Re: Devona's thoughts on sinners

Devona's post on our possible renting situation with a homosexual individual (or couple, not sure yet) has sparked some discussion on Andy's Puritan Board (see the comments on her post for details).

Though I haven't come to a final conclusion on the matter, here are some questions running through my head:

• Would you clothe a destitute homosexual? Feed a starving homosexual? Give a cup of cold water to a thirsty homosexual?
  
• If so, is there a moral difference between any of these acts and renting that same homosexual an apartment?
• Are we all called to preach the Law to every sinner that crosses our path?
• Would you rent an apartment to King David during his affair with Bathsheba? Or would you need to wait until he repented? Not that he would be able to meet the security deposit, that jerk...
• What about Hosea and Gomer? Would you rent an apartment to a couple struggling through sins of infidelity?
• Would you continue to pay your own mortgage if you were in the midst of an affair?
• Are we really called to cut ourselves off from the entire world's unrepentant sin?
• What about the adulterous woman in scripture, the one who the Pharisees pulled out of bed in the midst of her sin and dragged before Jesus? Certainly He admonished her to go and sin no more, but was that the entirety of His response to her?
  
• Would you like to supersize that?

Honestly, I'm not entirely sure of the best way to love your neighbor in our situation. But to tell you all the truth, my conscience tells me that building relationships based on particular sins, habits, or t-shirts is what drove American Christianity into the pit it is in today.

What sins should be permissible in our apartment? Or should we apply to our renters the same standard Devona and I try to hold one another to: "Confess your sins to one another?"

I have to admit that I'm discouraged by all this. I have no doubt that if the renter in question were a single 20-something, non-Christian male who was living the typical promiscuous male life, it wouldn't have raised this sort of a flag--not in my own mind, or in the minds of others.

All of us--especially myself--have an insatiable appetite for cliques, inner rings, hierarchies. We love knowing who's in and who's out (no pun intended), what sins are bad, and what sins are REALLY bad.

Really, we just love knowing all the people that we're better than.

And besides, Devona and I can use the interior design tips. This guy has incredible taste in furniture.