Recently, the overnight sensation, Lauren Daigle, a Christian contemporary song artist, famous for her songs “You Say” and “How Can It Be”, appeared on Ellen DeGeneres’s show. When faced with the question of whether or not homosexuality was a sin, Lauren replied, “I can’t honestly answer on that,” Daigle responded. “In a sense, I have too many people that I love that they are homosexual. I don’t know. I actually had a conversation with someone last night about it. I can’t say one way or the other. I’m not God.”
Here are five reasons why Lauren answered this question well. Perhaps not perfectly, but well…
- Truth AND Love. In this day and age of social media and mob mentality, Love is often sacrificed on the morality altar and the scale tips toward truth. Christians will preach truth day and night, only to so easily forget the verse that “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…” 1 Corinthians 13:1. Jesus was the perfect blend of truth and love. We are to be imitators of him, but we are certainly not Jesus. We do not know hearts. We cannot judge them. Only Jesus judges with ultimate truth. And there were times even he refused to answer.
- Jesus Did Not Answer. In Luke 20:1-4 the chief priests and teachers approach Jesus to ask him, “Tell us by what authority you are doing these things…Who gave you this authority?” Now, Jesus could have summoned a host of angels to display his Godhood and authority. But he chose not to. He understood when someone was presenting him with their own agenda or even the cultural agenda of the day. In various instances, Jesus refused to answer or he asked questions in return. “That’s a loaded question. What do you think?” is a perfectly acceptable alternative as well as, “excuse me, we just met…”
- Relationship Vs. Religion. Audience matters. When Jesus addressed believers who were knowledgeable about the Gospel, it looked very different than how he addressed unbelievers. Consider when Jesus preached before thousands. He understood every single heart in the audience, but his response was compassion. “They are like sheep without a shepherd.” Matthew 9:36. When faced with an unbelieving audience, erring on the side of love is a much better option than coming out with the blunt truth. Once relationship has been established, then the bridge of opportunity has been built for one to hear the truth. A relationship cannot be formed within the time span of answering one question. But that is how long it takes for thousands of bridges to be burned and thousands of hearts to shut down because of one unloving response regardless of the well-meaning intention or truth behind the response.
- Humility Counts. When a believer is put on the spot before national and international television, it is such a temptation to use our voices as a preaching platform. Daigle displayed great humility in responding with “I can’t honestly answer…I am not God.” How quickly do we jump on our bandwagons when we should just be humble and willing to admit we don’t have all the answers. Only God does.
- Only God Knows Hearts. Consider the man who is attracted to other men but as a believer in Christ, he chooses to remain abstinent. Consider the little boy in Thailand who had softer features so his parents raised him as a girl and sold him into sexual slavery. Consider backgrounds of horrific abuse, shame, slavery, parental or cultural grooming or more that could lead one to a road in life away from the truth. While it can be argued that it doesn’t excuse sin, it does show how not everything is black and white. It helps give balance to the truth vs. love. And we should remember that no one is beyond redemption.
If you’d asked me a couple years ago, I had no qualms about answering any question asked of me. My brutal honesty compromised love. Now, I prefer to err on the side of cautious love. Too many issues come with a multitude of angles to explore. Now, I take it one issue at a time, one fact at a time, one truth at a time, one person at a time. It may seem radical within the Christian community, but Jesus was viewed as a radical. His radical-ness was seen most in his love of people, especially those who were considered outcasts or second class/no class citizens while out-crying against the hypocrisy of those within his Temple walls, those who were considered to be men of great religious authority and acceptance. Even Paul in addressing similar issues of the day wrote letters to various Churches and not to unbelievers.
So, if I am ever faced with a question like Lauren Daigle was before the world, I hope I can answer with as much grace as she and simply invite the interviewer to instead have a private conversation sometime.