|
PARTNERS HAPPY AND GAY. Jennifer
Rulon, left, and her partner, gay minister V. Jill Sizemore, senior
pastor of Metropolitan Community Church in Knoxville, pause for a pose
at a gay pride parade in the city. It’s 2011, Pastor Sizemore’s first
year at the church – and her first year out of the closet. It’s also
her first gay pride parade. A year earlier she retired from the Army
Reserve after serving for almost 32 years, which included a stretch
when the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law (1993-2011) forced her to keep
quiet about her sexual orientation or lose her job. “Everything for me
was new that year,” she says. “It felt great to be finally all the way
out of the closet and fully free to just be myself.” Photo by V. Jill Sizemore.
LATE LAST WEEK I got the email.
I
can’t say much more about it than what you read in the title of this
article. The news is too fresh and too sensitive.
But
this question comes from a young person who’s sis came out as gay:
“What does the Christian religion have to say about that?”
I’m
not sure that anyone connected to the email I got would ever read the
book. But if I put that short chapter in this blog article, perhaps
some of them might see it – and get an answer to the question.
And
who knows, maybe someone else would find help in the article, too.
What
they’ll discover is that some Christians say it’s wrong to live
the gay lifestyle.
But
other Christians say there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the gay
lifestyle.
It’s
not surprising that Christians disagree with each other. What’s
surprising are some of the arguments they make to support their
opinions.
Surprising
and a bit unsettling.
Here’s
the article from my book:
Why
does the Bible say homosexuality is a sin? Don’t science and our own
observation suggest that some people are naturally homosexual?
Christians
are at each other’s throats over this question—at least in some
churches—debating what to do about homosexuality.
Many
churches forbid homosexuals from joining their community of faith.
Other churches ordain them as ministers. That’s how far apart
Christians are on this controversial topic.
Most
churches pitch their tents in one of three major camps:
- I’m okay, you’re okay. Homosexuality is as
natural as heterosexuality.
- Gay is okay if you
don’t have sex. There’s nothing wrong with having homosexual
desires, but it’s a sin to act on those desires by engaging in
homosexual sex.
- There’s nothing okay
about gay. Homosexuality—the orientation as well as the
act—is a sin requiring forgiveness and, if possible, healing.
There’s nothing okay about gay
Christians
in this camp take their cue from the Bible, which in all the main
English translations certainly seems to condemn homosexuality.
- “It is disgusting for a
man to have sex with another man” (Leviticus
18:22 CEV).
- “When a man has sexual
intercourse with another man as with a woman, both men are doing
something disgusting and must be put to death” (Leviticus
20:13 GW).
- “No one who is
immoral . . . is unfaithful in marriage or is a pervert or behaves
like a homosexual will share in God’s kingdom” (1
Corinthians 6:9–10 CEV).
- “We also know that the
law is not made for good people. . . . It is for people who are
against God and are sinful . . . who take part in sexual sins, who
have sexual relations with people of the same sex” (1
Timothy 1:9–10 NCV).
Christians
who have pitched their theological tents in this camp say that if we
take the Bible seriously and treat it as the Word of God, there’s no
way we can do what is politically correct: accept homosexuality.
Instead,
we have to do what is biblically correct: reject homosexuality as
sinful. If we don’t, we find ourselves among an unfortunate group of
souls: “How terrible it will be for people who call good things bad . .
. who think darkness is light . . . who think sour is sweet” (Isaiah 5:20
NCV).
The
spiritual cure for homosexuality, as far as these Christians are
concerned, is the same as it is for any other sin: repentance and
forgiveness.
Beyond
that, some Christians say, homosexuals may be able to experience
physical healing as well. Through counseling, prayer, and the work of
the Holy Spirit, a homosexual can become a heterosexual. There are
Christians who identify themselves as heterosexuals healed of their
former homosexual desires.
Many
Christians in this camp acknowledge that not all homosexuals will be
freed of their attraction to the same sex. Counselors advise
homosexuals who convert to Christianity to treat their desire the same
way the apostle Paul treated his mysterious “thorn in the flesh,” a
difficulty he never identified: “I was given a problem that caused pain
in my body. . . . Three times I begged the Lord to take it away from
me. But he said to me, ‘My grace is all you need. My power is strongest
when you are weak’” (2
Corinthians 12:7–9 NIRV).
Gay is okay if you don’t have sex
Christians
in this camp have a lot in common with Christians who say “There’s
nothing okay about gay.”
Both
groups treat the Bible as God’s Word—something that should not be
ignored or overruled by conventional wisdom or political correctness.
The
biggest difference is that Christians in this group see absolutely
nothing wrong with having homosexual desires. They would compare that
desire to any other sinful desire or temptation we might experience.
There’s nothing wrong with the desire or the temptation. It’s wrong
only when we give in to that sinful desire.
Many
Christians in this group seem willing to accept the idea that some people
may be naturally oriented toward homosexuality. Some compare this to
the way many folks seem wired with a predisposition toward addictive
behavior—folks who become alcoholics and drug addicts.
Alcoholics
Anonymous teaches that if you’re an alcoholic, you’re an alcoholic for
life. Your lifelong task is to stay away from alcohol.
In
much the same way, a homosexual may be homosexual for life.
Some
Bible-revering, tradition-minded Christian counselors are beginning to
acknowledge that attempts to straighten out a gay person generally
won’t work. Dr. Mark A. Yarhouse, professor of psychology at Regent
University—founded by Pat Robertson, chairman of the conservative
Christian Broadcasting Network and a former Southern Baptist
minister—put it this way in his book, Homosexuality and the Christian:
A
realistic expectation would not be a categorical change (from
completely gay to completely straight), but rather modest shifts along
a continuum of attraction.
I’m okay, you’re okay
Some
Christians say there is absolutely nothing wrong with homosexuality—in
orientation or in sexual activity.
The
question for many other Christians is this: How do pro-gay Christians
justify their end run around what the Bible says on the topic?
Here
comes a scholarly term: Wesleyan Quadrilateral.
Scholars
who have studied the life and teachings of John Wesley (1703–1791),
founder of the Methodist church, have come to the conclusion that when
he faced tough theological problems, he studied them from four angles:
- Bible. What does the Bible
say about it?
- Tradition. How have Christians
throughout the centuries dealt with it?
- Reason. What seems like a
reasonable way to deal with it?
- Experience. What does our
personal experience suggest we do about it?
As
far as many Christians in this camp are concerned, the Wesleyan
Quadrilateral vote comes out in a dead heat—two votes against accepting
the homosexual lifestyle to two in favor.
Two
votes against: The Bible
says “don’t.” Tradition
is obvious; the church has a long history of rejecting homosexuals.
Two
votes for: Reason
says it makes sense for us not to tell someone else whom they can and
can’t love. Experience
reminds us that even among our own circle of family and friends, some
are wired with same-sex desires.
Reason
and experience seem to get a boost from science:
American
Academy of Pediatrics:
“Counseling may be helpful for young people who are uncertain about
their sexual orientation. . . . Therapy directed specifically at
changing sexual orientation is contraindicated, since it can provoke
guilt and anxiety while having little or no potential for achieving
changes in orientation.”
American
Psychiatric Association:
“The APA opposes any psychiatric treatment, such as ‘reparative’ or
‘conversion’ therapy, which is based upon the assumption that
homosexuality per se is a mental disorder or based upon the . . .
assumption that a patient should change his/her homosexual
orientation.”
But
what about the Bible? It’s God talking, many Christians insist. And he
says “don’t.”
A
tiny minority of Christians say the Bible translators got God wrong.
For
example, the Queen James Bible, a gay-friendly translation, says one
writer was talking about heterosexual men who were having sex with male
prostitutes in pagan temples: “Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with
womankind in the temple of Molech: it is an abomination” (Leviticus
18:22).
The
presumption: normal gay sex is okay.
Most
Bible experts would call that creative and wishful thinking.
It’s
more common for Christians in this camp to approach the Bible’s
anti-gay passages this way:
Jewish
law is obsolete.
“Faith in Christ has come. So we are no longer under the control of the
law” (Galatians
3:25 NIRV).
Paul
was quoting the obsolete law. When Paul wrote in his letters that homosexuality is
sinful, he was drawing from his studies as a Pharisee, an expert in
Jewish law—remarkably, the same laws he said elsewhere were obsolete.
That leaves some folks trying to figure out which Paul to believe—Paul
who rejected the law or Paul who rejected homosexuality because the law
forbids it.
When
in doubt, follow Jesus.
Jesus never talked about homosexuality. But he did talk about judging
others and loving others.
Most
Christians who embrace homosexuals as full members within the community
of faith put more theological weight on those teachings. They argue
that the rule of love trumps the obsolete Jewish law about
homosexuality as well as the anti-gay teachings of Paul, a former
Pharisee who they say may have been deferring to Jewish law.
Love
others. “Let me give you
a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love
one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my
disciples—when they see the love you have for each other” (John
13:34–35 THE MESSAGE).
Don’t
judge. “Don’t judge
others, or you will be judged. . . . You hypocrite! First, take the
wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust
out of your friend’s eye” (Matthew
7:1, 5 NCV).
Gay
minister V. Jill Sizemore, senior pastor of Metropolitan Community
Church in Knoxville, Tennessee, told me that when she has to deal with
“those stubbornly ensconced in their argument of the infallible word of
God,” she appeals to love:
“Put
down the book that you would use to hurt me. Look into my eyes and tell
me that you would have me scorned, bullied, discriminated against. . .
. Now who is the pervert?”
She
said that in her view, “Love trumps all arguments that clearly favor
injustice of any kind.”
Many
Christians, however, insist that God isn’t just about love. He’s about
holiness, too. And they say their Bible teaches that homosexuality is
sin—and that God won’t stand for it.
Several
Christian denominations have split over the question of what to do
about gay believers.
  Recent Articles:
|
No comments:
Post a Comment