Thoughts on the Moral Debate About Gay Sex and Gay Marriage
We continue to believe that the Bible teaches that sex between two males or two females is against God’s moral rules. In other words, such behavior is sinful. Stan has been defending this traditional view for almost three decades. For instance, in my Christianity Today article from 1993, I said:
“In this difficult time, there are two things that we must do. They are two things that do not naturally go together. We must exhibit the very love and compassion of Jesus Christ himself <<toward gay and lesbian persons>>. And we must fearlessly proclaim the truth that Jesus Christ himself proclaimed and embodied….
<<Elaborating on the second calling, telling the truth:>> If we truly love, we will not shrink from speaking God’s view of homosexual behavior. Do not be deceived: Increasingly today we are defined as unloving solely for viewing <<homosexual behavior>> as immoral, regardless of the compassion we exhibit. Nevertheless, we must strive to be loving when we voice our opposition. Compassion in no way entails an acceptance of the gay lifestyle any more than it entails affirming an adulterer’s infidelity.”
We live in a time, however, when more and more committed Christians are confused and moving away from taking the traditional stand on this issue. The pressures against the traditional view are enormous. What are the core issues?
A number of years ago I encountered a “flowchart” that harshly and forcefully articulated the arguments that many Christians are implicitly absorbing that together undermine the traditional moral teaching. I reproduce that flowchart below; its exact origins are unclear to me (it might be here), but it can be found many places on the web (such as here). It was widely distributed beginning several years ago through Facebook and other social media platforms. Even if you haven’t seen this flowchart, you have probably heard many of these arguments.
This flowchart articulates and summarizes common misleading answers to many of the complex biblical, theological, and ethical issues at play here. Such arguments leave many Christians confused and uneasy about the traditional Christian stance of disapproval of homosexual behavior. To help parents think through these issues so you can have more informed discussions with your children, I have developed replies to seven different points raised in the flowchart. Each reply is symbolized by a purple number imposed on this copy of the flowchart. To go to the page containing each reply, click on the links below the flowchart.
To go to the page containing my reply or rebuttal to each of the seven points above, click on the links below.
