You knew I had to do it, right?
There’s no way I could bring us to Romans chapter one without talking about one
of the most controversial subjects today, namely homosexuality. If there’s
another subject that I need to approach more carefully, I don’t know about it.
I also submit that there's absolutely no subject in the public discourse in
which Christians who take their Bibles seriously are more “out of step” with the
zeitgeist. If you even hint that there’s anything wrong with the homosexual
lifestyle, you’re a bigot (on the same level as a Klansman), you hate gays, and
you’d kill every gay person in the world if you only had the opportunity.
So Keith, if you’re going to talk
about homosexuality, why’d you pick today’s passage? Why not the story of Sodom
and Gomorrah? Why not the passage from yesterday? Why not another list of vices
from Paul or another writer?
Because I don’t think those passages
are the places to start, because they don’t get to the heart of the debate
today. On one side you have just about everyone saying that there's absolutely
nothing wrong with the homosexual lifestyle. They claim that homosexuality is
completely determined by genetics, that you’re “born” gay. Somehow it’s just
taken as a given that someone’s DNA will determine for all time the type of
people they’re attracted to.
On the other side are those who deny
this, supposedly for biblical reasons. They deny that anyone is “born” gay;
instead, they point to environmental factors or personal choices that the
person made early in life.
I’m going to propose something here
which'll definitely anger those on the pro-gay side, and it might anger those
who agree with me that homosexual behavior is sinful. Here we go. Are you ready
for this? I don’t know why any one person is
attracted to people of the same sex. I don’t know, and frankly, I don’t care.
If it was proven--beyond a shadow of
a doubt—that the only reason why
people are attracted to the same sex is because of genetics, not because of any other factor, that wouldn't change
my theology at all. To the contrary, it would fit right in and even possibly
help to confirm it.
You’ve heard from me--and from
several other quarters--the term sinful
nature, right? What does that mean? It’s the doctrine that somehow we’ve
inherited from Adam the propensity to sin. Despite what you’ve heard elsewhere,
man’s nature is not naturally good, nor is it neutral. God, who knows the human
heart inside and out, had this verdict about humanity right before the Noahic
flood: “[He] saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the
earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only
evil all the time.” And there’s nothing to indicate from Scripture that human
nature is any different from that time.
This doesn’t mean that people are
incapable of any good at all. It means that sin has infected every aspect of human
existence: Our minds, our emotions, our desires, our physical bodies, etc.
There's no institution that isn’t affected by sin: Governments, churches,
families, businesses, commerce, etc.
Now, how did this come about? How
exactly did Adam pass down this propensity to sin down to us? Well, the Bible
never says. All it says is that 1) Adam sinned, and because of this, 2) sin "entered the world," and 3) it unequivocally says that sin is universal among humanity (with one lone exception). So somehow we must've gotten this propensity to sin from him, otherwise there's no way to explain all 3 points.
Does this mean it comes through our
genes? I’m not comfortable saying that, but what else do I get from Adam?
“So Keith, I’m still waiting for how
this relates to homosexuality.” I’ve already gone long on this, so we’ll
continue it tomorrow.
Father God, we were in a pretty big
mess, weren’t we? A mess we put ourselves into. But before we even fell, the
Lamb was—in your plan—already slain. You reached out to us, and oh, how it cost
you!
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