Please Note: I am not claiming that I know exactly what Jesus believes, but I’m looking at the evidence and making a conclusion.
Gay marriage is a topic that has not been treated with a lot of love by the Christian community at large. As a follower of Jesus I apologize for this unloving behavior. Maybe Christians should bring back the old motto WWJD because what would Jesus do? Not protest gay marriage. He had better things to do like heal the sick and love the poor. The truth is God loves gay people (He loves everyone) and I would go so far as to claim that His heart breaks for them as His so-called followers hurt them in their misguided beliefs. This has to be the case because a loving God would have to hate seeing the ones He loves suffering, especially when the suffering is driving them away from Him. The sad truth is I used to be one of these “misguided” Christians who said hurtful things thinking it was the right thing to do. The problem was when I was a new teen, a psychologist spoke at my church and claimed being gay is not genetic but a choice… that’ll screw with your head: (me) “It must be true because a professional told me it’s true, and it’s endorsed by my church… so why does everyone else say I’m wrong?” Fortunately, God has opened my eyes, and I can now offer a more informed stance on a topic that should never have become as big a deal as it has in Christianity… you’ll see why:
- Jesus never talks about homosexuality, so it clearly wasn’t an issue He was concerned about. What we do with our money, however, is one of His most popular topics, but most Christians ignore this because it hits too close to home (e.g. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Mat 6:21). Ultimately, it’s easier to judge someone else than to look at ourselves.
- If a gay couple wants to be married, even if Christians believe it is wrong, what right do we have for preventing them from being “legally” married? Christians don’t have to agree to hold the marriages in their churches (most gay people wouldn’t want to step foot in a church anyway), but there is no logical reason why the couple shouldn’t be able to commit to each other in a public ceremony that is recognized under governmental law.
- Christians need to be careful not to hold non believers to the same standards by which they decide to live. For instance, I can’t be angry at others for not reading their Bible and praying everyday like I do when they aren’t followers. So why do we do this when it comes to marriage?
- If Christians are against gay marriage because it goes against the “sanctity” of marriage, we should address the amount of divorce that happens because that’s more damaging to the “sanctity” than anything else.
- It’s easy to judge someone for being attracted to the same sex when you don’t have that temptation, but how can you be angry at someone for wanting to experience love in a mutually consenting, adult relationship? How can you be so heartless as to say if you’re not attracted to the opposite sex than you should be stuck feeling lonely all your life? That’s not loving of us.
Important ideas for Christians to consider before deciding on their stand:
- In today’s culture it’s pretty hard to define what a man and woman are. Body parts can be found in a man that are traditionally in a woman and vice versa. If you define men and women following the stereotypical roles, based on my experience (albeit limited) homosexual relationships typically end up with someone fitting into each of these roles too. For instance, one person ends up being more emotional and talkative and the other more logical and stoic.
- It’s safe to say God prefers heterosexual relationships because that’s how He originally made it as seen in the story of Adam and Eve. Logically this also makes sense because sex in a heterosexual relationship has more options (yes, I’m using sex in my argument). For instance, gay men can’t do “missionary position” and women have to use other tools because they lack a certain part… I’m guessing you know what that is. Thus, it seems to follow that God prefers heterosexual relationships, but that doesn’t mean He hates the other, especially when sex is still enjoyed by all parties involved.
- There are essentially four different types of gay. For lack of better terms there is ‘prison gay’, which is a way to assert dominance over someone; there is ‘farm boy gay’, which is when a man is so lonely even a goat can look sexually appealing (ew); there is ‘safe gay’, which is when the same sex offers a safety that the other doesn’t like when there’s been childhood abuse. Finally, there’s born gay. The first two are inappropriate because they are hurtful to others, the third is evidence healing is needed while the latter means the gay relationships would be more about wanting to love and be loved in return.
- The Bible was written in a time before humanity managed to screw up the world with estrogen infused food and water, and other changes to the environment that have genetic effects. Thus, I can’t help but assume that being born gay wasn’t always the issue it is today, which helps explain why it wasn’t discussed more in the Bible.
- When the Old Testament speaks harshly about homosexual acts it’s more about ‘prison gay’ and ‘lonely farm boy gay’. This would explain why stories of homosexual acts in the Old Testament are not about two men in love and more about gang rape (e.g. Sodom and Gomorrah).
- The Old Testament says that if someone is caught in a homosexual act they should be stoned, but in the same sections it also says this is the same punishment for adultery and disrespecting parents. Thus, they appear on the same level until you consider the 10 Commandments, which are essentially a summary of the most important rules of the Old Testament. These top 10 rules say nothing about homosexuality, but they do include adultery and honoring your parents. So why do Christians focus on gay marriage and not these two topics when they’re more important and so rampant in our society?
- The top 2 commands in the 10 Commandments, are very similar to each other since they both basically say don’t have idols, which means this idea is by far the most important thing for Jews and Christians to follow. And yet, in our culture we have idols like money, sports, work, school, addictions of all kinds, and even ourselves as demonstrated by our selfie obsessions. Maybe Christians should look more at this than homosexuality because they mean more to God.
- The only time homosexuality is in the New Testament is by Paul in Romans. He briefly mentions that God gave them over to unnatural relationships (Rom 1:26), but he then says: “You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse!” (Rom 2:1). It doesn’t get much clearer than that.
Conclusion: It’s sad how Christians have been so focused on the gay topic instead of what God values like loving Him and each other. It’s no wonder Christianity as a faith struggles in Western culture to be relevant when we’ve forgotten what’s important.
Rev. Chad David, www.ChadDavid.ca, learning to love dumb people