More Questions from Believers about Homosexuality
Letters, emails, voice mails continue to arrive in response or reaction to last Sunday’s op-ed. The overwhelming majority are affirming and grateful. Of course, some disagree. A few are so hatefully dismissive, like Tuesday’s letter to the editor, that they warrant no response. Others, however, ask pointed questions that get to the heart of the matter. Here are few more responses to some of the recurring questions.
Q: If you accept and include gays and lesbians do you do the same with pedophiles, active alcoholics, child abusers, and thieves? Do you tolerate their aberrant behavior? Do you let them corrupt the community? Do you condone their lifestyle? Or do you call it what the Bible calls it: sin?
A: These questions are based on at least three assumptions.
that gay people willfully choose to be gay. From my non-professional survey over the years of hundreds of gay men and women, the answer is 100% “no, they did not choose to be gay.”
that being homosexual and expressing one’s homosexuality is always a sin. If one reads selected Bible verses without serious and careful attention to their larger context then one can derive this conclusion. If one begins with an unexamined claim that “the Bible says homosexuality is wrong, bad, and evil,” then the conclusion is prejudged. But careful reading reveals that what is condemned is something other than people who are gay living out their sexual orientation in the same monogamous and faithful way that heterosexuals do. Certain acts are sin: rape, child abuse, promiscuity, exploitation. These are sins whether committed by homosexual or heterosexual people.
that people who are gay or lesbian are deliberately and unquestionably dangerous. In fact, like heterosexuals, gay people have a wide range of values, including some who are promiscuous, predatory, and selfish. These can be dangerous no matter whether they are expressed by gay or straight. Communities of faith must be protected from both gay and straight dangerous people --pedophiles, active alcoholics, child abusers, and thieves-- whose addictions and impulses can be harmful to others. Homosexual persons, in my experience, are not more or less dangerous than heterosexual persons. They are also not sex-focused, any more than the rest of humanity is. They are simply persons whose natural sexual attraction differs from the majority of us. If anything, those who take the risk of visiting a church as a gay person are more likely to be gentle, loving, God-honoring, servant-spirit individuals who desire to find a community of faith. Gay people, like all people, need a community to join in walking with God, learning from Jesus, and being open to the Holy Spirit’s leading. (Speaking of the Holy Spirit: if we believe the Holy Spirit has the ability to convince and convict people of sin, then why not welcome gay and lesbians to church, preach what the Bible focuses on and not simply rail against homosexuality, and let the Holy Spirit sort it out?)
Q: Didn’t Jesus prohibit homosexuality in Matthew 19 when he quotes from Genesis: “God made them male and female”?
Here is a fine example of the dangerous practice of lifting a verse from its context in order to substantiate a point one wants to make, rather than letting a verse play its role in a particular context. This quote (from a part of Genesis that is beautiful and ancient poetry about the mystery of creation; never intended a handbook for all 21st century policies) is from Jesus’ interaction with Pharisees over the question of divorce. His reference to male and female has to do with the profound sanctity of marriage and the importance of faithfulness to marriage. (Note: I write this as a person who divorced in 1986.) It has nothing whatsoever to do with Jesus speaking, either directly or indirectly, to the question of homosexuality. To suggest that it does is simply to bastardize the Bible.
It is interesting to note how adamantly some condemn homosexuality, but turn a blind eye to the direct teaching of Jesus on divorce in Matthew 19 and, more pointedly, the prohibition against remarriage. I’ve never heard the church, conservative, liberal, or any position in between, condemn remarriage for divorced persons. Could this be because even staunch Bible believers have had to face the reality of divorce in their own families and churches? Even some prominent conservative preachers have divorced and remarried. The argument that says “Yes, but I don’t condone divorce, and I don’t continue to divorce; I’ve been forgiven of this sin from my past” twists the point of Jesus’ response to the Pharisee’s attempt to find loopholes in marriage: to divorce and remarry is an ongoing act of adultery-- “commits adultery.” Why ignore this direct teaching of Jesus while twisting his quotation from Genesis to find a way to bring Jesus into the discussion about homosexuality? They’ll have to employ another approach to make peace with the sin of divorce (which, thank God, there is).
Back to the “male and female” line from Genesis. No one disputes that the default orientation of creation for humanity is “male and female.” Male and female contribution is required for procreation. But for the small percentage of persons who, for whatever reason, find their natural attractions differ from the majority through no choice of their own and cannot be changed, why is there not the same growing understanding and acceptance of differences in Christian churches as there is for countless divorced persons today?
This is a follow up post reprinted from Joe Phelps blog addressing some of the questions he is receiving from the Op-Ed piece that he wrote for the Courier-Journal in Louisville. I am not quite sure what I think of his explanations as of yet, but I am thankful that he is no longer staying silent on an important issue in today's America.
Interesting stuff. While I would differ with him on some points, I really appreciate that he is being sober-minded on the issue and willing to dig in deep, instead of just tossing out simplified (And almost always emotional & incorrect as a result), easy and ignorant answers. The church has no business being a body that isn't willing tackle difficult issues with the light of Scripture.
ReplyDeleteI really like his admonition to allow the H.S. to do his job in a person's heart once they are saved by Jesus' grace. I totally reject the idea that a person should get cleaned up before they come to Christ. Why wash your hands before you take a shower? That just smacks of "Works" to me.