reasonable solution to enforcing Leviticus 20:13 within a secular state. Most importantly, this keeps hope alive that the doctor will come and the disease cured.

Jesus stood and died for the law of his Father, if you deny the law because you are afraid of the ramifications then you are in fact denying Jesus, and he in turn will deny you. Neither should you think that in obeying man’s law you are safe from the wrath of God, for you are not. Our churches must stop trying to fill their pews by accommodating unapologetic sinners, and we have arrived at the End of Days where we must make our choice of whom we call Lord.

Today the world is passing laws from the international bodies to local councils giving unnatural rights to homosexuals, while taking away our natural God given right to worship God in the manner God told us he wants to be worship, in spirit and in truth.


Socialistic governments are preventing parents from exercising their obligations to raise their children to obey God’s laws by subverting the message within the school systems. We must resist these odious laws being passed in a way that leaves the door open for the repentant sinner and yet protects the innocent from those who would subvert the message of the Lord. We must never preach hate, never wishing evil upon the head of the sinner, for we too were sinners. We must resist evil not with evil but with the truth and the love that comes only from God.

Here is the simple truth if a homosexual comes to our churches seeking to find forgiveness through repentance then we are to welcome them, bid them to find a place to wait until God speaks to them through their heart. If homosexuals come into our churches demanding acceptance then close your doors to them. They cannot live in both the Father’s house and the far away land at the same time. The choice is theirs.

Instead of trying to make seculars laws mirror the letter of the law of God, which none of us have followed, let us try to use the Spirit of God’s laws to try to live our lives within the Spirit of the Law of God as we walk among the nations. Let us look at Leviticus 20:13 anew, in light of the idea of substituting shunning for death, "If a man lies with a male as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination. They shall surely be put out of the congregation. Their isolation from God shall be upon them."