Can you be gay as a christian
This may not be a huge surprise, but we obtain A LOT of questions via email, social media, and in person on Tuesdays. What gentle of questions? Successfully, anything from, Should I get endorse together with my boyfriend or girlfriend? to What should I do next with my life? to How should I lovingly participate those in the LGBTQ community?
In this blog series “Ask The Porch,” we’re answering real-life questions that we’ve received from you. Disclaimer: our highest priority is always to first respond with biblical counsel from God’s Word. The hardest questions to answer are those in the “grey” areas. So we’ll do our leading to share our biblically-informed opinion, but know that we may have alternative convictions on the non-essentials (vs. the essentials).
Now, let’s dive into the doubt for this week emailed in from an online listener:
Can a Christian be gay?
“Hey David,
I am a Christian and have struggled with same sex attraction since childhood. I would not aspire it on anyone. It’s very rigid being alone and longing for someone to hold hands with. I yearn the chance to love and include someone love me back. I wish to live a life for God but I also don’t want to live on this earth alone.
The Bible and same sex relationships: A review article
Tim Keller, 2015
Vines, Matthew, God and the Queer Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same Sex Relationships, Convergent Books, 2014
Wilson, Ken,A Letter to My Congregation, David Crum Media, 2014.
The relationship of homosexuality to Christianity is one of the main topics of discussion in our culture today. In the fall of last year I wrote a review of books by Wesley Hill and Sam Allberry that take the historic Christian view, in Hill’s words: “that homosexuality was not God’s original creative intention for humanity ... and therefore that homosexual practice goes against God’s express will for all human beings, especially those who belief in Christ.”
There are a number of other books that take the opposite view, namely that the Bible either allows for or supports same sex relationships. Over the last year or so I (and other pastors at Redeemer) have been regularly asked for responses to their arguments. The two most read volumes taking this position seem to be those by Matthew Vines and Ken Wilson. The review of these two books will be longer than usual because the topic is so contested today and, wh
Is it possible to be a homosexual Christian?
Answer
“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Undertake not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). There is a tendency to announce homosexuality as the worst of all sins. While it is undeniable, biblically speaking, that homosexuality is immoral and unnatural (Romans 1:26-27), in no meaning does the Bible describe homosexuality as an unforgivable sin. Nor does the Bible teach that homosexuality is a sin Christians will never struggle against.
Perhaps that is the key phrase in the question of whether it is possible to be a gay Christian: “struggle against.” It is possible for a Christian to struggle with gay temptations. Many homosexuals who become Christians have ongoing struggles with homosexual feelings and desires. Some strongly heterosexual men and women acquire experienced a “spark” of homosexual interest at some show in their lives. Whether or not these desires and temptations exist does not determine whether a
Is it REALLY ok to be LGBTQ? A see behind and beyond the “clobber passage”
There’s a call for what’s happening here: proof texting.
Theopodia defines proof texting as “the way by which a person appeals to a biblical text to prove or justify a theological position without regard for the context of the passage they are citing.”
If you hear someone say “the Bible says…” run in the other direction. The Bible says lots of things!
Here a several things the Bible says:
That the Earth was covered in water when created until God formed ground (Genesis 1:9) but also that the Earth was completely dry until God brought streams up and watered the planet (Genesis 2:5-6).
That God created animals first and then humans (Genesis 1) but also that God created Adam first, then animals, then Eve (Genesis 2).
That’s right, the Bible contradicts itself in the first two chapters!
“The Bible says” in Exodus and Deuteronomy that if a woman is raped her rapist must either marry her or pay her father (because he’s “damaged” the father’s “property”).
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that Jesus will return in his possess lifetime (4:15-17).
So what does the Bible say?
The Bib