Same Sex Marriage

I was doing some thinking about the SCOTUS ruling on same sex marriage and I was doing some research on the causes of homosexuality.  There is no real consensus and all kinds of speculation and theory’s as to the cause.  One of the articles I read by Mark Joseph Stern in Slate magazine Born This Way? talked about some new research that suggested that men that had older biological brothers were more likely to be gay.  Stern was highly concerned with this research as the findings if proven would suggest that homosexuality at least in men was a birth defect.

            But if it’s a birth defect, as Blanchard’s work tacitly suggests, then being gay is something that can—and presumably should—be fixed.

            That’s a toxic view, and one that must be abandoned. We might not yet understand the exact biological mechanisms underlying sexual orientation, but we will one day soon. And if, at that point, homosexuality is seen as a disorder, the next step will be a search for a cure. That would be a tragedy—for society and for science. There’s nothing wrong with being gay: You know it; I know it; the Supreme Court knows it. But so long as large swaths of the country believe otherwise—places where homophobic families still ostracize their gay sons and brothers—any research into its biological origins is fraught with peril for the cause of gay rights.

What if it is discovered that homosexuality is indeed a birth defect?  The mere fact that he believes pursing this research further is wrong shows that at least Stern isn’t really concerned with understanding what homosexuality is and what may or may not cause it.  The main problem as I see it is that no one really wants to have an open and honest discussion about homosexuality or sin in general for that matter.  I believe that people are born with same sex attraction.  Just as people are born predisposed to all kinds of sin.  What differentiates us from the animals is that we can restrain ourselves from acting upon our desires.  No one excuses thieves, liars, rapists, or murders or pedophiles, for acting upon their urges.  Of course the argument is that homosexuality doesn’t hurt anyone.
I base my belief that acting upon homosexuality is a sin from Genesis 2:18-24

            18 The Lord God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

            19 Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the beasts of the field and all the birds of the air. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds of the air and all the beasts of the field.

            But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

            23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman,' for she was taken out of man."

            24 For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh. (NIV)

There was no suitable helper found for Adam until God created woman.  Men and woman are designed by God to compliment each other and they have a unique relationship bond that they may form called marriage.  No other type of relationship has this bond nor can be considered to have this bond.

Of course there are those that will then argue about David and Abraham and many others who had multiple wives. And then they will bring in all kinds of other scripter blah, blah, blah, blah.  However they neglect one key scripture passage prior to all the other passages.

It too comes from Genesis, right after the creation account Genesis 3:1-5 records the fall of men and women.

            Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"

            2 The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, 'You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"

            4 "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. 5 "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." (NIV)

There is the promise and the temptation, “…you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”  And as soon as Adam and Eve ate they realized the huge mistake they had made.  But of course by then it was too late the damage was done, sin had entered into the world and we knew good and evil, or had a somewhat vague sense of what it was.  The only problem is we were unable to choose good over evil.

After the fall every aspect of human kind is suspect.  Even our ability to judge what is right and wrong is suspect.  Of course no one likes to hear this.  No one likes to hear that we are evil, that we are on the, “Highway to hell” to borrow a phrase from AC/DC.  No one wants to hear how we are all sinners and all have fallen short of the glory of God.

No what we want to hear is that there is no sin, there is only that which is right for each of us.  Live and let live.  We want to hear that God loves everyone and that He won’t send anyone to Hell or we want to hear that there is no God and so we can eat drink and be merry.  The truth though, is that we are sinful broken creatures, incapable of choosing what is right.  That is why God sent His Son Jesus to die for us so that we could exit off the “Highway to Hell” and take the narrow road that leads to life.

Now does this mean that if you are homosexual you are going to hell?  No just like lying doesn’t send you to hell either.  (I knew and older guy once who whenever he thought you were lying would say, “Don’t lie or you’ll go to hell.”)  What sends you to hell is a refusal to believe in Jesus Christ as your lord and savior and follow Him.

Lord is a key concept in our faith ad belief.  Paul uses the word slave to Christ.  Another word we don’t like because of the negative connotations.  But slave is really a good word to use if we are going to follow Christ on the narrow path that leads to life.  Once we surrender to Jesus we belong to Him just as a slave belongs to his or her master.  Our will is no longer our own, we no longer have a choice in our destiny.  Paul also writes that we die to our old sinful self and become a new creation.

The argument for same sex marriage is all about selfish interests, “it’s about what I want, what makes me happy, I deserve to be happy, I deserve to have what I want.”  People will argue biology and point to the animal kingdom and how primates practice homosexuality and some other animals.  I’ve been to the zoo primates throw their excrement at people too, that doesn’t seem like a ringing endorsement to me.  There are also many animals that mate heterosexually once for life but those who defend same sex marriage always conveniently forget to mention that.

There are a lot of studies going on trying to figure out homosexuality and a great many of our other  behaviors.  Science loves complicated answers and theories and they reject the simplest explanation as irrational but I’ve found that often times the simplest explanation turns out to be the correct one.  Much of our behavior occurs because all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

So I will continue to consider myself a sinner saved by Grace and strive to follow and obey my Master Jesus to the best of my ability.  I will continue to consider acting upon homosexual desires a sin just as I consider infidelity and sex outside of marriage a sin, and pornography a sin and every other activity that does not bring glory and honor to God a sin.  I will also continue to do my best to demonstrate the love of God through His Son Jesus.  It won’t be easy in the new landscape because I know that my position will be labeled as hate speech and I will be labeled as an intolerant bigot.  And the day is probably approaching when they will try and send me to be reeducated by calling it some kind of sensitivity training because I am insensitive to the feelings of others.