I’m sure I can think of more.

1. By participating in (or tacitly agreeing to) hate speech that’s aimed at them.

2. By treating them as if their sins were worse than our own.  We admit that we’re all sinners, but somehow we think WE’RE cute, cuddly sinners, and other people are slimy rat sinners.  The truth of the gospel is that Jesus came to save slimy rat sinners.  Which is good news, because sin isn’t cute or cuddly.  EVER.

3. By accepting the elevation of sexual identity to the center of self.  Richard B Hays describes this idea beautifully: his Christian homosexual friend, dying of AIDS, “worried that the gay subculture encouraged homosexual believers to ‘draw their identity from their sexuality’ and thus to shift the ground of their identity subtly and idolatrously away from God.”

Whereas Hays is speaking of homosexuals making this shift, the church makes the same shift (albeit in an opposite direction) by treating the issue of sexual orientation as the determining factor in what’s “normal” or “acceptable.”

4. By not honoring their struggle & supporting them in it.

5. By not loving and accepting them without reservation.  I’ve recently discovered that it’s not my job to confront sin.  As a sinner loved by God, it’s my job to love sinners.