On Monday I had the chance to attend an intimate roundtable lunch with Andrew Marin from the Marin Foundation. Andrew’s the author of “Love Is an Orientation: Elevating the Conversation with the Gay Community,” a great book that encourages bridges to be built between the church and the GLBT community that truly allows the two to dialogue and listen (See this article by Irene Cho from FYI to understand more).

Andrew told a great story about Billy Graham. After the scandal involving then-President Clinton, Billy Graham and his entire family was invited to a gala event at the White House. Billy and his family were sitting with Bill and Hillary Clinton. A member of the Christian media asked Billy Graham why he was attending dinner with the Clintons after Clinton’s sex scandal.

Billy Graham replied, “It’s the Holy Spirit’s job to convict. It’s God’s job to judge. It’s my job to love.”

Andrew Marin loves that reply, as do I. It is our job to love people - regardless of what makes us different from them - whether it’s sexual orientation, religious belief, skin color, or ethnicity. That’s our job description.

Of course, we each have to figure out what it looks like to “love” others, and we’ll each probably come up with our own flavor of love. Nonetheless, according to Andrew, that’s our Kingdom job description.