Reader Question: The Crusader Fallacy

But the Bible says that Homosexuality is a sin!
-Anonymous

Homosexuality is routinely listed among sexual perversions...
-Anonymous

How can it be sin to protect the Bible...
-Anonymous

We're just trying to do as we have been commanded by God...
-Anonymous

Fuck you, you godless demon-worshipping Sodomite...
-Anonymous
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I seem to have struck a nerve.

My post on the sinfulness of opposing Homosexual rights got a lot of feedback, a lot of it good or thankful. There were some, though, who seemed to oppose what I was saying strongly. Some very, very strongly. For reasons I won't waste time to speculate on, a lot of them also wrote anonymously. Hmmm.

Now anyone who spends any amount of time around Internet message boards will know that nothing above is particularly shocking, even the last, which you would assume you'd always get a certain amount of. If anything, getting "f-bombed" probably is just a metric that I have started getting enough readership that an internet Troll finally wandered in. We'll take it as a sign of progress... maybe I'm not just preaching to the choir here, anymore.

It's the other responses that piqued my interest. My previous article didn't spend any time claiming that homosexual relationships weren't sinful, in fact, it outright said that they were. (I know this because, homosexual or not, they are HUMAN relationships.) So that people would defend their own actions by reiterating a point I had already conceded shows that we are dealing with an interesting line of thought, one I choose to refer to as the "crusader fallacy."

The Crusader Fallacy is simple: It is the presupposition that any acts an individual makes are acceptable, so long as they are for a good(read: divine) cause. It's a popular line of anti-heroes, often popularized by the quote; "I may fight on the side of the angels, but do not mistake me for one of them."

So cool, so daring, so eager to get the job done! Makes for GREAT fictional characters, and as it happens, piss poor Christians. 

Because, you see, the Crusader Fallacy is COMPLETELY absent in Scripture. There are NO texts that imply that your actions toward another human being are justified by the sinfulness of their actions. Even Old Testament laws with prescribed punishments have been removed, because of a simple command of Christ: "Let the one without sin cast the first stone."

We like the idea of being the ones above the law, the ones who are righteous, not because of our actions, but because of the motivation behind them. Righteous in of ourselves. That is what self-righteous means. But to be Christian denies the concept of self-righteousness. To be Christian means to own that we are sinners in need of a savior. It also means we are called, by that savior, to love others, to care for others, to support our brothers and sisters in need. As opposed to the ones who are hurting them.

Your actions are your actions. Neither God nor the Bible need your protecting. You are not the great Crusader placed on Earth to enforce God's will. God can enforce God's own will pretty effectively. (So effectively, in fact, that you should do some honest soul searching about whether or not the Supreme Court Ruling wasn't itself God's will.)

The opponents of Gay Marriage, as a movement, have separated loved ones in their dying moments, have denied children loving parents, have used violence to frighten and intimidate people, have dragged people's names through the dirt in Social Media and have done all of this SAYING THAT THEY WERE DOING IT IN CHRIST'S NAME.

Those are sinful acts. No debate, no discussion, full stop. Supporting them, enabling them, FUNDING them, encouraging them, are also all sinful acts.

So it doesn't matter, not at all, not in the least, whether or not Homosexuality itself is sinful. If you support the suppression of Homosexual rights, if you expend energy towards fighting Gay Equality, and above all if you claim to do so in Christs name, then you are committing egregious sin, either by your own actions or by the actions of those you support.

Don't fall to the Crusader fallacy. Do not listen to the false prophets who turn the liberating word of God into a message of fear and anger (The Devil's oldest trick). Do not miss the log in your own eye from searching for splinters in others.

Recognize your own sin. And repent.