Do you now or have you ever believed that homosexuality is a sin?

changeinbeliefAl Mohler sees the writing on the wall. A “new Moral McCarthyism” will soon be asking each Christian this question: “Do you now or have you ever believed that homosexuality is a sin?” Based on our answer, they stand ready to denounce us as backward, hateful bigots.

Mohler’s comments come in the wake of President Obama announcing that Pastor Louie Giglio would pray the invocation at his upcoming inauguration. A quick about face happened when a liberal watchdog group uncovered the fact that Giglio once preached an “anti-gay” message. It turns out that Giglio’s message was standard, orthodox Christian teaching on homosexuality, and hardly anti-gay as such things go. The Christian message has always been that all sinners need salvation, and to be a man or a woman, is to be a sinner. Sin comes in a variety of flavors, and homosexuality is just one of many. Sure some Christians have been more hateful and more vocal about that sin than others, but faithful Christian pastors, have always been careful to condemn the sin, and remind everyone that we are all equally guilty of offending a holy God.

Russell Moore commented on the outcry that the NY Times and others helped to circulate, as follows:

After a couple of days of firestorm from the Left, Giglio announced this morning that he would withdraw.

Here’s why this matters. The statement Giglio made that was so controversial is essentially a near-direct quotation from the Christian Scriptures. Unrepentant homosexuals, Giglio said (as with unrepentant sinners of all kinds) “will not inherit the kingdom of God.” That’s 1 Corinthians 6:9-10. Giglio said, “it’s not easy to change, but it is possible to change.” The Bible says God “commands all people everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30), the same gospel, Giglio says, “that I say to you and that you would say to me.”

The Christian faith in every expression has held for 2000 years that sexual immorality is sinful. This same Christian faith has maintained, again in every branch, that sexual expression outside of conjugal marriage is sin. And the Christian faith has maintained universally that all persons are sinners and that no sinner can enter the kingdom without repentance. This is hardly new.

The “shock” with which this so-called “anti-gay” stance is articulated by the Left is akin to the Pork Producers Association denouncing a Muslim Imam’s invitation because he is “anti-agriculture” due to Koranic dietary restrictions.

In fact, by the standards of this controversy, no Muslim imam or Orthodox Jewish rabbi alive can pray at a presidential inauguration.

Ed Stetzer wonders how America will respond to this latest example of the shunning of religious people from the townsquare:

This can be an important moment as America, the media, and President Obama’s administration to consider a simple question. Are people of faith no longer welcome as they continue to hold the beliefs they have held since their foundation? Must they jettison their sacred texts and adopt new views to be accepted as part of society? If they do not, will they be marginalized and demonized even as they serve the poor, care for the orphan, or speak against injustice?

Moore doesn’t wonder but declares, “When it is now impossible for one who holds to the catholic Christian view of marriage and the gospel to pray at a public event, we now have a de facto established state church.”

Moore goes on, and I encourage you to read his entire piece on this subject. But I think you get the picture. To even hint that you ever have believed or held that homosexuality is anything but commendable, upright behavior, is to break today’s moral code. If there is no forthright and frank repentance or clarification, then you are out of the “in club.” You are outside the bounds and not fit to speak in the public square. No, not even to merely pray at a public event.

Mohler’s piece explains this point further, and he also demonstrates that Giglio’s withdrawal was more of a dis-invitation than cordial back-out. Giglio was not so much saving face as standing by his principles, and ensuring that this furor dies down so as not to encourage a misunderstanding of the gospel. Maybe Giglio should have made a bigger to-do about his harsh treatment by the McCarthyites. Maybe he should have been firmer. There could be merit to these reflections, but we are not Giglio and don’t need to go there.

Instead, I think we should ponder why this takes us by surprise. Some aren’t surprised, but most are. We have been lulled to sleep by the compatibility of Protestant Christianity with America’s self-help capitalist gospel. We have been sold a bill of goods by well-intentioned practitioners of the American Christian cult. The cult that equates freedom and democracy, lady liberty and all she stands for, with the cross of Christ and the Bible’s gospel. No, the America which once taxed Baptists for not participating with the official state church in Massachusetts and elsewhere, the public which reveled in the printed tabloid’s lurid details of the public sex-lives of Alexander Hamilton and other leaders, and the humanistic upper class which once embraced Charles Finney and Billy Sunday’s religious appeal to reform the brutish man’s spirit by taking away his brandy — that is much like the America we find today who so readily condemns anyone who doesn’t embrace moral relativism and the libertarian virtue of the time.

Christianity in America today is far less persecuted and far more lightly treated than it has been in most other times and places around the world. We have enjoyed an exceptional period of freedom and ostensible public respect. But such a time is soon to end. Now fewer Americans believe homosexuality is a sin, than those who don’t. And this drastic change in the public’s perception has come about in just a few short years. Meanwhile, the church has hemmed and hawed and often evolved in its views along with the culture and our current president. But as Mohler reminds us, the time for thin-skins and hesitation is past. We risk having no gospel at all, if we do not address homosexuality as sin.

So even as the faithful determine to not give in to culture’s demands on this front, we should be mindful, as Joe Carter reminds us, that Jesus has promised us that the world will hate us. We shouldn’t be surprised. And in light of such a knee-jerk tendency to be alarmed over any expression against homosexuality, we Christians should be especially careful in how we phrase our answer to their incessant question. We will too readily be misunderstood. Christians need to stand against homosexuality, but not as a goal in itself. We need to stand for morality, but not bereft of the grace and mercy which make Christianity unique. We must be resolute but not compassionless.

Christians everywhere, in pulpit or pew, in the office cubicle or the backyard party, need to be ready for “the question.” We can’t be afraid to “come out of the closet” with our views on this vitally important matter. Being ready means being informed, and we should be well read on the condition of homosexuality, and armed with careful and Christian reflection as to its cure. We need most of all to know the gospel and how it speaks to people everywhere, straight and gay. And we need to be broken and humble rather than cocky, defensive or stand-offish. We need to be the very heart and mind of Jesus when it comes to answering this question. We need to speak His words, in His manner and with His winsomeness. May our careful speech woo the lost to Christ. And may the darker these days get help us to draw closer to the light of truth and be ever more effective as an outpost in this sin-darkened world (Phil. 2:15-16).

8 thoughts on “Do you now or have you ever believed that homosexuality is a sin?

  1. Bob,

    I think we need some of us to start addressing Libertarianism, which has rapidly become the go-to philosophy of the new generation. It sounds conservative on matters of economics, but takes you into Sodom and Gomorrah on moral and social issues. Preaching God’s plan for sexuality is right and good, but there is an underlying Bohemian philosophy cooking here.

  2. I don’t believe that being homosexual is a sin. There is enough scientific and medical evidence today to prove that some individuals are born with an attraction to the same sex – hence, they are homosexual. However, the Bible clearly states that the practice of homosexuality is a sin. It is not a “special” sin but rather just another sin in a long line of sins we commit. We like to put our own spin on Romans 1. All Paul is saying is that the practice of homosexuality is a (not the) natural result of a world who has rejected God. Why it is such a charged issue is beyond me. Why Christians take such a strong stand against a particular sin is beyond me. We don’t condone gluttony or caffeine abuse with the same vigor that we do the practice of homosexuality. Why aren’t there articles Why are we so scared of homosexuals? They are people just like you and me. They need Christ just like you and I do. The Christian who is also a homosexual has a cross to bear that I can’t imagine. But I can love and support them and encourage them in their daily walk as they encourage me in mine.

    It is time for us to come out of our cloisters, tear down the walls, and embrace those who struggle with sin rather than standing on our walls hurling stones at them as they pass by. Additionally, I Cor 5 tells us that we are not to judge the world for its immorality – that job is best left to God.

    I know this – I have enough struggle taking up my own cross and running the race to devote all my time and effort into judging the world for acting, gasp, like the world.

    If I have a Christian brother or sister who struggles with sin, then I have an obligation to help them as they do me. We are to build one another up, hold each other accountable, and carry one another when one of us just can,t carry ourselves alone any longer.

    Can we please find another sin to pick on and stop being constantly amazed at the world acting like the world.

    1. It is time for us to come out of our cloisters, tear down the walls, and embrace those who struggle with sin rather than standing on our walls hurling stones at them as they pass by. Additionally, I Cor 5 tells us that we are not to judge the world for its immorality – that job is best left to God.

      My thoughts exactly. Well said.

      I have tried to explain that point some in this post, as well in other posts I’ve done on this topic.

      Blessings in Christ,

      Bob Hayton

  3. The Bible teaches that inward feelings and attitudes can also be sinful. “Sin” is not confined to action.

    Also, sin is a spiritual malady. It’s something wrong with your soul — it is not caused by your body. To say otherwise is to attribute sinful qualities to Jesus, since He had a normal mortal body.

  4. Jack, Christ did not feel like going to the cross. He did feel like turning the stones into bread though, and ruling the whole world, and throwing himself off the temple. If he didn’t feel like doing any of those things then he wouldn’t have been tempted would he?

    Feelings are not sin. Acting on those feelings is sin. Furthermore, all of creation groans under this load of sin. Cancer is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. Dementia is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. Clinical Depression is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. Autism is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. Sociopathic behavior is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. Turrets Syndrome is caused by the body. It is also the result of sin. One day our body will die – also the result of sin. We have Adam to thank for all of the above. We also have Adam to thank for some being born gay.

    God ordained marriage to be between one woman and one man in a monogamous relationship because marriage is the earthly example of how we (the Church) relate to Christ. Anything else sexually profanes that relationship. Why aren’t we so vociferous about premarital sex, adultery, and other heterosexual fornication that goes on in the world? Is it because we expect the world to act like the world? Why would homosexuality be any different?

    1. Berkley,

      I think we have to be careful here. In one sense, many feelings are not in themselves sinful. But since the Bible does command us to rejoice always and not to be sinfully angry, there are feelings which are inappropriate or sinful. John Piper demonstrates this in some of his writing on feelings.

      That being said, we are all fallen and unable to live up to God’s standards perfectly, and all of our want-ers, as I like to call it, are bent toward sin and broken. For heterosexuals, wanting or desiring/lusting after a woman is sin, according to Matt. 5. The same would be true for homosexuals.

      My natural propensity is to want more than I should, in ways I shouldn’t. To want to see every woman, and gratuitously enjoy sex on my terms my way. So it is contrary to my innately sinful nature to deny myself and pick up my cross, avert my glance, and stay faithful to one wife. The same would be true of homosexuals. Yes they are wired that way. And cannot help their desires. We don’t know what causes their attraction to the same gender, but it most likely is “God-given” in the sense of natural. That doesn’t mean for them to dwell on their feelings in ways that cross Matt. 5, is not sin.

      You are right that we treat this sin worse than others, and that this is wrong. Homosexuality joins many other sins, chief of them being pride and discord, which earn God’s special displeasure. And we should not be surprised that mankind has always sought after any number of deviations and sinful pleasures that God has forbidden. The world will act like there is no God, because they don’t worship Him.

      Sorry for a rambling post, I’m just trying to clarify myself here somewhat.

      Blessings in Christ,

      Bob Hayton

      P.S. You can see other posts I’ve done on this topic here: https://www.fundamentallyreformed.com/category/issues/homosexuality-issues/ where I bring up similar points.

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