Gay Myths
The DaVinci Code is a best-seller that some of you have read. It claims to know a secret that has been hidden for centuries by oppressive, up-tight, power-hungry male church leaders.
Episcopal Bishop John Spong claims that he knows the secret too, and is glad to let it out of the bag. The hidden mystery? Jesus had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene. On the other hand, there is a professor of New Testament in Chicago who takes great pride in teaching that Jesus had a homosexual relationship with the Apostle John.
No - I’m not making that up! Is there any evidence in the Bible to support these conflicting conclusions? Not even a shred.
Three lawyers in Toronto were politically appointed as Superior Court justices. They decided unilaterally to amend the Canadian Charter of Rights to change the definition of marriage in Canada. Two weeks ago, a million-dollar settlement in the City of London was awarded to a family whose sons were sexually molested by a clergyman. It was a reminder of last year’s emerging news of the crushing scandal of priests who had for years violated adolescent boys. The fact that nearly all of the offences were by adult males against teen boys is not supposed to be talked about. There is a gag on discussion of homosexual offences. In our own denomination, a small group of revisionists has been repeatedly rebuffed as they attempt to change our denomination’s commitment to Biblical truth about God’s plan for joy and wholeness in sexual behaviour. Dorcas Gordon is the principal of our own Knox College, where many of our ministers are trained. Dorcas led the unsuccessful charge to ordain homosexual ministers in our Church. Those of us who support the Church’s centuries-old, Biblically-based teaching are noisily told to sit down and shut up. Because to oppose this proposed change, we’re told, is to be hateful and exclusive. So homosexual behaviour is a heavy issue tearing at our culture and our church.
If you don’t hear anything else I say this morning, I want you to hear this: if you have a family member or a friend who is homosexual, you matter to God. If you’re homosexual, you matter to God.
You also matter to me, and to this congregation. You are not the enemy. In fact, it would be hard to find a family in this room who has not dealt with the issue of having a relative or an acquaintance who has declared themselves to be homosexual. Neither the Bible nor I has any fear of homosexual people. We are all sinners whom God loves. "For God commends his love toward us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." What I have to say from God’s Word is said out of compassion, out of commitment to God’s unchanging healing truth and not out of hateful judgement.
The current issue of the Presbyterian Record reports that in the year 2001-2002, there was a 200% increase in cases of sexually transmitted disease among active homosexuals. The "problem?" Not the homosexual behaviour, according to this report. The "problem" is, according to this churchman, that the church is homophobic. What swamp does that strange and perverse conclusion come from? It comes from the myths that flood us in the news, in movies, on television, in music, and in the churches - myths about homosexual behaviour.
There are three foundational truths that we’ve heard all this month, and here they are again from Genesis, Matthew, Romans, 1 Corinthians and 1 Thessalonians:
1. Our gender as male and female was God’s good idea. It was not a human creation. Sex is God’s good creation.
2. God made sexual intimacy between male and female part of his good plan for people.
3. That good sexual intimacy was designed by God to take place between a man and a woman who become one flesh in the context of marriage.
That’s not my blueprint. That’s not my private notion. It’s not the church’s puritanical hangup. It’s God’s good design for good sex for the flourishing of people. That’s why in every single reference to homosexual behaviour in the Bible, - there are no exceptions - in every single reference in the Bible, "gay" sex is strongly condemned. It is condemned because it is hurtful and damaging to people. It is condemned because it dishonors God. God made people as male and female. Any departure from that design, including, among other departures, homosexual acts, is outside of God’s good purpose for human life.
Now, with the help of pastor James White, let’s look at just a few of the many current "gay" myths that contradict that Bible truth. These myths offer, instead, a death-dealing, deceptive mythology of destruction and despair.
1. Myth number one is: "God made me "gay!" This is my DNA! This is who I am!" There is absolutely no credible science that supports the myth that people are born "gay." None. Even if there were, would an orientation toward homosexual acts be different from any other kind of orientation toward actions that are outside of God’s good plan for people? Suppose my orientation is a tendency toward pride, or greed, or alcohol abuse, or gambling? Suppose I am genetically predisposed to angry outbursts, or to slander. Is there anybody who does not have certain traits that shape who we are and make us susceptible to certain temptations and actions? But when I have a leaning toward some particular behaviour, does that make the action legitimate? Our physical makeup, the nurture that we received as we matured, our culture, and other forces combine to shape us. My parents told me that both of my grandfathers abused alcohol. I probably have a biological disposition to do the same. But my behaviour was also shaped by what I was taught by my parents - who were the children of parents who abused alcohol. I have not fallen into that death trap, partly because of choices that I make. You and I may have biological make-ups. But we make the choices to behave in ways that reinforce or weaken them.
Think another way about this myth that homosexual behaviour is irresistible because it comes from homosexual orientation. If my desires shape my morals, then, whatever I desire to do, I should be able to go out and pursue it, right? But what if my desire is for murder, or, as we saw in recent news, for cannibalism, or for molesting young children? What if my desire is to steal a DVD from the rack at Walmart? If I desire to go out and knock somebody’s block off because one of my weaknesses is a bad temper, does that make it right to give in to the desire? The Bible does not condemn homosexual desire. But it does say to be whole, to be healthy, to be free, resist the temptation. To have sexual appetite satisfied is not the number one rule in life.
2. Here’s another "gay" myth. If a person cannot pursue a homosexual lifestyle, they can’t be happy. Or the flip side of that: the way to happiness to is act out your sexual desires. According to this view of the world, being happy is the primary goal in life. So, according to this myth, homosexually-predisposed people who act on their urges will be happy. But that myth is demolished by the facts. Actively "gay" men are six times more likely to have attempted suicide than are heterosexual men. 25% to 30% of "gay" men are alcoholics. The national average is 7%. Well over 90% of AIDS victims in North America are homosexually active men. That is happiness?
3. A third "gay" myth is this: "gay" behaviour can’t be wrong, because so many people are doing it. Over the past 30 or so years, the Methodist, Episcopal and Presbyterian Churches in the US, and the United Church of Canada and Presbyterian Church in Canada commissioned reports to "study" this matter. All of them are full of myths. One of the myths is that at least 10 percent of the population is actively "gay." Articles by proponents of the "gay" lifestyle gradually upped the ante to 15% and even 20%. Those numbers were used, sometimes successfully, to try to get churches to reject the Bible’s clear teaching that condemns homosexual behaviour. We were told that, since 10% to 20% of the population is "gay," then in a congregation of 300 members, there are at least 30 to 60 "gay" people. But, using that logic, if 20% of the world’s population were Chinese, then at least 1 of my children must be Chinese, right? Every reputable study proves that the 10% to 20% numbers are myths. They are fiction. Both the Battelle Human Research Center in Seattle and the Laumann Study from the University of Chicago show conclusively that the real number of homosexual people in North America is really from 1% to 3% of the population, and that it has stayed constant at that level for years and years.
So what does it all mean? It means that there are myths that continue to drive our culture, our screen-writers, our courts, our schools, our politicians, and our churches into a lie. Against them, we place the liberating, cleansing truth of God in the Gospel of his grace to people.
There are many, many lifestyles that are traps, and prisons. They are outside of God’s wonderful design for full human life. Homosexual behaviour is just one of them. It is not the only sin. Nor is it the greatest sin. From all of these false lifestyles, God offers freedom. If we want it. St. Paul, told us about church members who had been homosexually active. They were welcomed into the church to receive God’s forgiveness and to be unchained from their old ways. Christ gave them a fresh start. God gave them a new life of healing, wholeness and freedom to follow God’s way, to turn away from their hurtful, destructive behaviour. They were welcomed into the local church without fear and without condemnation.
Homosexual people are no different from the rest of us. They are first, last, and always, people. Every last one of us struggles with temptation and desire. Paris Presbyterian Church is nothing but a large collection of huge moral foul-ups. We’re surrounded by sins of pride, greed, selfish ambition, broken relationships, materialism, pornography, self-righteousness, lying, stealing and adultery. But through the death and resurrection power of Christ, and the transforming presence of the Holy Spirit, there is hope for all of us to break free, to rise out of these graves.
Sometimes, we’d rather look the other way. Sometimes, it’s easier, isn’t it, to stuff sin beneath the surface. Sometimes, we just don’t want to have to deal with it. But instead of rationalizing those actions that are so hurtful to ourselves and others, those actions that come between us and our God and each other, isn’t it better to bring them to God, to ask for forgiveness, and be born again as new people? Isn’t it better to come before God clothed anew in the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself?
You matter to God. You matter to me. You matter to this church. This is a safe place. Whatever else of myths and lies may bombard and seduce you and me, the message of the Christian faith, the story of Jesus and his saving power is true and it’s powerful, and it’s liberating.
But God’s truth and the Good News of the liberating power of Jesus cannot be compromised if we are to be a true church of Jesus Christ. The stakes are high. If we remain faithful, my life and your life can be different. God wants it to be.
