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Tuesday, 12 February 2013

The new age of Heterophobia

 The new age of Heterophobia


The vicar on Radio Four suggested that anyone who held the view that homosexual behaviour was wrong was most probably homophobic - they probably hated gays.

In other words there are now only two kinds of people in the world. Those who agree with homosexual behaviour, the good guys, and those who don't: the bad guys who must - inevitably - hate gays.

There is no longer a place in that vicar's world for people who believe, in good conscience and on solid grounds, that heterosexual behaviour between one man and one woman in marriage is the only right sexual behaviour.

In other words, we have entered the new world of, let's call it heterophobia, where we who only agree with heterosexual behaviour are the new hated enemy.

My own guess is that persecution of Christians in the West will arise from this quarter; that we will be persecuted, prohibited, fined or/and imprisoned one day for holding the sincere view that homosexual behaviour is sinful and wrong.

The (vast) difference between homophobia and a Christian attitude to homosexuality
 
It was convenient - but completely wrong - for the gay vicar to suggest that if you are against homosexual behaviour you hate gays. My guess is that the vicar knew full well what he was doing and that it was a manipulative attempt to lump everyone who disagrees with him into a hate bracket, where they become an easier target for the different but more obvious charge of hate crime. Tar those who disagree with homosexuality with a "hate" brush and you have produced an easier (not to mention nastier) target for elimination.

Tragically in the US there are some isolated groups that call themselves "Christian" who wear the hate badge proudly. But they do not represent the Jesus of Nazareth, portrayed in the Scriptures.

The Jesus of the Bible is just the opposite. When he meets someone whom he believes to be in the wrong, his heart is filled with compassion, not hate. In fact, he got himself in trouble for hanging out with the "bad guys" and had to defend his reputation by telling everyone that he came to "seek and to save the lost".

On one occasion when religious zealots brought before him a woman accused of adultery expecting him to damn her, he forgave her (but told her to go away and sin no more). Exactly the same attitude was to be found in his followers who had compassion on those they viewed as in error.

A Christian holds in her or his heart no hatred whatsoever towards those who practise homosexuality; exactly and precisely the opposite, they love gays. But they do believe that homosexual behaviour is sinful.

Why we believe homosexual behaviour is wrong
 
Why?  Why do Christians believe homosexual behaviour is wrong? Because it is the clear witness of Scripture, not to mention the witness of nature.

(1) God created men and women heterosexually
In the beginning God created a man and a woman (Genesis chapters 1-3) and throughout the Bible this is viewed as God's way of people living together in intimacy. Jesus pointed back to this as God's plan and ideal (Matthew 19:5-8). There are plenty of examples of men (for example marrying more than one wife) and some of women (for example prostituting themselves) moving outside of these boundaries in thought or deed (and who reading this blog hasn't been tempted to go outside God's boundaries in thought, at least?) but God's ideal and God's way from the beginning was always one man and one woman for life. And when you look at the history of the world, this pattern is borne out as the norm: nature teaches the same as Scripture.

(2) The fall of mankind  has messed all of us up sexually
Once the fall of mankind (Genesis 3) took place, though, sex - like everything else - became distorted. In some cases the servant became the master, enslaving people. In others cases sex itself became twisted, and as Paul puts it, men became captive to "shameful lusts" (Romans 1:26) and "abandoned natural relations with women." Relations between men and women are natural, and relations between men and men are unnatural. The same is said for women who "exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones".

We are all messed up sexually. For heterosexuals this twistedness will show itself up in unwanted temptations of lust and desire. For others, they may discover an attraction to their own sex, either from birth or perhaps through the corrupting influence of someone else. Both kinds, all kinds, of sexual messed-upness are wrong.

In a sex-mad world, we must all watch out for sexual temptation. Perhaps that is one of the misleading imbalances of the debate today. Chruches must not focus on one kind of sexual sin - perhaps giving the misleading impression that we are targeting homosexuality. Instead we must speak against every form of sexual twistedness, whether hetero or homo, and pray for repentance across the board.

Not surprisingly, since homosexual practice is wrong, it involves significant health risks. In a report by Dr J R Diggs, he says that "sexual relationships between members of the same sex expose gays, lesbians and bisexuals to extreme risks of sexually transmitted diseases, physical injuries, mental disorders and even a shortened life span." See the whole article here:  The Health Risks of Gay Sex by Dr J R Diggs. If we love people, we must tell them the truth (but the truth in this article is not pleasant reading).

(3) The Scriptures make it clear that homosexual behaviour is as wrong as heterosexual sin.
Adultery is wrong (Exodus  20:14) and so is homosexual behaviour (Leviticus 18:22, 20:13). God judged Sodom and Gomorrah for this sin (Genesis 19). Men who practise homosexual behaviour have become "inflamed with lust for one another" and are committing "indecent acts with other men." (Romans 1). No-one who practises this kind of behaviour will inherit the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).

The Scriptures Jesus commended (the Old Testament) and the Scriptures his apostles would write in his name (the New Testament) all point in the same direction: all sexual behaviour outside of one-man-one-woman marriage, whether heterosexual or homosexual, is wrong and sinful. 
 
(4) The silent witness of Scripture
Perhaps the most powerful witness of Scripture is consistently omitted in this debate. Focus is directed on the relatively few, around seven, Biblical texts that prohibit homosoexual behaviour. And the rest of Scripture is ignored. The rest of Scripture, the silent majority, is overwhelmingly heterosexual. The Bible opens and closes with a heterosexual marriage. Real in the case of Adam and Eve and figurative in the case of Christ and his Church. And everywhere between Genesis and Revelation is one ending stream of heterosexual marriages. Everywhere the Scriptures teach, esteem, exemplify, the marriage between one man and one woman, and nowhere is there even a single example of a gay homosexual marriage. This powerful silent witness of Scripture is as important -  perhaps even more so -  than the explicit texts.

So how should we respond in life?

(1) Let's not isolate one kind of wrong behaviour. Let us speak out against all sexual twistedness and  speak out against all deviations from God's norm.

(2) Let's understand why there is so great a concern, though, about this sin. There is a reason why Christians speak with heightened voice and deeper sadness about homosexual sin: the apostle Paul teaches that it as an indication of a culture moving even further from God and standing under the judgement of God: if heterosexual sin is step 1 away from God (Romans 1:24), homosexual sin is step 2 (Romans 2:26-27). The indecent acts men commit in homosexual behaviour, explain why Paul calls it 'unnatural' and why even unaided reason speaks against it.

(3) Let us love the Christian struggling with same-sex tendencies. Because we are all twisted sexually, some will find they are naturally drawn to their own sex. Although many may find that kind of attraction strange, it does happen. (A man with the gift of singleness once told me he found relationships with a woman strange.) Let us treat such fellow Christians with great kindness. In our love for them, we must  insist that practicing homosexual behavior is always wrong and the struggle they face may be THE STRUGGLE of their whole lives. But God will come to their aid, as he does for all who struggle. To those who were sinners of all kinds - including practising homosexuals - but who were then converted, Paul writes:

"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." (1 Corinthians 6:11)

(4) Let us not magnify this issue out of proportion. I have written over a hundred blogs. One on this issue is probably enough.

(5) Let us love the gay community. There is no place whatsoever, in Christian thinking, for rejecting gay people. Like all of us, they need the Good News of Jesus Christ too. 

Answering some common objections
 
How do we answer common objections to the Scripture's stance?

(1) "But most people in our country now think it's OK." The media, who are populated by a greater proportion of people who hold this view, have done a thorough job of popularising gay relationships and making them look 'natural'. Gay relationships appear everywhere including at this year's BAFTA awards. Prime Ministers and Presidents have joined the cue to approve of this sin. But a sin's acceptability or popularity does not make it right. In fact the rapid reversal of popular opinion on this matter in our country is the result of a tragic ignorance of God's Word and a sign of God's judgement upon us.

(2) "But don't gay people love each other?" By portraying gay couples kissing and holding hands,  gay relationships have hijacked the norm previously reserved for heterosexual relationships. But, again, it is possible for a human being to love what is unnatural and wrong. The world is filled with examples of human beings sincerely loving what is wrong. Any one of us can love what is wrong. The fact that we love something is not an argument for its rightness. The love of a thing is no indication propriety. In a twisted world we will discover many wrong loves. 

(3) "But aren't we are being anti-equality denying marriage to gays?" This is perhaps the most subtle argument of all, because it appeals to our sense of justice. And the gay lobby have successfully used this argument to place the gay marriage issue in the same category as that of the slave trade and equality between the sexes in the work place. 

But it is a confusion (a clever confusion, no doubt) to place these issues in the same category  for the following reason. Men and women of all colours and races, are made equal in the sight of God, and deserve equal treatment. Equality in this case is right and proper, it is equality among equals. But it is a confusion to equate equality between people to equality between relationships. Not all relationships are in point of fact equal. Some relationships are right (heterosexual marriage) and some relationships are wrong (gay 'marriage'). Homosexual and heterosexual relationships are not, in point of fact, equal, so it is a simple category mistake to lump the gay 'marriage' issue with the slavery issue. The reason for this identity is simple politics: it cloaks the gay issue with words such as "justice" equality" etc., which all people believe in, and therefore draws in the unwary and unthinking.

Homosexual people are equal to heterosexual people - we are all sinners in God's holy sight. But homosexual relationships are not equal to heterosexual relationships. 

A word to the church
We who love the Lord Jesus Christ and love the lost world he loved, must brace ourselves for opposition - and for deliberate and sustained misunderstanding. In particular, we will be accused of two crimes: (a) hating gays, which we do the opposite of,  and (b) treating them unequally, which again is false: we treat the people the same, but don't regard all relationships as equal.  But this is not at all surprising or new. In the first few centuries of the church rumours of all kinds about Christians went around unchecked. Some said that Christians ate babies at their initiation ceremonies. Others said that Christians worshipped the head of a donkey. Still others that they partook of orgies at their love feasts. None of these were true, of course.

In spite of the persecution (because of the persecution?), the church grew dramatically. Tertullian, the African Christian leader put the growth like this:

“We are but of yesterday, and we have filled every place among you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market-places, the very camp, tribes, companies, palace, senate, forum – we have left nothing to you but the temples of your gods.”

Perhaps through the persecution that surely looms ahead of faithful Christians, we too will see the church of Jesus Christ grow, flourish and deepen. 

1 comment:

  1. "Jesus Never Mentioned Homosexuality"

    When gays have birthdays, they don't mention everything they don't want but say positively what they do want.
    Likewise, Jesus didn't negatively list every sexual perversion He knew mankind would invent but positively stated that marriage involves only a man and a woman!

    (Also Google or Yahoo "USA - from Puritans to Impure-itans.")

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