Answers to Follow-Up Questions to the Sermon on Homosexuality
By Steve Mathewson

Here are several follow-up questions I received in response to last Sunday’s sermon about homosexuality and the charge that Christians act like they hate gay people. I have tried to answer these as concisely as possible.

What is the best answer for this question: “Are you for gay marriage?” How can you be truthful in your answer and still not offend the other person?

First, it may not be possible to be truthful and avoid offending the other person. As Jesus said, “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also (John 15:20). We cannot compromise the truth. However, we should do our best to answer in a non-offensive way. This means stating our position calmly and gently even as we speak firmly and clearly. To put it another way, we cannot compromise the truth of Scripture, but we must pay careful attention to our tone (how we communicate it). If we can avoid an angry, “in your face” tone, there is a greater chance that we can get our message across. As Proverbs 25:15 says: “Through patience a ruler can be persuaded, and a gentle tongue can break a bone.” Carrie Prejean, Miss California, recently fielded this question in the Miss America pageant and modeled the kind of tone that is appropriate for Christians. A video clip of her answer is posted on You Tube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCvXPKDrv-8). We would do well to imitate her tone, even if the content of her answer was not as clear or solid as it might have been.

Do you endorse Gay-Straight Alliances (GSAs) and encourage Christian students to participate in their school’s GSA?

No. What I encourage Christian students to do is to reach out in love to students who belong to a GSA. Often, I have heard Christians mock and express contempt towards GSAs and those who participate in them. This contributes to the perception that Christians hate gay people. In my opinion, some Christian students may even choose to attend certain meetings and events sponsored by a GSA in order to reach out in love to the participants. But I do not encourage membership in or commitment to GSAs based on their agendas. As I review the web-sites of GSAs, particularly the Illinois Safe School Alliance, I detect an agenda that goes beyond stopping violence and verbal abuse against students who are GLBTQ (Gay, Lesbian, Bi-Sexual, Trans-Gender, and Questioning). Rather, it seeks to normalize a GLBT identity as a “difference” and to deny that it is a moral issue. Expressions like “harassment,” “anti-gay violence,” and “discrimination” get applied to those who believe that same sex behavior is wrong even if this view is expressed in a kind, gentle way – similar to the way that Carrie Prejean, Miss California, recently expressed her convictions that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

How should we respond to gay or lesbian people who say, “God made me this way”?

Once again, it is important to respond in a kind, gentle tone. We must realize, too, that those who make this kind of a statement are often experiencing a great deal of emotional pain. They do not view their sexual orientation as something they have chosen. Rather, they view is it as simply part of their make-up as a person. Some will even say that it is the way that God made them. What we need to communicate is that same-sex attraction stems from a complex set of factors including genetic make-up, parental influence, friendships (or lack of them), molestation, and the influence of peers and media. This is the conclusion of Stanton L. Jones and Mark A. Yarhouse in their book, Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church’s Moral Debate. I highly recommend it if you want a more in-depth discussion of this issue. Theologically, we need to communicate that same-sex attraction is a result of the fall of humanity into sin. It is not something that God created in certain people, nor was it part of his original design for human sexuality. Same sex attraction stems from our brokenness in the same way that the desire for heterosexual relations outside of marriage or the strong inclination toward substance abuse or alcoholism or gluttony are all symptoms of our sinful condition. The message we want to communicate is that God offers a new identity to those who struggle with sinful desires of all kinds, including same-sex attraction. This identity is found in Christ – in whose name we are washed, sanctified (set in right standing with God), and justified (declared righteous with respect to the demands of God’s law). The key text here is 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. It may help to point out that all of us can relate to at least one of the “vices” in verses 9-10. But as verse 11 says, we can move out of that list into the list of those who have been washed, sanctified, and justified in Christ. Now this does not mean that all the desires go away. But the presence of a desire – even one that is horribly intense – does not mean that the desire is legitimate or is from God.

You said last Sunday that you didn’t have time to comment on Genesis 19:1-8 as well as Judges 19:16-30. How do these passages factor into the debate about homosexuality?

In Genesis 19:1-8, the men of the city of Sodom surround Lot’s house and demand that Lot bring out the men who were visiting him “so that we may know them.” The story in Judges 19:16-30 is quite similar. Some revisionists say that the men of Sodom in Genesis 19 simply wanted information, that is, to know whether or not Lot’s visitors were spies. However, the term “know” in Genesis 19:5 is certainly a euphemism for sexual relations as it is a few sentences later in 19:8 (and in Genesis 4:1). Revisionists who acknowledge that the term “know” refers to sexual relations argue that the passage is condemning rape – not same-sex relationships of mutual consent. Then, regardless of their view on whether “know” refers to sexual relations or not, revisionists typically argue that the sin of the men of Sodom was inhospitality. After all, in Ezekiel 16:49, God criticizes Sodom for inhospitality to the poor and needy. However, while the stories in Genesis 19:1-8 and Judges 19:16-30 do not “prove” by themselves that same-sex behavior is sin, they give absolutely no support to the idea that same-sex behavior is acceptable as long as it is in a monogamous relationship between two consenting adults. The Law of Moses is clear, in Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13, that same-sex behavior is prohibited by God and is “detestable.”