"I'm about to teach about homosexuality...help!" My response.
In August
or September, I am going to lead our Sunday School class in a series of lessons
on homosexuality. I’m starting
to realize that the Wesleyan Quadrilateral that I fell in love with is not so
lovable when you have to apply it to real issues. I’m having trouble drawing a
box around this one and, of course, I’m starting to learn that God never stays
in my boxes. So what do you think about homosexuality and how do you defend
your position on that?
All
humans are welcome into the family of Church X. This means that every person,
no matter the person’s race, education, sexual orientation, or background is
welcome to participate in the ministries of Church X. All are
sinners in need of God’s grace and forgiveness. Yet, once one becomes a
disciple of Jesus, that person reorients her/his entire lifestyle to the
teachings of Jesus because He is Lord (= ”boss”). Therefore, we at Church X
commit to doing our best to obey the teachings of Jesus (and the early
Christians).
Jesus
taught (as every single Jewish author did) that God, the Father, designed human sexuality to be experienced solely
within heterosexual marriage, which was instituted at the first creation of
humanity (fullest treatment is in Matt. 19:3-12). Therefore, any sexual
activity outside of heterosexual marriage is a sin (English translations
often translate the Greek as “sexual immorality,” which would constitute any
sexual behavior not within heterosexual marriage). This is the uniform,
consistent witness of all Jewish literature in antiquity, and the early church
taught the same (Acts 15:20, 29; 21:25; Rom. 13:13; 1 Cor. 5:1, 9; 11; 6:9, 13,
18; 2 Cor. 12:21; Gal. 5:19; Eph. 5:3; Col. 3:5; 1 Thess. 4:3; 1 Tim. 1:10;
Heb. 13:4; Jude 1:7; Rev. 2:14, 20-21; 9:21; 17:2, 4; 18:3; 19:2; 21:8; 22:15;
the Patristic authors also univocally condemned it). Therefore, it is sinful
to commit adultery, sexual acts with someone to whom you are not married, bestiality,
incest, pederasty, and homosexuality (note: attraction is not a sin; behavior
is). Thus, Church X does not condone nor participate in any sexual activity
outside of heterosexual marriage, including same-sex marriages, nor allow our
building to support such events. Nor do the Elders/Deacons permit anyone from
teaching contrary to the teachings of Jesus and the early Church.*
*The
New Testament is adamant that what is taught as doctrine is extremely
important. Elders will be held accountable to God at judgment for how well they
took care of the souls of those they oversaw in this life (Heb 13:17). Teachers
will be judged more strictly than non-teachers (James 3:1). False teaching
(from prophets or teachers) is to be constantly avoided and false teachers and
prophets will receive God’s condemnation (e.g., Matt 7:15; 1 Tim 1:3-4; 6:3-5;
2 Peter 2:1-3, 19). The overall assumption is that false teaching leads others
to sin, which is a grievous sin (Matt 18:6-7).
Here are two blogs that say more of my view:
This is the standard, definitive work on the subject:
You can also search for his name on YouTube and see great stuff.
1) Can
there by LGBTQ Christians?
Yes, if you mean, “can a
person be attracted to the same sex and the person still be saved by the
death/resurrection of Jesus.”
No, if you mean, “can a
person regularly (i.e., not just when a person fails in their struggle)
practice same-sex behavior and still be saved.” Paul said so explicitly:
8 But you yourselves wrong and
cheat, and you do this to your brothers and sisters! 9 Do you not
know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived! The sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, passive homosexual
partners (in Greek: this refers to the “passive” partner”), practicing
homosexuals (in Greek: this refers to the “active partner”), 10
thieves, the greedy, drunkards, the verbally abusive, and swindlers will not inherit the kingdom of God. 11
Some of you once lived this way. 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. (1 Cor. 6:8-11 NET)
2) If
there can be LGBTQ Christians, can there be gay church members?
Since there is no biblical concept of membership, I don’t have a
strong opinion on this one.
3) If
there can be LGBTQ church members, are there limitations on what they can do?
The same here on membership. But, considering “limitations,” no person
who is deliberately disobeying the teaching of Jesus should be in any type of
leadership position at most, or at minimum, should never be in a teaching
position. Jesus and the early church spoke very often on false teaching and
leading people to sin (e.g., Luke 17:1-3; 1 Tim. 1:3; 6:3ff; James 3:1; etc.).
If a person were to teach that practicing homosexual behavior was a righteous
behavior, then they would be teaching false teaching.
4) If you
place limitations on what gays can do, how do you respond to the inherent
hypocrisy? There will always be hypocrisy - a sin you don’t limit church
membership on.
Absolutely true. All church attenders and members sin. Yet: in the
NT, there is a difference between what a non-Christian does and what a
Christian does. Non-Christians are never to be judged by Christians. Christians
ARE to be judged by Christians (as Paul says explicitly in 1 Cor. 5:9-13; cf.
Matt 7:1-5). That is, we are to judge/condemn sinful behavior among Christians.
And, based on multiple texts, the early Christians we adamant that when a
person comes under the authority of Jesus, they are to “deny their wills” (as
Jesus said) and live a holy lifestyle (found throughout the NT). So, if a
person in the church deliberately gossips, steals, lies, murders, has sex
outside marriage, etc., the exact same thing must be done. Their sin must be
pointed out in gentleness (Gal. 6:1) and given a chance to repent…and if they don’t
we are to assume that they are not Christians (read Matt. 18:15-20). What we
must NEVER do is say that a sinful behavior is righteous or “not really that
bad” if it says it’s a sin in the NT.
And…we can’t see almost any sin. That’s certainly true. We need to
make sure that what the NT actually teaches about sins is taught repeatedly and
that people are constantly encouraged to be held morally accountable to one
another (like in James 5:16). Certainly there are numerous people who are
secretly embracing sin in their private lives…but that doesn’t make it right.
We don’t bless the sin because it’s difficult to know who is sinning. Instead,
we do our best to hold all people accountable to all sins because Christians
are supposed to live like that former life is dead! (e.g., Rom. 6) We’re not
the moral police; we’re people who are desperately trying to help save people’s
souls from hell! (Jesus said so! Matt. 5:19-20; 18:6-9; and see Jude 22-23)
We have
completely lost the profound importance and weight of holiness in the church.
In today’s church in N. America, if you bring up sin or holiness one is
immediately labeled a “rule monger” or “legalist” or “fundamentalist.” They
didn’t call Jesus that in His ministry…
5) If
there are LGBTQ Christians church members, then why not marry?
Because that is
absolutely against the explicit teaching of Jesus. Either He’s our boss or He’s
not. Period.
6) At some
point, haven’t we moved so far down the line that it doesn’t matter? Why worry about whether being gay is a sin or encourage
celibacy as an alternative? If gay Christina can do everything, then it doesn’t
matter. How do we then apply Romans 6?
Good
question. While I certainly don’t “worry” about it, I do my best to interpret
the Bible within its historical context and apply it by the grace of God. And,
if Jesus, the early church, and Scripture are still the chief authority (in
that order, it seems to me), then it most certainly still matters how we
behave. Moreover, if this explicit teaching of the Bible is ignored, what else
is? Why stop there? Why not ignore every single sin that is accepted by pagans?
Why even need the death of Jesus if we’re not that bad after all?
7) How can
I argue that Paul’s limitation on women doesn’t apply today but not apply the
same argument on homosexuality?
Great
question. Context. The role of women in certain first-century churches has
nothing whatsoever to do with the moral issue of doing anything sexual outside
of heterosexual marriage. The point is, they are not related. What I have found
to be true is that most Christians have no idea what Paul really meant in those
texts which speak of women “being submissive” etc. Witherington, III has done
the best work on this I think (e.g., http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/bibleandculture/2009/10/why-arguments-against-women-in-ministry-arent-biblical.html)
What
most people think is that people are capriciously following some texts (to pick
on the gays) while ignoring other texts like ones about women. That’s simply
false. If Jesus/Paul really taught that women should be limited at all times
and all places like they do about homosexual practice, then we had better be
limiting women! But, that’s not what they taught. (E.g., at no point is women
in leadership or ministry called a sin!)
Other
common charges:
Jews
and the early Christians were only talking about raping people or visiting
prostitutes.
That’s
false. That’s not what the ancient data demonstrates.
They
had no idea of a loving, monogamous gay relationship.
That’s
false. Greeks and Romans had long-term, gay relationships.
Ancient
Greeks, Romans, and Jews didn’t know anything of sexual orientation.
That’s
false. They didn’t use that term, but they talk about that idea throughout the
literature.
The
term “homosexual” is a modern term, not found in the Bible.
That’s
true. So what? The concept of same-sex attraction
and behavior is spoken of throughout
Greek and Roman literature, and same-sex behavior is spoken throughout the
Bible.
It’s
all about love.
Yes
and no. It’s all about “agape” love, not “eros” love. Christians are commanded
to “agape” love everyone; we have very, very strict rules about who we “eros”
love. (Remember: Jews were extremely weird in their ancient contexts about sexual behavior. Egyptians could legally marry their siblings! Nearly everyone, besides some high-class philosophers, had the "anything goes" mentality in the ancient world.)
It’s
my body; who cares?
God
does. He designed us. He designed human sexuality.
I
have a strong inclination. I can act on it because it’s only natural.
Not
in Christianity. In the Christian worldview, our inclinations most certainly cannot be trusted. We’re all tainted by
sin. The very last thing we should do is to trust what seems “natural.” Moreover,
who cares if it seems “natural”? It’s “natural” to have sex, but I’m not
morally allowed to rape; etc. Morality is not “what is,” but “what ought to
be.” And you cannot get an “ought from an is.”
This
just spreads hate and death.
At
no point in the entire teaching of Jesus or the early church are we told to go
make fun of or go hurt people who sin. When a person does that, s/he is NOT
acting like Jesus. Our job is to get people to Jesus; Jesus does the rest.
Those
are my quick thoughts. I hope you can read/listen to the stuff I suggested.
It’ll help, I think.
