When we buy into this way of thinking it is difficult for us to see homosexuals as individual people. We must make every effort to overcome the simplistic thinking that suggests that all homosexuals are the same. As with any group, its members are diverse. If we, as Christ's church, are going to make a positive influence on homosexuals, we must begin by treating them as individual people.
Let's focus for just a moment on one key difference among individuals within the homosexual community: some struggle with their homosexuality while others embrace it (and there are likely others who fall somewhere in the middle of this continuum). Some homosexuals are not comfortable with their feelings and fight against them each day. On the other hand, many homosexuals have completely given themselves over to this lifestyle. They live it in every sense of the word. Many of those in the middle probably do not know what to do. I use this one example to illustrate that homosexuals are not all the same.
We always need to treat all people as persons as opposed to simply members of a larger group. Only when we do this can we truly get to know them. Without knowing them we will have little to no success in reaching them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is only Christ who can free them from their homosexual cravings.
To sum up: we must treat homosexuals as individuals. As long as we treat them as a group we will make no substantive impact upon their lives.
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