Friday, February 26, 2010

Is a Committed, Monogamous, Homosexual Relationship Sinful?

Before I actually answer that question, I offer a transitional thought for my handful of regular readers tying the previous series of posts on fear with the series that follows. The reference to "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God," was done intentionally to introduce the idea of holiness. Once we make the important point about the completeness of God's forgiveness freeing us from all fear of judgment, a logical next discussion is on sin in the believer's life.

Consider these questions:

  • If all our sins are so completely covered that we do not fear any judgment from God, what should we feel and do about our failures of sin?

  • Are there degrees of response to sin such that some sins are never overcome, and therefore, we must live with them believing that God ultimately forgives all?

  • Do Christians live in sin before God and simply apply the truth of the grace of God, trusting in His forgiveness, as if He winks at our state?

  • What is the dividing line between sinning to the point of being reprobate and struggling with sin as evidenced by falling into it...even falling often...yet being forgiven?

  • How does the struggle against sin figure into our corporate commitment to piety or holiness?

  • What is sanctification?

Now, on to the question in the title.

The answer is...yes. Homosexuality is sin, and bringing the truth of love as commitment to the situation does not alter the sinfulness of the behavior. If you are one who started reading thinking, perhaps hoping, that I would say the answer is no offering scriptural support, I may have just angered you or simply confirmed I am another narrow, bigoted, Christian right-winger. Well, without labeling me, please accept I do not condemn homosexuals.

If I you are a supporter of homosexual marriage or just of individual freedom and have read this far, however, I would ask you to hang with me through the next several posts on the topic simply in the interest of hearing the ideas of others.

I grew up with homosexual feelings. I knew at age seven something was different with me from most of the kids at school. At puberty, I had a name for it, I was queer. "Gay" was not in vogue as yet in the deep South. I became a Christian in 1970; i was a sophomore in high school. When my prayers of, "Please, Dear God, take this away from my soul," seemed to go unanswered, I intentionally left Christianity to enter the homosexual sub-culture. The year was 1975; I was nineteen and a sophomore in college.

I quit college to travel the country and lived within the sub-culture four and half years in the cities of San Francisco, New York City, Washington DC, Atlanta, and Key West. Off and on, I visited a lady friend in rural Georgia. There, the in-the-closet local community of homosexuals were all church go-ers. Anyway, I am not unfamiliar with the issues faced by homosexual men or women both in and out of the church. Often over those years, when I had roommates they were lesbian, including my friend in rural Georgia.

In 1979, I recommitted my life to Christ and within a year met the woman whom I married, and we celebrate twenty-nine years together this March. We have five grown children, all believers, and three grand-children. I intend to offer my thoughts on the answers to the questions above by dealing with the issue of homosexuality from personal experience.

I hope you will join me down this path in the Wild Wood.

3 comments:

Steve Sensenig said...

I applaud you taking on such a difficult and controversial topic. (I always tended to avoid controversial topics when I was blogging...hehe)

I look forward to reading your analysis of your own past and the more general issues related to this topic.

ded said...

Uh...Steve, I seem to remember a post that stirred hundreds of hits in one day, and some eighty comments (even more maybe). You may have tended toward avoidance of controversy, but it nonetheless occurred at your blog!

Thanks for reading and commenting!!

Steve Sensenig said...

I was actually saying that quite tongue-in-cheek, as I'm sure you knew! :) And yes, I remember the post quite well.