Pilgrim Soldier

Over the last few weeks I’ve been watching the Church here in Latvia take an increasingly hardline stance against homosexuality and am devastated by the attitude being shown towards the gay community. Now before I go any further I want to express that my view of this issue is pretty much the standard Salvationist viewpoint as put across by the UK Territory’s official statement.

Latvian society is one of the most homophobic in the EU and the politics tends to reflect that, especially in an election year. Unfortunately, in general, the standpoint of the church seems to reflect that of society as a whole.

The main reason this is such a big issue in Latvia at the moment is that there is a plan to hold a Gay Pride march through the streets of Riga. The churches have joined together with other organisations to openly fight against this. In many ways I have no problem whatsoever about the Church opposing the march. Unfortunately the message that is coming out of these protests has been one of hate and bigotry, surely something that goes against everything the Christian faith stands for. The message is one of extreme anti-homosexual prejudice and insists on suggesting that this is as important to Latvia as the 1991 barricades that finally saw the end of the Soviet era.

The Bible calls Christians to love God and to love our neighbours as ourselves (Mark 12:30-31). Instead the very people who should be most willing to show love towards the gay community are amongst the most vocally opposed, and there is nothing that I can find that expresses the fact that God loves every person irrespective of their sexual orientation.

The situation reminds me to some extent of Martin Niemoller’s famous poem:

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.

I’m not for one moment suggesting that there is the danger of a Nazi type regime running the country, but if the rights for free speech of the minority gay community aren’t upheld in a democracy then what other minorities can go the same way. Where do we as Christians draw the line?

The simple fact is that we do not have to sell out our moral values in order to send a message of love. Jesus showed by His response to the woman caught in adultury that it is possible to take the side of sinners and show compassion towards them, without compromising ourselves.