Dear Editor,

The following words spoken by Pope Francis brought about emotive public reaction both at home and abroad: "If a person is gay and seeks the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge that person?" Many interpreted the Pope's statement as an endorsement of homosexuality; those who support homosexuality applauded, while those in opposition protested. However, based on the statement of the Pope and the context in which he made it, I'm at a loss as to how it can be seen as an endorsement of homosexuality.

A good starting place is to establish the context of the Pope's statement. The Pope was asked a question by a member of the press about the homosexual lobby in the Roman Catholic Church and how he intends to deal with it. Here's the Pope's response: "I think that when we encounter a gay person, we must make the distinction between the fact of a person being gay and the fact of a lobby, because lobbies are not good. They are bad." The Pope then went on to make the statement that many have taken out of context and misinterpreted.

Having established the context, it is important to note that the Roman Catholic Church (like many evangelical churches) makes a distinction between homosexual conduct and homosexual temptation, and rightly so. Why? Because homosexual conduct is deviant and sinful, but being tempted to engage in homosexual conduct (or any other sinful conduct for that matter) is not sinful. To put it more plainly, being tempted to sin is not a sin; yielding to the temptation to sin is a sin.

Although the context makes it patently clear that the Pope was not endorsing homosexuality, I'm still hard pressed to see how even the Pope's statement by itself can be interpreted as being supportive of homosexuality and therefore warranting condemnation. I say this because if a person is wrestling with same-sex attraction, but not acting upon his or her impulses and is instead seeking the Lord, that individual should indeed receive our support, not our judgement. The same is true if the individual is a heterosexual who is wrestling with sexual temptations but not acting upon them. So what's the big deal about the Pope's statement?

The clear teaching of Scripture is that all sexual conduct outside of marriage (between one man and one woman) is sinful, and it is for this reason that homosexual conduct is wrong and sinful. However, Scripture does not condemn as sinful those who struggle with homosexual temptations. The reality is that all sexual temptations (homosexual and heterosexual) are to be equally resisted. It is for this reason that Scripture commands everyone everywhere to "flee from sexual immorality" (1 Corinthians 6:18). Therefore, to paraphrase Pope Francis, any person who is seeking God and fleeing sexual immorality, whether homosexual or heterosexual, deserves our prayerful support, not our self-righteous judgement.

- Pastor Cedric Moss

Click here to read more at The Nassau Guardian