C. Ermal Allen
Isn’t it awful that the changed usage of some words can ruin the understanding of some of our traditions! “Deck the halls . . . don we now our gay apparel”! “My Old Kentucky Home – the people are gay”! “Zorro, the Gay Blade”! Would our young people understand these phrases the same way that we older folks do? And even older folks may be embarrassed to speak these lines.
Unfortunately the problem is more than changed word meanings. The contemporary meaning of “gay” to mean homosexual reflects a change in our culture, which is rapidly descending into a pit where nothing related to sex is considered immoral! Regarding homosexuality, the realization, “Oh, you’re gay?” is quickly followed these days by, “Not that there’s anything wrong with it!” The times call for God’s people to resist the call of “anything goes.” To help us in this resistance, here are five questions for consideration as we answer the question, What’s wrong with being gay? (“Gay” is being used here in a generic sense, referring to both male and female homosexual behavior.)
How Do We Decide?
The first question for our consideration is, how do we decide whether any activity is right or wrong? Specifically, how do we decide whether there is anything wrong with being gay? Should our answer be influenced by our personal knowledge of gay persons? We have some politicians (e.g., Senator Portman of Ohio) who take a stand against same-sex marriage but then change their minds when a family member “comes out.” When we get to know someone who is gay, we often realize that they are likeable and decent (relatively speaking) persons. We must beware, however, of letting our emotions or sentiments toward people we know determine our morality. The words of God through the prophet Jeremiah warn us that personal feelings are too untrustworthy. “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? I the Lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve” (Jeremiah 17:9-10).
Or maybe we should go along with the opinions of our present-day culture, especially if they have been accorded acceptance by the law? “There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death” (Proverbs 14:12). Morality is not to be determined by majority opinion. Neither is morality to be determined by legal dictates; the law can make some awful decisions, for example, the Dred Scott decision and the Roe v. Wade decision by our Supreme Court or the previous one-child policy of China. The apostle Paul warns us, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).
Only God’s word (the Bible) is a reliable yardstick as to what is or is not moral behavior. During the period of the judges, horrible moral lapses occurred, and the record blames them on the fact that “In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit” (Judges 17:6; 21:25). Proverbs 29:18 gives this warning, “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.” At a time when ancient Israel was going through a period of moral decline, God spoke these words to the prophet Isaiah (8:20): “To the law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this word, they have no light of dawn.” On the other hand, “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” (2 Timothy 3:16). Therefore, only the Bible is trustworthy in making such decisions.
What does the Bible say?
If the Bible is the only reliable yardstick regarding moral behavior, just what does the Bible say about homosexual behavior? Although the Old Testament was superceded by the New Covenant of Christ, it still has much to teach us regarding God’s view of morality. The passage cited above from 2 Timothy 3:16 referred to all Scripture, particularly the Old Testament. We should not base moral decisions merely on Old Testament citations, but we should not automatically exclude them either, for “everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4). The context of such passages can help us determine whether they are still morally binding under the New Covenant. With that in mind, let us look at an example from the Old Testament.
Leviticus 18 lists several types of sin that led to God’s exterminating of the Canaanites from their land and warns the Israelites that they too would be driven (“vomited”) out from the same land if they fell into the same sins: adultery, incest, bestiality, and sacrificing children to the god Molech are included in this list. Also included is the following: “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable” (v. 22). The word detestable is the NIV translation of the word elsewhere translated an abomination (as in KJV, ESV). We have here an idea of how God views homosexual behavior.
The New Testament reaffirms the Old Testament view of homosexual behavior. Please consider the following Scriptures. Romans 1:18-32 traces the decline in morality of the human race in the following steps: rejecting God in favor of false gods, engaging in sexual immorality, engaging in homosexual behavior, and then being “filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity” (v. 29). Regarding homosexual behavior, it says (vv. 26-27): "God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion" [literally, deceit or delusion].
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 has an apt warning for us: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." The words translated “male prostitutes” and “homosexual offenders” refer to the active and passive partners in consensual homosexual acts.
1 Timothy 1:10 lists “perverts” (ESV, “men who practice homosexuality”) among the “lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious.”
From the Biblical references it is clear that homosexual activity is sinful. It is never considered to be a moral or even a neutral moral issue. The Bible from first to last is consistent in its condemnation of those who behave in such a way.
But what about Jesus? Does not his message of love for all contradict the rest of the Biblical teaching on this issue? In fact, does he ever condemn homosexual behavior? We can answer these questions by making three points. (1) First, Jesus accepted the Old Testament as the word of God, and he gave his stamp of approval on the teaching that his apostles would promote after he was gone. This teaching is preserved for us in the New Testament. From Jesus’ perspective, it is all the word of God, not just his words.
(2) Furthermore, is it really true that he did not condemn homosexual behavior? He did not refer to it per se, but he did condemn all sexual immorality (for example, Matthew 15:19); and homosexual behavior in his culture as well as in his Bible was deemed immoral. So the only reasonable conclusion is that Jesus was including homosexual behavior when he condemned sexual immorality. (The KJV word fornication translates a Greek word that included all sexual immorality, not just that between unmarried people.)
(3) Finally, Jesus did have something to say about marriage (Matthew 19:4-6), with implications for the question at hand: “'Haven’t you read,'” he replied, “'that at the beginning the Creator "made them male and female," and said, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh"? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.'” He referred to a man and his wife, not a person and his or her partner. If he intended to change the Old Testament restrictions regarding homosexual relationships, this was the ideal place to do it!
What do you mean by “being gay”?
The third question for our consideration is, what do you mean by “being gay”? (Remember that this study is using “gay” as a generic term for homosexual behavior, male or female.) In its condemnation of homosexual behavior, the Bible does not include (contrary to the understanding of many people) inclinations toward same-sex relationships, the inner drive, the emotional desires, that is, those impulses that one cannot help. The desire itself is not sinful any more than the desires experienced by heterosexuals for relationships outside of marriage. The desire is not sinful. The question of “being born that way” is therefore irrelevant. It does not matter whether homosexual inclinations are innate or learned.
What, then, is sinful? Whether homosexual or heterosexual, being proud or self-willed regarding one’s actions is sinful, in fact, willful sin. When we say about any behavior, “No one (including God) can tell me what I should or should not do,” then we are living as rebels to the authority of God. That kind of sin leads to personal destruction both in the present world and the world to come.
Feeding one’s lusts through pornography or relationships is also willful sin. We cannot help (at the moment anyway) how we feel, but we do not have to act upon it. Whether or not it is true—and, in fact, it is not—that “you can’t help whom you fall in love with,” you can keep from getting involved in an immoral relationship. Everyone who has ever experienced unrequited love knows this to be true.
It should be obvious, then, that fantasizing about immoral relationships is wrong. What Jesus said about adultery would also appropriately apply here: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). You cannot help being tempted, but you do not have to dwell on the temptation. The proper response to all temptation is to turn your thoughts to something else.
And, of course, physical relationships or individual physical acts with someone of the same sex are sinful. This kind of action is primarily meant by the Biblical injunctions against same-sex acts.
In summary, when we answer the question, what’s wrong with being gay, we are being true to the Scriptures by affirming that dwelling on thoughts and acting upon impulses toward any homosexual behavior is sinful, contrary to God’s moral law.
What about same-sex marriage?
The fourth question for our consideration deals with same-sex marriage. What should be our political response? This question is different from others that deal with sexual immorality. We might not legislate against sex between unmarried persons or even adultery (even though we disapprove of both), but when we move on to state-recognized marriages we are necessarily entering the field of legislation. One proposed solution to the issue is to let each state decide for itself. This solution, which works in many other areas, is not sufficient in this case, for people move from state to state. It was therefore inevitable that the commerce clause in the U.S. Constitution would be used to force a common standard regarding same-sex marriage.
Is same-sex marriage not a matter of equality? The 14th Amendment to the Constitution, the basis for civil rights, is frequently argued as a basis for permitting same-sex marriage. But when we think about it, it’s not really a matter of equality, for everyone is permitted to marry a person of the opposite sex (as long as that person agrees). Legally, no one is allowed to marry just anybody they want to—there are legislative restrictions to marriage (for example, age, family relationship, consent, monogamy).
Both nature (the function of male/female anatomy) and the 1st Amendment’s free exercise of religion clause give valid reasons for upholding the traditional definition of marriage.
Should we regulate sexual morality? Perhaps not, although we do regulate some (rape, incest, child abuse); however, marriage is a state-ordained and regulated activity. The state and federal governments are not being silent when they grant licenses. To grant people the right to same-sex marriage is putting the government’s (and through them the nation’s) seal of approval on an immoral act. It is not just tolerating such behavior. When we grant licenses for sinful behavior, as a people we find ourselves as described in Romans 1:32, “Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.” (Paul is not suggesting that those who practice such things should be put to death by the government; but rather that God’s sentence of death on sinners is just.)
Are we not just being homophobic?
When we refuse to acknowledge homosexual behavior as okay, are we not just being homophobic? Few words in our culture are used more as an insult than this one. (It ranks right up there with racist.) Technically speaking, the word has been modified to include any opinions that do not accept homosexual practice as normal and moral. It literally means that one is afraid of homosexuals and/or their agenda. (Indeed we should beware of the radical agenda of some who do not share our understanding.) The word now is used to accuse everyone who is opposed to homosexual behavior as being hateful and intolerant. Are we?
As Bible-believers we teach the Biblical injunctions against homosexual behavior, but we do not hate them or wish the government to punish them for their behavior (and thus we are in reality tolerant). We just do not want the government to put its stamp of approval on the behavior. We would be satisfied if the government just remained silent.
In fact, we call attention to all sinful behavior because we love the sinners and want them to find God’s forgiveness (by obeying the gospel of Christ) so that they too can enjoy eternal life and escape condemnation on Judgment Day. As Peter told his fellow Jews, “When God raised up his servant, he sent him first to you to bless you by turning each of you from your wicked ways” (Acts 3:26). We must all heed the warning and enjoy the promise of 1 Corinthians 6:9-11: "Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."
Conclusion
The question of homosexual behavior is not just another moral issue. Our culture and possibly the survival of our way of life is at stake. Psalm 12:8 says (not necessarily limited to homosexualism), “The wicked freely strut about when what is vile is honored among men.” We must, however, in our condemnation of the sin never forget that our goal is to love those led astray by the deceitfulness of their sin and point them to salvation in Christ. And as to all others, we are to love people with the love of God even if they refuse to repent. We are to treat everyone with respect and gentleness, even those who do not treat us the same (1 Peter 3:15-16); also remembering that we too have sinned and continue to fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23).
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. NIV®. ©1973, 1978, 1984 International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.