Straight Talk

Some years ago, a friend of mine announced his coming out after increasing speculation about his sexuality. He was embarrassed to discuss his homosexuality with Christian friends who he thought would be judgmental. Although I was sympathetic to the pain and anguish he felt over something he felt was uncontrollably part of his self-identity, I felt that he was judgmental toward me!

I was prepared to discuss his struggle without either normalising or neutralising his views. I felt that I should not attack or defend him, but first see how best I could help him. Yet I was deemed self-righteous and unaccepting because my devout Christianity allegedly positioned me to take a hard line on what he thought I would label as an unforgivable sin. This was before I had even opened my mouth on the subject!

Now, because the Bible is the basis of Christian belief and it states that homosexuality does not reflect God’s created order for sexual relationships, then it presents us with a problem. How do we reconcile these standards with the real angst of those who feel that they have been created gay by the very God who set those standards? I have a problem with the question, though, because it seems to presume that scientific evidence has conclusively proven that homosexuality is genetically predetermined. This is far from an established fact. Given that a sexual preference is not confirmed in pre-pubescence, there is time for causal environmental factors to take effect.

Some re-interpret scriptural prohibitions as being applicable only to those who are promiscuous or who are unfaithful to their sexual orientation. But that is unsatisfactory when Bible authors such as the Apostle Paul made no such distinction. Others bluntly regard homosexuality as a perversion that must be repented of and turned from, yet this strikes with insensitivity and simplicity right at the core of homosexual person’s very being. People can and do change from a homosexual orientation not by exercising willpower, but by addressing the basis of their self-identity and worth that was shaped even in childhood. Our personhood is not defined by our sexuality.

The Bible’s concern is to uphold heterosexual marriage relationships as the only legitimate context for sexual expression for multiple reasons, not least of which is the procreation of children within a secure relationship of commitment. This may help to provide a positive contextual understanding for scriptural prohibitions of homosexuality. But I believe that it also helps to guard some Christians against using such prohibitions negatively.

God’s love for people is expressed in the giving of Jesus Christ to everyone who would receive His gift of salvation regardless of what they have done or who they have become. This is because everyone, whether homosexual or even the most well-intentioned Christian heterosexual conservative, is inevitably a sinner who can only be saved from eternal judgment by the grace of God in Christ and never by what they do or do not practise.