As the LGBTQ+ movement that seeks to deconstruct gender and normalize all sexualities continues to collide with orthodox Christian teaching, many believers find themselves in a painful tension: how to love others while still honoring God’s commands about sexuality and gender.
Nobody is better at navigating these challenging situations, says Allie Beth Stuckey, than former lesbian turned Christian apologist Rosaria Butterfield.
On this episode of “Relatable,” Allie and Butterfield address voicemails from listeners asking for advice on personal predicaments that many Christians will find all too familiar.
In the first voicemail, a “Relatable” listener shared a predicament now common in many Christian families: a loved one leaves the faith after embracing an LGBTQ+ identity.
She explained that her nephew, who was raised in a Christian home, distanced himself from the family and the faith after coming out as gay and “marrying” his partner.
“How would you handle … loving him but also bringing him back to the Lord?” she asked.
“The first thing you always do, always do, is affirm your love for your prodigal, and you do that in every way you can,” says Butterfield.
The second order of business, she says, is to commit to “consistently praying for your prodigal.”
“One of the things you’re praying for, and especially if your nephew doesn’t live close … [is] that the Lord’s going to put many Christians in his life,” says Butterfield.
“There is no such thing as a gay marriage, and so what you’re going to do is pray that the Lord would destroy that — in fact, that the Lord would remove all unholy, ungodly influences from your nephew’s life,” she adds.
In these scenarios, a believer, says Butterfield, can also petition God for “insight” into the prodigal’s life.
“You might want to also be praying that the Lord would give you insight and wisdom to know more about how your nephew is living and see if he’d be willing to let you do some reconnaissance work with him,” she says.
“You know, find out does he have a craving to fit in, to belong? … Does he need to feel important? Are there other comorbidities and medications that might be making it really hard for him to get unstuck from harmful patterns? Or to what degree is activism involved?” she continues. “All of these things will help you know how to speak a word in season.”
But the most important thing one can do in these heartbreaking situations, says Butterfield, is to “not lose heart.”
“Because there really is no such thing as someone who has ‘left the faith’ who is in the faith,” she says.
“The concept of a faith deconstructor is a misnomer. You can’t construct your faith, so you can’t deconstruct it. Now he’s a wanderer; he’s a prodigal — and we want him back.”
To hear more, watch the episode above.
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