by jimwalton » Tue Jul 31, 2018 5:08 pm
I'm guessing you posted to this forum because you think that Christians who think homosexuality is wrong are wrong themselves, since God created you gay. Isn't it odd that sexual orientation speaks so loudly to our spiritual lives? Our concern is supposed to be to seek God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be found in Christ, and to walk in the ways of God. Yet there is this almost obsession with sexuality as if it's the most important part of our relationship with God. Possibly, as 1 Cor. 14.1 says, we should focus on the more important things.
Secondly, though, I can say with quite a bit of confidence that no one knows the origins of homosexual orientation. While research is going on continually, the weight of evidence so far (in the research) is that homosexuality is not inborn but is a learned behavior/orientation. In Science magazine, author Julie Borg writes that a thorough review of research shows little evidence for the "born this way" narrative, though over 50% of the U.S. adult population think gays and lesbians are so born. "But," she writes, "Lawrence Mayer, a biostatistician, and Paul McHugh, a psychiatrist, both from Johns Hopkins University department of psychiatry, examined over 200 leading, peer-reviewed studies from social science, psychology, and biology and found science does not support much of what the general public, politicians, and policy-makers believe about homosexuality. Their 143-page reviewappears in the fall 2016 issue of the journal The New Atlantis."
Third, homosexuality isn't a sin by general consensus but according to the Bible (Rom 1.24-32; 1 Tim.1.10). It's not a populist movement or morals by consensus but what the Bible teaches.
Fourth, it's a misguided argument to claim that become something is natural for us we should not call it sin. It's like claiming we're not accountable for whatever comes naturally to us. But this is not at all how the Bible speak of sin. There are instead all kinds of predispositions, inborn tendencies and desires, and even natural inclinations—all unchosen—that that Bible considers to be sin. Why would we put same-sex attraction in a different category than any of the other proclivities? Jesus said sin comes from the heart and we are spiritually and morally accountable for it (Mk. 7.21). And this assessment is in no way lessened by the possibility that we come by it naturally or were born that way.
The Bible rejects the idea that only freely chosen acts are morally culpable—actually the opposite. the very nature of sin is that it is not freely chosen. We are in bondage to sin but are still accountable to God for our actions. We just can't hold to the idea that homosexual orientation is morally neutral because it is involuntary.
I'm guessing you posted to this forum because you think that Christians who think homosexuality is wrong are wrong themselves, since God created you gay. Isn't it odd that sexual orientation speaks so loudly to our spiritual lives? Our concern is supposed to be to seek God, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, to be found in Christ, and to walk in the ways of God. Yet there is this almost obsession with sexuality as if it's the most important part of our relationship with God. Possibly, as 1 Cor. 14.1 says, we should focus on the more important things.
Secondly, though, I can say with quite a bit of confidence that no one knows the origins of homosexual orientation. While research is going on continually, the weight of evidence so far (in the research) is that homosexuality is not inborn but is a learned behavior/orientation. In Science magazine, author Julie Borg writes that a thorough review of research shows little evidence for the "born this way" narrative, though over 50% of the U.S. adult population think gays and lesbians are so born. "But," she writes, "Lawrence Mayer, a biostatistician, and Paul McHugh, a psychiatrist, both from Johns Hopkins University department of psychiatry, examined over 200 leading, peer-reviewed studies from social science, psychology, and biology and found science does not support much of what the general public, politicians, and policy-makers believe about homosexuality. Their 143-page reviewappears in the fall 2016 issue of the journal The New Atlantis."
Third, homosexuality isn't a sin by general consensus but according to the Bible (Rom 1.24-32; 1 Tim.1.10). It's not a populist movement or morals by consensus but what the Bible teaches.
Fourth, it's a misguided argument to claim that become something is natural for us we should not call it sin. It's like claiming we're not accountable for whatever comes naturally to us. But this is not at all how the Bible speak of sin. There are instead all kinds of predispositions, inborn tendencies and desires, and even natural inclinations—all unchosen—that that Bible considers to be sin. Why would we put same-sex attraction in a different category than any of the other proclivities? Jesus said sin comes from the heart and we are spiritually and morally accountable for it (Mk. 7.21). And this assessment is in no way lessened by the possibility that we come by it naturally or were born that way.
The Bible rejects the idea that only freely chosen acts are morally culpable—actually the opposite. the very nature of sin is that it is not freely chosen. We are in bondage to sin but are still accountable to God for our actions. We just can't hold to the idea that homosexual orientation is morally neutral because it is involuntary.