I apologize if my response to Miss Han’s article sounded somewhat hostile or critical to the readers. It was neither my intention to depreciate Miss Han’s article nor to cause any damage or confusion to the reader’s understanding of God. I simply wanted to respond to her saying, “Let’s consider how we could be instruments for these victims (including gays and lesbians) in New Orleans instead of playing a prophetic role saying, look God has brought this disaster because you have gone too far.”

I believe in the sovereignty of God and I also agree that it’s better for some people to interpret natural disaster as God’s act of punishment if that interpretation can bring a person to repentance. However, I don’t think that that very analogy of God’s punishment and natural disaster speaks well for those who live in a post-modern world. Such an analogy can easily bring a whole village to God if it happened in remote African villages, in the Amazon jungle, or in an unindustrialized world where superstitious beliefs are pervasive. My intention here is not to argue but to wrestle and struggle with ways in which we can bring the message of God while remaining culturally sensitive and relevant in this post-modern world.  

It is my fault, on my previous response to Miss Han, that I did not write my point as constructive as possible for the readers to understand where I was coming from. For that reason I apologize because I failed to elaborate my point about Miss Han’s article. So I want to take a moment to elaborate my point a little further.
First of all, my initial impression of Miss Han’s Homosexuality and Hurricane to be another Fundamental Christian article that generalized the homosexual community. Articles like this, I believe, only perpetuate stigmatization, prejudice, discrimination and alienation of homosexuals from Christian community. If I were a homosexual and I was reading that article, I would probably feel shamed and feel bitter against Christians. For this I might have sounded a little hostile and critical.

From my opinion, taking an accusatory attitude toward gays and lesbians is not likely to help them to repent and to receive God’s love. From my understanding (based on my limited trainings in theology and psychology), God is asking us to provide our ears to hear their stories and build relationship with them instead of taking this opportunity to prove that we, as Christians, have figured everything out right and everyone else is wrong. This doesn’t mean that I condone homosexual activities just like I don’t condone adultery. I’m just saying that we are not much different from homosexuals (from God’s eyes since we all are subject to fail and stumble) and I don’t think it’s fair for only homosexuals to be responsible for the recent occurrences of natural disasters. In fact, we all should share this responsibility because we all are sinners someway or another and our convenient life styles (e.g. automotive smog and etc.) have caused the global warming effect that has directly stimulated changes in hurricane routes in recent years.

There are also plenty of other sins that we commit every day that would offend God. There are countless Christian men including pastors and church leaders who are involved in extramarital affairs (It is known that clergy members rank the highest when it comes to sexual misconduct). What’s the different between these men acting out sexually outside of their marriage because they cannot control their sexual desires and men acting out sexually with the same sex gender because they cannot control their sexual desires? Both adulterers and homosexuals ought to be stoned to death according to the Old Testament and so how is it fair for only homosexuals to be responsible for such natural disasters? When Jesus encountered the woman who was caught in adultery (John 8), Jesus neither ignored nor condoned her sin, but provided an opportunity that enabled her to choose what was right for her on her own. He didn’t go on giving her a lecture or a sermon on adultery to correct her wrongdoing because what He was interested in was her as a person not her wrongdoing.

Why are we so hateful toward homosexuals? Because they are different from us? If we know that we are sinners and we can feel how broken we are before God, can we use that to reach out to homosexuals with sympathy and understanding instead of blaming them or treating them as if they have some kind of contagious disease? It is our likelihood that we don’t like people who are different from us. The evidences are everywhere in our human history.

Cultural relevancy is not an option in these days. I believe that Christians need to be agents of counter culture but at the same time in order to carry such mission, we need to be in the culture. This means we need to be sensitive and responsive to our cultural settings when we speak the truth. My sincere hope for Christians is that we would be more thoughtful and careful about what we say and how we say things. And before we say it, we need to consider the subsequent effect of our words on people because it can be harmful rather than helpful regardless of its bad or good intention. The “little light of mine” should shine in the darkness to bring light to the world instead of lighting the fire that would harm or destroy others.

Lastly, as I read your response, I felt humiliated, ashamed, and it made me to think that I wasn’t a believer for a second just because I didn’t agree with your point of view. Again it’s my fault if I sounded so hostile and critical, but I hope that we would be more open to each other’s ideas even they are different ideas without needing to make each other feel humiliated and incompetent. Thank you for taking time to critique my article and I hope this will help you understand what I was trying to communicate before.