no socially acceptable way to say it

I am already tired of this subject, and it’s apparently just getting started. Last week Kirk Cousins, backup quarterback for the Washington Whatchamacallits and native of West Michigan, spoke at the Christian school across the street from our seminary. During the Q and A afterwards Cousins was asked about having a gay teammate, and according to the Grand Rapids Press, he said this:

“So from a football standpoint, if the guy can help us win, come help us win. “Now, there are a lot of teammates in my locker room right now who may not have a homosexual lifestyle, but they have sins, too. They’re not perfect. So I don’t say they can’t help us win. Nobody’s perfect.“

“To that degree, we’d welcome him into our locker room and say come help us win, and hopefully I can love him like Jesus and hopefully show him what it means to follow Jesus.”

Sounds pretty innocuous, even loving. Like something Jesus would say. So today the Huffington Post ran a story with this headline:  “NFL Player: I’d Show Gay Teammate What It Means to Follow Jesus” (I won’t link to the story because the site tends to have a lot of smut).

I think we should continue to be as loving and gracious as we can, but we are being derided as bigots the moment we say homosexual practice is a sin. Poor Tony Dungy and Kurt Warner. Their television careers may not last long.