Christian Homosexual???

Azariah Southworth, host of the popular Christian youth show The Remix (can be seen in more than 128 million homes worldwide and averages more than 200,000 viewers weekly on TBN's JC TV channel) announced yesterday that he's gay, saying:

"This has been a long time coming. I’m in a place where I’m at peace with my faith, friends, family and more importantly myself. I know this will end my career in Christian television, but I must now live my life openly and honestly with everyone. This is my reason for doing this. ... I know I will be cut off from many within the Christian community, and if so, then they didn’t get the point of the life of Christ. I believe by me living my life honestly and authentically now, I am able to be a better person and a better Christian. We all know there are so many other gay people in the Christian industry; they’re just all scared. I was scared, but now I’m no longer afraid."

Rather than deconstructing each phrase, I want to point out something I've been noticing for a while among Christians that happens to be prominent in his statement above, specifically, that in the name of honesty & authenticity we excuse our sin.

While I'm sure this has been very difficult for Mr. Southworth both in his own soul and now in public, the goal in life is NOT authenticity--especially when being authentic or honest means being sinful. Sadly, he will not be "a better person and a better Christian" because the goal of life is to please God (1 Corinthians 10:31; 2 Corinthians 5:9)--something his new lifestyle cannot do no matter how authentic he is.

For the Christian, no matter what temptation you're struggling against (lying, stealing, greed, anxiety, homosexuality, cussing, laziness) it's just that, a struggle! A struggle to do what God wants and not what you want (Romans 7:14-25). He folded in his struggle, and because it's a fold that marks his entire life in rebellion against God this likely proves he was never a Christian to begin with (I John 2:19). I just pray more won't follow his example, but rather keep on advancing in their fight against their own sin (Romans 8:12-14; Galatians 5:24-25; 2 Timothy 2:22).

Which leads me to something else. I wonder, is it as easy in churches to say you're struggling with anxiety as it is that you're struggling with homosexuality? Could this guy have been honest with someone before he "came out," or did he have no where to turn? I don't know. I just know we consider it OK to talk about struggling with some sins, but not others--a phenomena in Christianity that doesn't serve people like Mr. Southworth.

Read more about this here, and if you do, make sure you read some of the comments. You get the obligatory "God loves you just how He made you," which is so deceiving, but what do you think of the "God hates you sodomite" stuff, or the obligatory quoting of Romans 1?

Specifically, I'm asking if it's a godly way to approach a sinner and if it's effective in light of passages like, say, "love your neighbor," Colossians 4:5-6, the end of 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Timothy 2:24-26, Proverbs 12:18, 15:1, 16:21 and 16:24.