A Christian Response to Homosexuality

Here’s a piece I wrote in response to a controversy that erupted in the Daily Trojan. You can read the letters that started it all here (scroll down toward the bottom) and the editorial in response here. I tried to get it published as a guest editorial in the Daily Trojan, but it didn’t happen. UPDATE: This got printed in the Daily Trojan in a revised form.

It’s not every day that the Daily Trojan calls something that I and thousands upon thousands of Trojans believe “abhorrent,” but given the letters condemning homosexuality that they were responding to, I could almost say it was justified. A tactless, graceless proponent can do far more damage to a position than the most eloquent opponent can, as the response to the letters so powerfully proved. However, as one of those much dreaded Evangelical Christians the editorial referred to, I would like to offer both an explanation of the Christian position and an apology. The aim of this is not to defend the Christian position (which would require a different article) but rather to clarify what Christians actually believe.

Christian opposition to homosexuality cannot be understood apart from the general view of sex taught in the Bible. Christians believe that the Bible contains the very words of God and that it is without error in its moral teaching. Thus, there is no possibility that we will somehow “progress” to a higher morality than that which is taught in the Scriptures (although we may find that we have misinterpreted them in some areas).

The Bible affirms from beginning to end the beauty and essential goodness of sex. God created humanity as male and female, both equally valuable because both were made “in the image of God.” Thus, every human being is of inestimable worth. God declared our very physicality and sexuality good, telling humanity to “be fruitful and multiply,” and ordaining marriage by saying, “a man will leave his father and mother, and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” God blessed all humanity by giving men and women the exhilarating experience of sexual union, which bonds them together and produces the tremendous blessing of children.

Scripture celebrates this passionate union, telling husbands to “rejoice in the wife of your youth…Let her breasts always satisfy you, May you always be captured by her love.” The Song of Solomon is an entire book of the Bible filled with romantic and erotic poetry celebrating marital love. The Apostle Paul, often portrayed as repressed and anti-sex, actually commanded married couples to regularly make love, and he viewed sex so highly that he saw in it a picture of one of the most wonderful things imaginable, the union of Christ and the church. The entire Bible presents a far more magnificent picture of sex than that often portrayed in a culture that made a hit out of a song that said “you and me baby ain’t nothin’ but mammals so let’s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel.”

However, God wills that sex should happen exclusively within the lifelong commitment between a man and a woman that is marriage, and He has explicitly banned all sexual activity outside of it. Jesus, far from abolishing the strict standards of sexual morality written in the Old Testament, actually raised the standards for sexual purity and said that if a man even looked at a woman to lust after her, he had committed adultery in his heart. It is true that Jesus accepted all people, regardless of their sexual behavior, and yet he never stopped there. He always commanded them to turn from their life of sin. No one can truly come to Christ and remain unchanged, unrepentant of their sinful ways.

Now homosexuality is in certain ways worse than other sexual sins, in that it rejects not only God’s command that sex be reserved for marriage but also rejects the divinely designed sexual complementarities between men and women. God created a man and woman to fit together, not only physically, but in their whole being. Homosexuality lacks this and is in fact a denial of the goodness of God’s design for sex. When Christians call homosexuality “unnatural,” this is what they refer to; they aren’t denying that homosexual activity occurs in the animal world (it does), nor are they denying that homosexual desires come naturally to some people (sin comes naturally to all of us, but certain sins come more naturally to certain people).

A note at this point about homosexuality: when Christians condemn homosexuality, we are not speaking of sexually desiring someone of the same sex (which is outside a person’s control and is called temptation), but rather of acting on those desires (which a person can control). Thus homosexuality is not analogous to race or sex (which are morally neutral). One cannot “commit Asian” or “commit male,” but one can “commit homosexuality.” Nor can the fact that homosexual desires come quite naturally to some people justify homosexual behavior, any more than an adulterer’s “natural” desire for another woman justifies his adultery or a pedophile’s “natural” desire for children justifies his pedophilia. Because our first ancestors rebelled against God, we have all been corrupted, and we all have sinful desires that are quite natural to us (which is why the rationalization that “God made me this way” doesn’t work). In and of itself, the fact that we desire something can’t prove that it’s morally right.

Now here’s the thing: all human beings, straights just as much as gays, fall short of God’s standards and are spiritually dead—cut off from the life of God—and deserving of eternal punishment for our sins. This is not to deny that some people live more moral lives than others, but rather to say that all fail at perfect obedience and are spiritually dead. A corpse that died of a heart attack may look prettier than one that got blown to bits, but it’s just as dead. It’s the same spiritually; some people look better, but all are sinful and thus doomed.

This is truly a horrible place to be, and yet it’s at this very moment that the story gets good. When humanity was estranged from God and completely powerless to save itself, God sent His Son, Jesus Christ (who is Himself God), who became a man, lived a perfect life, suffered the punishment we deserved for our sins when He died on the cross, and rose from the dead. And now the gospel—the good news—that Christians proclaim is that God freely offers salvation to those who place their trust not in their own moral goodness but in Christ alone. He forgives us when we repent, even though we don’t deserve it, restores our relationship with Him, and promises us indescribable joy for all eternity.

What I hated about the letters that were published was that they hurled down moral judgments and condemnation in a self-righteous, unloving way and completely neglected this good news. Frankly, that’s unchristian. Indeed, Christians should never be self-righteous or feel superior, because we know that we are totally unworthy of God’s free gift, and it’s only by His completely unearned favor that we are forgiven and empowered to live a life of obedience that pleases Him. We can’t be proud of anything, because all of it is God’s gift.

And it is here that I want to offer an apology. I would ask all my fellow Trojans, especially gays and lesbians, to forgive us Christians for any times when we have arrogantly and unlovingly condemned you for your sins so that we could feel better about ourselves, rather than humbly sharing with you the life that we have found in Christ. Please forgive us for any times our words and actions have been spoken out of pride rather than love, offering only judgment when Christ offers forgiveness. Please forgive us for times we have focused on your sins while giving a pass to our own. While we cannot change our opposition to homosexuality (or any other sin that God has condemned in His Word), this is not because of an unthinking “homophobia,” but rather because we care about you and cannot in good conscience pretend that sin will not lead to disaster. Please see in our actions only an attempt to bring you to Christ, who alone can heal of us of our spiritual disease and then give us the power to obey him when he commands, “Go and sin no more.”

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