In a college town where safe zones are necessary and homophobia debates rage on, a new issue has reared its head.

Rev. Steve Sabin, pastor at Lord of Life Lutheran Church, was recently told by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America that he had to step down as pastor, because he is a practicing homosexual.

From all observations, Rev. Sabin is a good pastor and an all-around great guy. His congregation loves him and has stood by him through all of this, which says quite a lot about his character.

So how could the ELCA possibly throw him out?

Well, the answer is easy, and it’s found right in the Bible from which Pastor Sabin preaches.

“Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10)

The Bible makes it clear that homosexual sex is wrong. This is the biblical interpretation Sabin has chosen to believe in and preach.

Just like the rest of us, Sabin had the right to choose his religion and which church he would attend. But when he became a Christian, he committed to the beliefs found in the Bible.

The governing body of the church says they have the right to mandate that their leaders follow their beliefs.

They’re right, but there is a more important issue at stake here as well.

Contrary to popular belief, Christianity does not exclude homosexuals or say they will certainly be damned for eternity. The Christian tradition believes that all of us were once at a point where we were wrong in God’s eyes, just as wrong as the ELCA says Sabin is.

In fact, the verse following the above verse reads like this: “And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).

As Rev. Sabin knows, the list of “wicked” activities above is actually only a partial list of offenses people can commit in order to not go to heaven. The complete list includes everything from lying to your parents to killing someone. Cheating in class, treating someone poorly, hitting your sister, etc. — those are all sins that God cannot tolerate, according to the Christian belief.

This list encompasses each of us.

All of us have done these. In fact, everyone in all of history has done exactly what is necessary to disobey the Bible and get kicked out of the ELCA.

What makes someone a Christian, then, is not perfection, which is unattainable. It is a repentance of the wrongs we’ve committed and an honest attempt to change.

God doesn’t expect Rev. Sabin to be able to just say, “OK, I guess I won’t be gay. Never mind.” God knows it’s not that easy, and he knows people aren’t capable of changing on their own.

But according to the belief Sabin has embraced, God expects Christians to submit to him and learn to do his will. This is a fundamental part of being a Christian. Without this step, all Christians would be just a group of well-intentioned sinners with no real relationship with God.

And that’s why the ELCA is “picking on” Sabin. It isn’t simply because he is homosexual. It’s because Sabin is having a sexual relationship outside of marriage and with a man, which is biblically wrong.

He is a practicing homosexual, a “homosexual offender,” as 1 Corinthians puts it.

Sabin has the right to think that what he does is OK. In fact, he has the right to live however he wants. The ELCA isn’t disputing that.

What they’re doing is saying that if Sabin wants to be a leader in the Lutheran church, he has to be “above reproach” (1 Timothy 3:2).

Sabin is not a bad person or an abomination or anything like that. But if he truly believes in God and wants to teach people about him, Sabin has the obligation to live in a way that honors him.

Just like all other Christians.

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Sara Ziegler is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Sioux Falls, S.D. She is the opinion editor of the Daily.