Gay vs. God

If you were to ask me what the current state was between homosexuality and Christianity, I’m not entirely sure how to answer that one. I would say it is encouraging to see how many churches are becoming openly affirming and accepting, but there are still far too many yet that are not anywhere close; and that makes for a very polarized confrontation surrounding the issue of the level of acceptance.

However, if there is one thing I could say about all of this—if I were to, say, write a paper on it—my thesis would essentially be this: Homosexuality is the one issue that—in order to survive—I feel the church, as the universal body of Christ, will have to admit defeat and learn from secular culture that homosexuality is not wrong, but is instead something to be accepted as a natural part of life and (for some of us) to be embraced.

Alright, alright. I know that is not the most grammatically perfect thesis in all of published literary works. But, bear with me….

Regardless of whatever you think the biblical passages say and mean, I think there is a fundamental problem with the way Christianity treats LGBTQ individuals—a problem that existed for me way back before I accepted myself as a gay man, back when I would have been considered a "fundamentalist Christian."

For me, I always felt my hands were tied by my faith. I wanted to be affirming of gay people, but the way I understood scripture implied it was wrong. And so, I bit my tongue and went along with it.

But in the back of my mind, I did not think that was right. I just could not understand how something like being gay was so detestable before God. I mean, for the few gay people I knew before I came out, there were very few whose lifestyles I would have thought God had a problem with.

And it is that doubt that made me understand something. Why do we hold on so dearly to something that in essence we do not really agree with?

Now, I want you to sincerely consider this for yourselves: let us hypothetically say that our religion is not an issue.... Do any of us actually think that homosexuality in essence is really all that serious of an issue? If you do, are you sure that it is not just your personal bias or prejudice clouding your judgment?

For me, no matter what I read the Bible to be saying, I have never really deep-down believed that it is truly right to condemn homosexuality. I always felt something deeply unsettling about it in my gut, just like my conscience was trying to tell me not to follow along with it—in the same way that your conscience tells you it is wrong to break the law or hurt another person.

It is just one of those deep-level moral convictions that you cannot really explain very well in words. And so, I ask again: Why do we hold on so dearly to something that in essence we do not really agree with? Is it just for the principle of the thing?

I wrestled with this for a long time—in fact well into my college career. And during this time, the professions of science and medicine were releasing statements that homosexuality is not wrong, is a natural part of life, etc.

And after awhile, I simply realized how insignificant that principle really was, and so I asked myself what would happen if I did let go of it. What would happen to my faith and everything I believed in if I stopped agreeing with what I thought the Bible said about homosexuality? The answer: very little.

I mean, I still read the Bible with the primary focus of Jesus in mind. I still place Jesus’ ministry as the model upon which I base my own ministry. What has changed is not something that really registers very high on my theology scale.

Invariably, this led me to my official, public coming out in December of 2010. And I make this clear: I did not come out and then resign to this conclusion; I came to this conclusion regardless of my sexual orientation, and then decided it was time for me to come out.

And that is how I chose my current position between Christianity and…um…“secular culture” (really, call it whatever you like…science, medicine, democracy, etc.). I decided Christianity was wrong and that “secular culture” actually had some very solid evidence for why homosexuality was not.

For me, modern science and medicine actually made more sense and resonated more with me on the issue of homosexuality than my own inherited religious tradition.

Now, before you go working yourself all into a fuss, understand one VERY important thing. This would not be the first time that Christianity has evolved based on the culture it encountered. In fact…that is arguably the very reason Christianity has survived this long to be the largest religion in the world by number of adherents—roughly 500 million ahead of its next competitor: Islam.

I mean, no one can argue against modern Christianity being foundationally built on the philosophies of Plato (which it has been since St. Augustine integrated them together in the 4th and 5th centuries CE—or even the Gospel of John, which has very strong evidence of Greek philosophy being incorporated into its style of writing).

I believe we are currently seeing another such cultural shift with the issue of homosexuality in the church, like the one we saw with the African-American civil rights movement of the 1960s. I think we, as a body of Christ, need to honorably accept our defeat, heal, and move on in the same way we have time and time again throughout history.

I simply ask that you look deeply into your own hearts and ask these two things: (1) Do you really think that homosexuality is inherently that big of an issue, and (2) what would your faith and beliefs look like if you did actually become accepting and affirming?