“If you spend Mother’s Day attacking a parent for being pregnant, then you obviously have way too much time in your hands.”

After reading that, you have to wonder what’s wrong with people but notice that quote doesn’t say “mother” but “parent” and that is where the issue lies.

The article from which the statement was lifted shows a photo of a pregnant woman who is living as a man and is now being used as a case in point that a man can also be pregnant. Quite unsurprisingly, there were negative reactors. And quite unsurprisingly, they were labeled as transphobes. Coincidentally (or not), the ad came out a few days before the May 17^th observance of International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia.

The IDAHB&T envisions a world free from violence and discrimination for the LGBTQ+ community and we should be all for that but the agenda is “to advance social acceptance” of a lifestyle which goes against Him who designed the male and female.

But my article is not about the case for heterosexuality. I am writing about the knee-jerk equation that to be against homosexuality is to fear it, thus the phobia name-calling. It may be simplistic but it’s not necessarily without merit as there are indeed people who do have a fear of them. Sadly, some are among us in the church.

Being homophobes fails the God who loved all of us while we were yet sinners. We should not have a fear of the gay community but a fear for them. We must see them as souls loved by God who does not want them to perish but have everlasting life. Our evangelistic efforts should stem from a case of stygiophobia or the fear of hell for them.

We have been snatched from hell by the grace of God and we want the same for them but sometimes we talk about homosexuality like it’s the unpardonable sin or there’s a special place in hell for them. Our own attitude is a stumbling block to their openness to hearing the gospel. Let’s go back to Scriptures. Notice how Jesus was never called an adulteressphobe, BIRphobe, or a prostiphobe? The sinners of His day called Him Lord while the religious called Him names.

Let the fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom guide us in loving the LGBTQ+. Will this stop the name-calling? It would be simplistic to say so but to be hyper-realistic about it, no, it won’t, but at least, they won’t have a caseload of evidence against us.