The New Normal

Love gone too far?

By Glory to God

Arizona

P
ansexual: Not limited or inhibited in sexual choice with regard to gender or activity.  “I love people, for people. I will fall in love with your heart, regardless of what is between your legs.” This is a recent Facebook confession I read in my news updates from a friend of mine whom I’ve known since the fourth grade. What was astonishing for me was the amount of support he got from fellow Facebookers.

Now this may seem like a bizarre scenario, but the reality is that this type of stuff is common in the ever-growing secular country we live in. It is now the norm to accept, support, and even “become” a homo-, bi-, pan-, trans-, and any other prefix that fits in front of the word, “sexual.” Now obviously, we cannot support/condone these acts as Christians (Matthew 19, Mark 10, Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6). But how should we deal with them?

H.H. the late, Thrice-Blessed Pope Shenouda once said, “Your friend is not the one who flatters you, but the one who loves you; not the one who wins your favor by agreeing with all that you do, however wrong it may be, but the one who loves you in truth, and desires what is good for you, and saves you from your erroneous thoughts, if need be.” This is the type of friend we need to be for our friends who have gone astray from the Lord. We have to let them know what they’re doing is wrong, but at the same time let them know that they can confide in us and come to us for support.

The truth of the matter is that homosexuality IS harmful. 75% of homosexual men have more than 100 sexual partners during their lifetime. More than half of these partners are strangers.  There is also a correlation between homosexuality and: mental disorders, drug use, sexually transmitted diseases, and suicides. I don’t know about you, but I definitely would NOT want any of my friends to engage in this type of lifestyle. I would worry about their mental, physical, and psychological health at the very least.

As Coptic Christians, we tend to alienate homosexuals and are “homophobic” to say the very least, but this is equally WRONG. These people are just as much God’s creation as we are and should be treated accordingly.  As we can see from my pansexual friend’s statement, he is very kind-hearted, loving, and non-judgmental. These are all attributes we NEED as Christians. We also need to understand that these people are taking it a step further by expressing these feelings physically with multiple people and multiple sexes. If we used some of the love that these people feel to talk to them, care for them and love them just the same, instead of isolating them, we can very well change the status quo of a country that has lost its sense of morality.