Pat Robertson made remarks that have people up in arms. He said, “The left is having a dilemma of major proportions [between two favored groups], and I think, for those of us who disagree with some of their policies, the best thing to do is to sit on the sidelines and let them kill themselves.” People are questioning whether the “them” is the left or gays and Muslims, and many are taking his words in the worst possible way to confirm the worst they think about Christians’ feelings about LGBT people. Even in the best possible light, his comments are tone deaf in the wake of the Orlando shooting and inappropriate for a Christian in the media to say.
There’s a new story that a pastor in Sacramento said that the people at the Orlando club got what they deserved because they were sodomites. No they didn’t. In the New Testament, homosexuality is listed along with a variety of other sins that pretty much everyone commits. So no single kind of sinner deserves to be murdered. And the Bible certainly doesn’t teach that gays are to be singled out for punishment in this world.
Jesus’ teaching does not leave Christians the option to make flippant or cruel and uncaring remarks about others.
So let’s clarify what Jesus taught about Christians’ feelings and attitude toward others. Jesus said to love and pray for those who differ with us. He made Christians ministers of reconciliation to the world, to lost people, appealing to them as though Jesus were appealing to them.
We cannot dismissively wish others harm.
The Gospel message that Jesus taught is that all of us are sinners, and those who have been reconciled to God already are to love those who are not yet reconciled and to offer them peace with God.
These two men have offered unbiblical responses. Let’s pray the Body of Christ as a larger whole responds as Jesus taught us to.