Former Homosexual: Christians Must Not Confuse Tolerance with Acceptance

by Allie Martin
December 3, 2003

(AgapePress) - An official with Focus on the Family says although the secular media is working to help advance the homosexual rights agenda, Christians should not hesitate to speak up for the truth.

Mike Haley is a former homosexual who left that lifestyle through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Now serving as a gender specialist at Focus on the Family, he is urging Christians not to be afraid to engage the culture about the issue of homosexuality, despite opposition from the combined forces of the mainstream media and the homosexual rights movement.

Haley notes, without surprise, how the recent decision by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court that could lead to the legalization of homosexual marriage in the state was given heavy positive coverage by the national press. He also points out that many media outlets have compared homosexual activists with civil rights demonstrators of the 1960s and

"We're seeing the gay community side with the media [as] we've seen over and over again, to promote and continue to impress upon the American public that homosexuality is normal, it's healthy, and that it should be completely accepted," Haley says.

While some would call this tolerance, the gender issues expert feels that is a misunderstanding of the term. He asserts that this unequivocal and uncritical acceptance is just what tolerance is not about. "Tolerance is [being] willing to accept another person's difference, while still choosing to love the individual," he says.

According to Haley, tolerance has a double meaning to homosexual activists -- but those Christians who are willing to stand up for God's Word, he says, must not be tolerant of sin or falsehood. And if homosexual activists are unwilling to tolerate the gospel, Haley has a word for them.

"We say, 'Look, you're asking us to tolerate everything and stand for nothing, and scripture asks that we would definitely stand for God's righteousness, but always love the individual on the other side,'" Haley says.

Haley came to Focus on the Family five years ago to help create the Love Won Out (LWO) conference series, which seeks to educate people about the origins of homosexuality and help those struggling with it. The outreach of the LWO conferences has touched more than 17,000 people in 22 U.S. cities and introduced attendees to a wealth of ministries, speakers, and issues related to homosexuality.