One of my best friends is gay, I have at least a dozen friends that are either gay or lesbian and I love them all, and I've never told any of them they were sinful or living in sin and I never will. The only time I will tell them what I and my Church thinks is if they ask me.
My brother is a homosexual. Now what? I think it important for people to know where you stand, what you believe, and still see you love them.
We have no business forcing our opinions onto them unless they ask us. I don't tell anyone my political or religious opinions in real life unless they ask me.
The imposition of opinions on all peoples, and the idea that all people should know where we stand is more of a feature of Evangelical Protestants than Orthodox Christians, at least from the Orthodox Christians I know.
It's a good thing Jesus didn't follow this standard. I suppose we will have to disagree. I feel real love is telling people when they are wrong and letting them see you still accept them as people.
I don't recall Jesus telling the prostitute that she's a sinful whore.
You mean this one?
"Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband: For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly."
He said it, he just said it a nice way. We can too.
That's the sinful woman, not the prostitute. The two are different. Also, I don't think he's telling her she is sinful in that passage, it's more of a revelation of his omnipotence and that he knows her heart and her life, and things about her that no one else knows.
The sinful woman weeping at His feet in the house of the Pharisee? "Her sins, which were many, are forgiven her because she loved much." That is, she repented and showed her great love for God, whereas the Pharisee neither believed in Him as God nor showed even elementary hospitality for the time in washing His feet and anointing His head.
The Lord was not above harshly reproving sinners in Scripture, but in the Gospels, He reproves those who think they are righteous.
But, there's also "Go and sin no more" and "See, now you are better. Sin no more, lest something worse happen to you."
Love does not mean we ignore sin. However, there is not a one-size-fits-all application. For some people, a reproof is needed. For others, it would crush them.
It is a difficult road to travel, to support the person even while not supporting some of his choices. But the way to do it depends on one's own circumstances and those of the other.
There was a story I read in an Orthodox publication written by a man whose brother and sister, after being abused as children, came out as homosexuals. The writer was married with small children. His siblings were, according to him, very involved in their lifestyle and its defense, and his parents and other family was accepting it as normal. The writer said because of this climate, he has had to separate himself from his siblings, for the sake of his children.
That's got to be a difficult situation. The writer seemed to tout his way of doing things as the only way. I do not at all agree. However, each situation is unique. Sometimes it is necessary to suspend or end a relationship. But even if the reason for this is good, it's still a tragedy. But I think it would be incorrect to place all the blame on one person.
