Some observations on this piece
Dalrymple uses the word “hate” a great deal, but never attaches it to evil men. Just evil in the abstract. Dalrymple is passive in his hatred. Biblical hatred hates the sin and the sinner precisely because it is operating from love to God and His glory. Dalyrimple’s predilection for this passivity and abstraction is throughout the article.
By abstracting hate so that it is located on a sin (Sodomy) that does not include a concrete sinner (Dalyrimple’s friends) Dalyrimple creates a contradictory division. After all, in the end, it is not sin in the abstract, that is cast into hell but sinners. Our love for our sodomite friends must include a clear enough opposition to them personally that they know that we are against them precisely because we are for them.
In the linked article Dalyrimple can write,
” I hate that we have sometimes made it seem as though God will have nothing to do with gays until they leave their homosexual behavior behind, as though God redeems us after we are no longer sinners.”
This is problematic for the following reasons,
1.) The fact that God does have something to do with sodomites before they leave their homosexual behavior is seen by the fact that sodomites are willing to leave their sodomite behavior.
Psalm 7:11 God judgeth the righteous, and God is angry with the wicked every day.
2.) God is only a judge to the wicked (regardless what their flavor of wickedness is).
3.) While we were still sinners Christ died for us is written to the elect covenant community. It was not written for those who hate Christ. We can not take that statement and apply it to those who hate Christ as the sentence above seems to imply.
Dalrymple also writes,
‎”I hate that Christians have not always made it clear that God loves them and seeks them just as passionately as God seeks everyone else.”
If God sought everyone, as the sentence implies, then God would find everyone since no one can hide from God. Clearly God does not seek everyone. This sentence is latent Arminianism.
When Dalrymple says,
“I hate that my convictions on this issue comes between us (me and my gay friends),”
I find myself thinking that I would rejoice that my convictions come between us, for it is only my convictions, based as they are on God’s revealed Word, that are coming between myself and continued misery for those outside of Christ. I mean I understand the desire to have a friendship without friction but in the end the conviction of the Christian is the only hope of our sodomite friends.
Dalyrymple writes,
‎”I hate that gays are bullied.”
Like it or not societal taboos are reinforced through negative behavior towards those breaking the taboos.
Also there is the reality that if sodomites are not opposed then what is communicated is that sodomy is accepted. I would contend that the refusal to oppose sodomy is the a embracing of opposing Christian virtue.
