Christianity vs Homosexuality

This is a response from Stan Oakes regarding an inquiry on the issue of Christianity and Homosexuality.
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I very much appreciate your thoughtful, sensitive and open note. I will try to respond in kind. Before I do, however, let me encourage you to take a look at a worldwide web site on the Internet. It includes the stories of gays who are Christians and have found another way out. The address is: /menus/pages.html. Let me know what you think.

One of the questions, you ask is whether or not someone can be a Christian and differ on one issue? This is a profound question deserving a clear answer.

Concerning homosexuality, there are several relevant issues. Let’s divide them up in four categories. There may be more, but let’s start here.

First, there’s the issue of how one becomes a Christian and what it means to live as a Christian. Secondly, there’s the issue of temptation. Third, there’s the issue of morality. And fourth, there’s the issue of public policy. By dividing the issue up this way, it allows us to make sense of the myriad of ideas and opinions floating around on homosexuality.

You are correct in stating that one becomes a Christian by acknowledging that their sins have separated them from God, that Jesus Christ died for those sins, and that we can receive Christ into our hearts as our Savior by asking him to forgive us. He then forgives all of our sins: past, present, and future. Involved in this is both confession-admitting our sins-and repentance-turning from those sins. The beauty of Christianity is that becoming a Christian is a “come as you are party.” He forgives all who come to him whether they are black or white, rich or poor, old or young, Republican or Democrat, and gay or straight. As long as they turn from going their own ways.

Then, there’s the whole question of living the Christian life. When we become Christians, the Bible describes that we are born again, that is, we are baby Christians. We then have to “grow in Christ.” As I Peter 2.2 says, “Like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word that by it you may grow in respect to salvation.”

The main impediment to growing in Christ are the lusts of the flesh, meaning desires inside of us which wage war with the desire to please and obey God. This problem is described in several places: Romans chapters 7 and 8; Galatians 5. 21-23; and 1 John 2. 16-17. The “1 John” passage categorizes them as “the lust of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the boastful pride of life.” One paraphrase of this is, “Stop loving this world and all that it offers you, for when you love these things you show that you do not really love God; for all these worldly desires [lusts]–the craze for sex, the ambition to buy everything that appeals to you, and the pride that comes from wealth and importance-these are not from God. They are from this evil world itself. And this world is fading away, and these evil, forbidden things will go with it, but whoever keeps doing the will of God will live forever.”

These lusts or desires are temptations and as such plague every Christian (1 Corinthians 10.13). Consequently, we have no choice as to whether or not we experience them. They are inborn and in our genetic material. Understood this way, temptations are not sins but simply desires to sin. They are lusts which may lead to sins but do not have to be given in to. In other words, with God’s help we can overcome temptations. (Galatians 5.16 says, “Walk in the Spirit and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh.” and paraphrased, “I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit’s instructions. He will tell you where to go and what to do and then you won’t always be doing the wrong things your evil nature tells you to do. For we naturally love to do evil things that are just the opposite from the things that the Holy Spirit tells us to do; and the good things we want to do when the Spirit has his way with us are just the opposite of our natural desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other to win control over us, and our wishes are never free from their pressures.”

So you can see that just because we desire something strongly does not make it right. It could very well be a temptation. The Bible teaches that this includes premarital sex, extramarital sex, gay sex as well as a desire for sex with children (pedophilia,) and a lust for sex with animals ( bestiality). They are all part of the same family of lusts. And because literally everyone experiences one or the other of them, they really can’t look down on or condemn anyone else. All men and women are beset by these lusts and frequently indulge in one or more of them. It is only with the Holy Spirit’s help and power that we are able to withstand these daily pressures and remain morally pure.

Which brings me to morality. The Bible is the source of our moral code. According to the Bible, morality is to be handled within two parameters. As it says in Proverbs 3, “bind kindness and truth around your neck.” This means that we don’t use the truth of morality like a club to abuse or reject people who give into their lusts. Whatever we do, we do kindly even as you indicated in your note. On the other hand, we don’t simply overlook sin either. To all Christians who will listen, we call on them to seek God’s strength and power to “grow in Christ” and overcome their lusts. We teach them from the Bible how to do this and are patient with them while they grow. To all those who are not Christians, we have the responsibility to love them and share the gospel with them. Only then will they have the power to change. To condemn non-Christians for their giving in to temptation is wrong. They are only doing what comes natural. I don’t approve of the behavior (truth) but neither do I reject them (kindness).

The last issue is public policy. By definition, public policy is a clash of factions of people with diverging interests, e.g. landowners and environmentalists; rich and poor; religious people and irreligious; socialists and those who oppose totalitarian government controls, etc. Under the category of public policy, I include “radical gays” who have an agenda as opposed to other gays who just want to be left alone. I think gays who have decided to be gay and simply want to be left alone, ought to be left alone even though I see them as struggling for a sexual identity, struggling with temptations and in great pain over these struggles. As such, they are protected by current civil rights law. As for radical gays who want to coerce businesses to hire them; threaten the blood supply if they don’t get enough AIDS funding; push the gay agenda upon children as young as 7 and 8 through such books as Heather Has Two Mommies and My Daddy’s Roommate, both of which are increasingly showing up in public schools; putting forward bogus studies on gay teen suicide and the mythical “10%” figure for the number of gays in society; forcing college RA’s to view explicit movies of gay sex to “sensitize them to gays” as was done at Cornell; attempting to force Christian groups on campus to accept gays as officers in their organizations and getting their charters revoked if they don’t as was done at Northern Illinois; and making it so that freshmen cannot refuse to live with someone who is gay which was done at Penn State (this is similar to forcing freshmen women to room with freshmen boys); they have an agenda which I do not accept and we will debate public policy.

What happens, is that these issues are all conflated and radical gays condemn Christians for being hateful, bigoted, and homophobic if they disagree with them over public policy when the nature of public policy is disagreement. When Christians work to blunt the gay agenda in public policy, this allows the radical gays reject and reinterpret the historically accepted truths of the Bible and to justify creating a new brand of Christianity which removes homosexuality from the lists of lusts and immoral behaviors as has already been done to premarital sex and adultery. In fact, pedophilia is now up for review under the same principles of moral relativism. As some have said, the only difference between homosexuality and pedophilia is the “age of consent” laws.

In summary, then you can indeed be a Christian and not understand everything and even accept everything in the Bible. But you must be willing to conform your life to the loving words of God in the Bible and your life to that of Jesus Christ. This is all part of Christian growth over time. In other words, God accepts and forgives if the homosexual confesses and repents of their sins. It’s a come as you are party. Then growth in Christ takes place as these new Christians take their lusts to God and He gradually changes them, with the love and help of other Christians who have been through the same thing, into the people He wants us all to be.

Please continue to read the Bible for yourself and ask God to give you discernment. Don’t go by feelings as they can be very deceptive, almost like a roller coaster.

Anyway, I hope this helps. We wish you the best.

Stan Oakes