Tony Campolo has been very public about his support of the gay community, even while challenging that community pretty head-on. He has taken a lot of criticism from right-wing Christians for simply meeting with, talking with, and caring for the LGBT community.
Here is why Tony cares… in his own words:
“I’ve got to tell you, loving your neighbor is of crucial significance. Sometimes you are afraid to love your neighbor. I can remember when I was afraid to love my neighbor. There was a kid in my high school who was gay. The word got out on this homosexual kid. We made hell for him. Those of you parents who have a homosexual son or daughter (and please, in a group this size there are at least 30 or 40 of you), you know what it is like to see your son suffer. A sweet kid, who goes to church; a sweet kid in the youth group who struggles with this; he cries at night begging God to change it and nothing changes. Roger was a gay kid. He was not happy. We made fun of him. On Fridays after gym class, boys went into the shower—but he never went in with us. He went in alone afterwards, and when he came out we were waiting for him with our wet towels and we would whip them after him and sting his little body. I wasn’t there the day they dragged Roger into the small tile shower and shoved him into the corner. Doubled-up, crying and screaming, the guys urinated all over him. He went home, went to bed about 10 p.m., and about 2 a.m. he got up and went to the basement of his house and he hanged himself.
And I knew I wasn’t a Christian. I believed the Bible—I believe as I do now in the inerrancy of the Scriptures. I believed in the doctrines of the Apostle Paul. I believed in all you should believe in to be a Christian. But if Jesus was in my heart and I loved Jesus as I should and I loved my neighbor, I would have been Roger’s friend. But I was afraid to have him as my friend because if you were a friend to someone like Roger it’s not long before people are talking about you. I wish I could go back and relive that time and be his friend. And if in my large inner city high school they made fun of me and said nasty things about me, I know what Jesus would say, “Blessed are you when they revile you and persecute you and say terrible things against you because you love the wrong people.”
I don’t know all the church is to be, but I do know what it is supposed to be. It is supposed to be a group of followers of Jesus who love all the wrong people. If there is anything that was true about Jesus, it was that he loved all the wrong people. God sent his Son to us, the ultimate missionary, and they criticized Jesus because of who he loved. Check the Scripture. He loved all the wrong people. The prostitutes, the publicans, the tax collectors, and those who were betraying their own people to the Romans. All those people who were spit upon, cursed, and put down. Those were the people Jesus reached out to. And the religious establishment, those key leaders of denominational Christianity who pass resolutions to have nothing to do with the wrong people. And Jesus says, “I don’t care what they vote on and I don’t care what they say. My love is unconditional.” And they rejected him. But sinners loved him. They became followers of Jesus.” (Link)
I hope that helps you understand Campolo a little better… and hopefully understand the heart of Jesus better too.
BEN DUBOW 
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