Homosexuality

A growing number of people identify themselves as homosexual. This has resulted in a never ending controversy over the place of 'homosexuals' both within the Church and in civil society as a whole. Many claim that the Bible has failed to adequately address the issue.

The decision to be homosexual or to engage in homosexual acts is rarely, if ever, made freely, or in a vacuum. Many homosexuals say that this is how they 'choose' to be and live, and I don't doubt that, but that does not mean that the choice was uninfluenced. We now know that some people are born with a genetic predisposition to homosexuality. This means that regardless of what the person ever desired to be or be attracted to, long before a conscious decision ever crossed their mind, the DNA hardwired instinct within them would 'draw' and 'urge' them to homosexual activities. Even, in some extreme cases a person consciously desired to be heterosexual and conform to society, to religion, or to their personal freely chosen concept of morality -- they have found themselves at a loss to control the genetic homosexual orientation at work within them. It's not an uninfluenced choice based solely on a person's desires.

The bible confirms this. Rom. 1:25-28 relates that as a punishment, God gave men up to their passions - to be driven and led by desires not directly under their control. It explicitly names homosexuality as one of the passions men were given over to. We rebelled against God. Our bodies rebelled against us. Our bodies are no longer completely subject to the Will - but it (the flesh) now has a mind of its own, in a sense, urges and pulls us to do things not consciously willed or chosen.

Rom 7:15-23 echoes this truth. Not confined solely to homosexuality but neither excluding it -- it relates that regardless of what we hold to be Good or True, no matter how much we want to do it or try to do it - we have impulses pushing us in ways that we may detest.

A good illustration of this is the Commander and brother of the last Tsar of Russia - Nicholas Nikolaivitch. I read how he was a massive, domineering military man. Commanded the respect and obedience of all Russia's forces during WWI. They even wanted to depose Nicholas II and make him the Tsar. He was plagued with an undesired homosexuality. He was deeply religious and hated the urge within him. Fought it. Struggled with it. Married but could never have children. Homosexuality was not a choice for him. It was a curse. It was a handicap he was born with as surely as blindness or deafness would have been. Just as physical gifts or handicaps are beyond our choice to be born with or without, so also are behavioral traits beyond our control. Some of us are afflicted with greater or lesser intensities of any number of dispositions, but we all have some cross to bear that will impel us to act contrary to the Commandments of God. Homosexuality is just one of them.

But we also have other influences - not genetic - that may lead people into homosexuality. I have known and spoken with many homosexuals in here. And I'm not limiting the psychological influences to the ones I've seen, or even saying that I completely understood it - but I am saying that people can become homosexual due to some sort of psychological pressures being exerted on them.

I've seen any number of men - usually young and scared - that became overwhelmed by violence or threats of violence and "choose" (again - not freely) that they would rather belong to a more dominant and protective man than risk constant beating or conflict. It's not rape. They may have even 'chosen' a man that never threatened them - but again, without the situation being what it was, they may never have reverted into that form of passivity. Psychological factors must play some sort of a role.

Then over time - they just grow into it. Learn to love it - I guess you'd say. Again, Jesus said "Whoever sins is a slave to sin" Jn 8:34. And I've met guys like this - had a neighbor that wasn't gay in the world, or even his first times to prison, heard stories about how he used to knock suckers out, but then after a series of events broke him down in life - now he's a flagrant homosexual - dresses like a girl, shaved legs, arched eyebrows, etc... We would talk. About God, religion, and he said he/she (as he refers to himself) tried and tried to go Christian - but stressed how hard it was to stop. He is definitely a 'slave' to homosexuality, to sin, as surely as an addict can be enslaved to crack cocaine. Sin is controlling.

Other dudes, the masculine types, maybe wouldn't have chosen to be gay under other circumstances, yet in an environment devoid of women and with no other outlet to vent their sexual urges - choose to mess with punks - now, too, they are enslaved to this sin. I met another guy that said he is just addicted to being humiliated and degraded - maybe for him it was an un-understood survival mechanism whereby when faced with an unpleasant circumstance beyond his ability to change or control, his mind decided to love that which was formerly hated to make an unbearable situation bearable. There are probably an infinite number of reasons why someone would or could be influenced to choose homosexuality - but once chosen, like all other sin, becomes addictive and controlling.

The whole Bible deals with the issue of sin in the world and in our lives. The Old Testament has more than a "couple lines" that identify homosexuality as sin, and as immoral. It's plainly evident that the Judeo-Christian God views homosexuality as a sin. But even the New Testament (for example, Jude 7, 2Pet 2:6-8; I Cor 6:9-10; Rev 21:8) affirm that homosexuality is a sin in God's eyes. The passages dealing with "sexual immorality" in general are just too numerous to cite.

No one likes to admit we're screwed up. It's easier to say that society is messed up or the views of the whole world are messed up. It's certainly easier on our self-esteem. Believe me, I know. I try and justify all my defects and especially my tendency to use violence as a solution to my problems over and over. It's a defect I still have.

But if we all lack a common standard - God - to conform our behaviors to - we have a billion definitions of Right and standards of morality, Conflict will surely arise. That is a recipe for disaster! A line has to be drawn at some point for order to be kept. We have instincts within us, that if let loose and unleashed would tear society to shreds. if the tendencies to Greed, and theft, and murder, and anger must be restrained in order for creation to live harmoniously, it's not too unreasonable for God to ask us to restrain the inducements to homosexuality also...

That's my view on homosexuality. Hope it answers your question.

Chris Hall