Is it possible to be gay and Christian?

Galileo was persecuted for revealing what we now know to be the truth regarding Earth’s place in our solar system. Today, the issue is homosexuality, and the persecution is not of one man but of millions. Will Christian leaders once again be on the wrong side of history? — USA Today

Many argue that the church's traditional teaching on homosexuality is mistaken — they cite the fact that the church's teaching on the role of women, slavery, and divorce has changed over the years.

What did Jesus say about homosexuality? For those who have lingering doubts, dust off your Bibles and reacquaint yourself with the teachings of Jesus. You won't find a single reference to homosexuality. There are teachings on money, lust, revenge, divorce, fasting and a thousand other subjects, but there is nothing on homosexuality. Strange, don't you think, if being gay were such a moral threat? On the other hand, Jesus spent a lot of time talking about how we should treat others. First, he made clear it is not our role to judge. It is God's. And, second, he commanded us to love other people as we love ourselves. Indeed, Jesus embraced those outcast by the church leaders of the time, whether they were tax collectors, prostitutes, heretics or whatever.

The suffering that gay and lesbian people have endured at the hands of religion is incalculable, but they can look expectantly to the future for vindication. Scientific facts, after all, are a stubborn thing. Even religious beliefs must finally yield to them as the church in its battle with Galileo ultimately realized. Watching the growing conflict between medical science and religion over homosexuality is like watching a train wreck from a distance. You can see it coming for miles and sense the inevitable conclusion, but you're powerless to stop it. The more church leaders dig in their heels, the worse it's likely to be.

Comment

Christianity is in danger of squandering its moral authority by continuing its pattern of discrimination against gays and lesbians in the face of mounting scientific evidence that sexual orientation has little or nothing to do with choice. To the contrary, whether sexual orientation arises as a result of the mother's hormones or the child's brain structure or DNA, it is almost certainly an accident of birth. The point is this: Without choice, there can be no moral culpability. — Oliver "Buzz" Thomas, Baptist minister

It amazes me when I looked at California and saw churches that had nothing to say about police brutality, nothing to say when a young black boy was shot while he was wearing police handcuffs, nothing to say when they overturned affirmative action, nothing to say when people were being relegated into poverty, yet they were organizing and mobilizing to stop consenting adults from choosing their life partners. I am tired of seeing ministers who will preach homophobia by day, and then after they're preaching, when the lights are off they go cruising for trade. We know you're not preaching the Bible, because if you were preaching the Bible we would have heard from you. We would have heard from you when people were starving in California - when they deregulated the economy and crashed Wall Street you had nothing to say. When Bush took us to war chasing weapons of mass destruction that weren't there you had nothing to say. But all of a sudden, when Proposition 8 came out, you had so much to say. — Rev Al Sharpton

As a sociologist, I know from my colleagues in my field that research indicates that people do not choose to be homosexuals. Whatever it is that creates that orientation occurs so early in the physical/social development of the individual that decision-making on this matter is never an option. Furthermore, while believing that God can do anything, I have strongly pointed out that sexual orientation does not normatively change even for those who have had deep spiritual experiences and who have had extensive counseling. It is interesting to note that even the leaders of the Exodus ministries have recently declared that while it is possible for homosexuals to change their behavior and enter into heterosexual marriages that the tendencies towards same-gender attraction is likely to continue throughout the lifespan of gay and lesbian persons. People on Christian radio have portrayed gays as insatiable, promiscuous people, which they are not, and they describe gay people as fungus on society that must be exterminated. What we're seeing is a growing awareness among evangelicals that they have oversimplified, made false judgments and been very, very mean to the gay and lesbian community. — Rev Dr Tony Campolo

People say that being bisexual, gay, lesbian is wrong, yeah! In the bible it does say that God doesn’t like that. But it also says that God accepts all his children no matter what. — 16 year old gay youth

There are so many issues crying out for concern and application by the church of its resources, and here we are with this kind of extraordinary obsession. — Archbishop Desmond Tutu, calling on Africa's Anglican church to overcome its "obsession" with the issue of gay priests and same-sex marriages

Coming out as gay or lesbian can be especially difficult for African Americans. More is at stake. They don't have as many places to go in the gay and lesbian community. Black gays and lesbians often depend more heavily on their community than white people do. And the mainstream African-American church has traditionally been a safe harbor, a key social institution, not just a place of worship. — Beverly Greene, St John's University

I want to tell you a story: I am gay and have been a very outspoken gay person and I have always had a tremendous compassion for people in general. During the last two years God has shown me His Truth, and the only Truth. I have been on an amazing road with God, with no shortage of miracles, and through all this I just realise each and every day how wonderful God is, and how much love, compassion and patience He has. I believe that God has called me to work with gay people very specifically, and I am also writing a book at present about my life and how I have experienced everything. I have been in contact with so many people and healing ministries, and I have had so much resistance and rejection from Churches and Christians (and also amazing support from others). This is really sad as God is a God of love and compassion, and He is like that even though He doesn’t condone our behaviour. I don’t believe any more that gay people are born like that, but rather that most gay people have been sexually, emotionally or verbally abused, and I am an example of this as well. The time has come to approach gay people without quoting scriptures from the Bible, and saying things like ‘this is from the devil’, or ‘you are going to hell’. The time has come to realise that inside most gay people is someone who has been abused when they were small, and this small child is crying out for help. The time is now to tell all gay people of the love and compassion of Jesus Christ, and to approach this in a way that does not necessarily suit our own frame of reference, but rather displays the love and compassion of God and how badly He wants to welcome His children home. It takes so much for any gay person to go somewhere for help, and I am a testimony of how often I have been rejected. We have a responsibility to be there for all people, and should we not follow God’s example? For the gay people out there: look to God and not to people, and He will show you peace, love and compassion beyond what you could ever imagine. He is wonderful and almighty. Let us start to make the difference and not wait for others because we can and we will. I would love to hear from you! — Louis

The conflict between 'homosexuality' and Christianity is historically recent and the result of fraudulent propaganda, which may well be related to the wide introduction of the contraceptive pill, the 'sexual emancipation' of women, and the rise of modern feminist movements. The common current allegation that the Bible particularly denounces 'homosexuality' is flawed. Thus those few over-frequently quoted verses of the Bible that are repeatedly claimed to support the allegation are always taken out of context, and none of them anyway are directly from Jesus Christ Himself. The context of the verses in question far from singles out 'homosexuality' as sinful but cites it along with other (hetero)sexual activities, within then contemporary complaints about promiscuous sexual conduct in general. The dictionary definition of 'homosexuality' in fact does not presume conduct (active homosexuality) at all, yet the term is regularly misused such that it is coming to wrongly presuppose involved sexual activity. Thus, correctly defined, the term homosexuality refers to orientation with or without sexual involvement. Accordingly the commonly applied concept of treating 'celibacy' and 'homosexuality' as strict alternatives is totally flawed. Unfortunately society in general does not appear to understand the correct definition of the word 'homosexual' at all. In the light of all this, I do not understand at all how the Roman Catholic Church can justify its frequent pronouncements that homosexuality is sinful. Surely Catholic theologians realise that their arguments are false. I can only conclude that that institution has deviated from the truth by reason of political expediency, and I find that to be religiously unacceptable. Every time there is such a pronouncement, harassment of gay people is exacerbated and the declarations are therefore incitement to crime. The pronouncements are never accompanied by any ameliorating counter-complaint about violence against gay people. Nor are they accompanied by any equivalently levied complaint about heterosexual misconduct such as adultery, promiscuous pre-marital sex, etc, etc. I realise that the Christian churches in their understanding of original sin recognise that sin is inevitable, but that God provides forgiveness. However to single out gay activity or orientation as being in any way uniquely sinful, or particularly more sinful than other, but heterosexual, behaviour or conditions is a total nonsense. — Raymond