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Homosexuality wrong ?Biblical perspectives.Homosexuality wrong, and homosexuality is a sin, and not forgetting homosexuality in the Bible are all strong emotive phrases. Not many people are neutral on the subject. Sex and sexuality are of course core in life. Without them species would simply die out. Many creatures are in fact hermaphrodite, carrying both sexes in one animal. For example, when snails copulate, each fertilizes the eggs of the other. On the other hand, all mammals are either male or female, though it is not uncommon to see same-sex creatures like cows and dogs rutting with each other. With animals (other than humans) there can be no 'homosexuality wrong' or 'homosexuality is a sin'. Only humans recognise the rightness and wrongness of things. Without a doubt, in the Christian world, virtually all Believers would say that God's first choice is a harmonious, faithful, heterosexual relationship. Such is the Christian's calling, but how many actually achieve it? Even in the Christian context it is doubtful that more than fifty percent of Christians realise such an ideal after conversion to Christ. It is simply is a very high calling that few of God's fallen creatures will ever realise. Even more so if we accept Jesus's word, that simply looking at another person with lust in the heart is, spiritually speaking, just as wicked as adultery itself. Speaking candidly, and forcefully, he commanded us to 'pluck out the eye'. He was obviously not literally speaking, but we cannot avoid or dismiss the ernestness of His powerful words. Beyond the Christian world, most would certainly agree to the harmonious and heterosexual connotations, but in a more honest moment, would acknowledge only lip-service to faithfulness. Sexual liasons outside of marriage are for many the norm in today's society. "Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent actus with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." - Romans 1:27. There is little doubt what the apostle Paul would say in answer to the question, Is homosexuality Wrong? If we were to list all sexual relationships, in no particular order, we might come up with the following:
One could add others no doubt. The heterosexual, unfaithful marriageI think this we would agree, is the kind of relationship the vast majority of people today accept. Whilst dreading that their partners might commit adultery, they indulge themselves. The average Frenchman for example has 13 sexual partners in a lifetime, I believe. The rest of the world is probably not that different.Within Christian marriage, even the clergy, the rate of divorce and adultery is rising. Most of these liasons are clandestine, and never reach the light of day, but increasingly even well known Christian ministers and writers are coming out into the open, telling their stories, the pain and sometimes the healing of the relationship. Faithful and natural, outside of marriage.It is widely acknowledged today that many young couples would no sooner marry before having explored their sexual relationship, than they would buy a new car without having test driven it. It does carry a certain logic. In many parts of Europe today, couples live together, often for years, perhaps only marrying when they decide to have children.In a survey in the Netherlands, over 100 Catholic priests have openly acknowledged that they are in a sexual relationship with a woman. Forbidden by Rome to marry, they have made a different choice. Is the faithful Priest and his woman relationship, outside of marriage, more or less wrong than the faithful homosexual relationship? Can such a priest comment on the question, Is Homosexuality Wrong? The point?So, what am I driving at? What has all this to do with answering the question, Is Homosexuality Wrong? Is homosexuality a choice? What have Christians and homosexuality to do with each other?Many of those shouting the loudest in the anti Homosexuality lobby, have in fact themselves indulged in extramarital affairs. Having themselves strayed from faithfulness in marriage, are they in any position to shout the odds at others who themselves are living in other-than-God's-best relationships? Jesus had far more stinging words for hypocrites than any others, yet always calling humanity to come on up to the higher place, made possible by living in fellowship with Him. In our hierarchy, almost all will agree that the faithful, heterosexual relationship, within the bonds of marriage, is the safest, most ideal way, as declared in the Bible. But which lies second on our list? The unfaithful heterosexual relationship, or the faithful homosexual liason? Certainly, I would suggest, that no one who has been unfaithful to his/her partner, is qualified to make any pronouncements on whether homosexuality is wrong or not.
- Romans 3: 23 and again, the words of Jesus, "Let him who is without sin cast the first stone." Final thoughtsLet us keep the Anglican community in our prayers at this time. At the Lambeth conference, this summer, bishops with be wrestling with this hard question, Is Homosexuality wrong? It will certainly challenge even the most spiritual.Go from Homosexuality wrong to A Family Affair
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