Homosexuality Quickscan
The true "orientation" of Christians is not what we are by constitution, but what we are by choice.
John R. W. Stott
H
omosexuality — a word with greatly differing connotations. On the one hand are gay liberationists celebrating their emergence from the closet with odes to the tune of "Gay is okay!" On the far distant hand are "queer bashers" intent on harassing individuals they consider to be fair game for cruelty.
In between rests uneasily a spectrum of folks — Christian and agnostic, trendy and traditional — trying to make sense of the still-evolving understanding of the causes and realities of homosexuality. Some push more toward tolerance, others toward condemnation, but they want to do it with understanding rather than bumper-sticker philosophies.
But the fact remains: homosexuality causes crises. For the one who discovers personal affection for the same sex. For parents and other relatives who learn of it. For a society facing issues of public health and human rights. And for a church whose sons and daughters veer from the standards of the centuries.
The crisis we'll focus on here is the personal one: the crisis of those who confront their homosexuality as well as those affected by that discovery.
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Much can be said about homosexual orientation and behavior — Is it chosen or discovered? — but I'll leave that for others to debate. The assumption in this chapter is that homosexual orientation is not, in itself, a sin. It may be a given at birth, or it may be chosen somehow through complex psychosocial processes not completely known or understood, even by the gay person. But whatever the cause of the orientation, what one does with it is a choice. Therefore, in accord with the Scriptures, homosexual behavior is wrong, just ...
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