I think it’s time that I weigh in on the debate currently raging in our country over homosexuality and more specifically over gay marriage. I’m going to focus primarily on the moral and theological sides of the debate regarding homosexuality and much less on the debate over gay marriage as I am a pastor, not a politician. I’m not writing this because I think I’m going to say something groundbreaking or that I am in some way uniquely qualified to speak to the subject, but rather because with the proliferation of opinions on either side of the debate I find responses that don’t seek to vilify one side or the other to be sparse and I feel a duty to help alleviate that lack which I perceive to exist.
I mentioned the title of a song in the title of this blog post, the song is "Same Love" by Macklemore. This song won an award recently for “best song with a social message” of the year. The best social message song, according to our culture, is about the moral heinousness of opposing gay marriage and homosexuality, that by itself is telling. I think this song is actually a really good summary of the general public opinion on the topic (or more so the media’s opinion thereof) so I think I can discuss it and through it the entire debate. So for the format of this article, I’m going to discuss the lyrics to “Same Love” by Macklemore in order to talk about homosexuality. This should be fun.
“When I was in the 3rd grade
I thought that I was gay
Cause I could draw, my uncle was
And I kept my room straight
A bunch of stereotypes all in my head
A pre-conceived idea of what it all meant”
One of the main themes of the song is the pre-conceptions connected to homosexuality and I’m absolutely on board with this one. Don’t call someone gay because they don’t like sports, or because they like chick flicks, or for whatever reason you think justifies it. A person’s hobbies and activities have no bearing on their sexuality and I have no doubt that our stereotyping on the issue has caused many a young man or woman with tendencies considered non-standard to their gender to question their sexuality unnecessarily.
“The right-wing conservatives think it's a decision
And you can be cured with some treatment and religion
Man-made, rewiring of a pre-disposition”
“And I can't change
Even if I tried
Even if I wanted to”
To any homosexual reading this, if this is the impression you have gotten from the church, I am so, so very sorry. We don’t expect you to “fix” yourself. That’s legalism, and it’s been a struggle of ours in the church since, well since well before we were even known as a church. So I’m sorry, I truly am, if you have been led to believe that I expect you to change and be fixed and whole before you come to my savior. Because he only accepts the broken, because if anyone thinks they're not broken, then they’re lying to themselves. He’s not here for people who think they have no problems. Neither treatment nor religion will “cure you” because what you have, what we all have is a disease far beyond medicine or ritual’s ability to heal.
That said, I have to confirm part of this as well. We do think it’s a decision. On the other hand, we also believe that you may certainly be pre-disposed to it. But that’s not justification for it. I’m pre-disposed to lust after women who are not my wife, to envy those who have what I want, and to give into pride and believe myself to be always in the right. But that doesn’t make it okay for me to do those things. But I still do. I still fail, and I know you do too.
And that’s okay. Because we have a Savior who didn’t. Too often we focus on our sin, when we should be looking at the one who bore that sin to the cross. So yeah, we think it’s a decision. And we think that being pre-disposed to it isn’t justification for giving into it. But we also think messing up is okay. We believe that we all do. That there is only one person who didn’t. That his name is Jesus, and that he loves you just as much as he loves me. Just as much as he loves anyone. And that he desperately wants you to love him back and to find the healing that comes in his love.
“America the brave
Still fears what we don't know”
I have a short personal point to make here. I am sick and tired of being told that I’m afraid of homosexuals. I am not. I’ve had co-workers who are gay who were my closest friends at those places of work. I’ve known numerous gay individuals and have been good friends with a few and in those friendships I have done my very utmost to let them know that while I disagree with their decisions, I still love them and want the best for them. I DO believe that engaging in homosexual behavior is wrong, but that doesn’t mean I’m afraid of it. That would be like saying I’m afraid of thieves because I think stealing is wrong. It’s just an egregious logical fallacy to say that I’m “homophobic” because I am not accepting of homosexual behavior and I’m getting tired of it.
“But we paraphrase a book written
3,500 hundred years ago
I don't know”
Well, I’m glad he has the guts to say he doesn’t know, because that’s pretty obvious here. The whole issue here is that believers who don’t support homosexual behavior nearly unanimously do so out of a refusal to paraphrase the scripture. They do so out of a dogged devotion to Sola Scriptura. The whole problem here is that we hold tenaciously to the belief that we don’t have the right to rewrite scripture to be culturally expedient. So saying that the issue is those who OPPOSE homosexual behavior paraphrasing? I just don’t know what to say to that. And where do you get the 3500 figure? The New Testament would’ve been around 1900-1970 years ago depending on book and the Old Testament was likely over the course of an almost two thousand year period before it. So other than sounding right, I have no clue what date he’s going for here.
“If I was gay
I would think hip-hop hates me
Have you read the YouTube comments lately
"Man that's gay"
Call each other faggots
Behind the keys of a message board
A word rooted in hate
Gay is anonymous with the lesser”
I agree strongly with the sentiment here in two main ways. One is that the culture of internet tough guys and the expression of hateful speech in anonymous forums is disgusting. One of the worst things about the internet is that it gives people a way to voice their meanest and most spiteful thoughts in a manner that is separated from the natural byproduct of community backlash. I despise the outpouring of hate towards all groups in the anonymous forum of the internet and pray that Christians would not take part in it. The second way is in the use of gay or faggot in a derogatory fashion in the cultural lingo. I think it’s terrible and it needs to stop. In my view, even keeping full eye on the sinfulness of homosexual behavior, throwing that sin back into someone’s face in the form of a derogatory slur is not loving in the tiniest bit and we should shun the practice as believers.
“Kids are walkin' around the hallway
Plagued by pain in their heart
A world so hateful
Someone would rather die
Than be who they are”
My conclusion is this. I believe homosexual behavior is wrong because I believe in a God who doesn’t change because of a great marketing campaign. But you know what? I think we in the church have heard that enough already. So I want to focus on the other wide of the coin.
Acting like homosexuality somehow makes you unable to be loved by God, saying things that make those struggling with homosexual desires feel like they are unwelcome in his presence because of their temptations, speaking in a way that says “I am better than you because my sins aren’t as bad as yours” is wrong. It’s hypocritical, it’s unchristian, and it’s sinful. Because you know what? We have created a culture where teens struggling with homosexuality feel like the church hates them, and by extension that our God does as well, when the truth is so, so very far from that. We in the church know homosexual behavior is wrong, I think we’ve got that one down pat. I think it’s time we reinforce that God loves homosexuals just as much as anyone else. And it’s time we do to. Not accepting sin, but accepting them. Helping them to see that they can't fix themselves and that we don’t expect them to. But that we have a savior who is the great healer, and the one who lifts us up beyond what we are capable of on our own.
