“How can It be wrong if God made me this way?” That was the quote from a recent Law and Order Special Victim’s Unit where a gay Christian young man realized that his pastor father had killed his lover. The young man was part of an extremist group of Christians who performed plays depicting sinners screaming and burning in hell. But his question got me thinking: was he on point?<\/p>\n
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Here’s the thinking that’s being attacked: God is good; God created only what is good; God hates evil; Sin is Evil; God hates sin; Therefore God hates those who sin—sinners; Being attracted to a man of the same gender is a sin; Therefore God created a man to be a sinner. The young man’s dilemma is evident: sin He knows God is good and He knows his own situation he assumes that the flaw in his thinking is the attraction bit. God created attractions (which are good) and he is attracted to men, so it can’t possibly be a sin. Or, it really is a sin and God is incredibly cruel in creating a human to be attracted to what is wrong.<\/p>\n
Well, I immediately thought the young man was wrong in several respects which I think would be better grasped by an illustration.<\/p>\n
For some reason I love violence. Maybe my parents exposed me to violent movies or maybe South Ozone Park was really rough when growing up—especially those times I found myself running from groups of 9 or 10 people. But still, even knowing that I love violence I know that its not good for me to like and participate in violence. Yet, the day comes when a couple of hoods corner me, I run home and (hell bent on violence) I come running back up the street with a machete. The thugs cower as I swing the thing around and thankfully am not caught by the police. I go home, not only reveling in my victory but ready to go out all the time with a weapon.<\/p>\n
Now although I had a leaning toward violence and at an atmosphere that supported violence and perhaps even have an extra chromosome that is prone toward violence didn’t justify me running to my home to grab a machete, running back out and swinging it around with intent. I can’t even use my tendencies as an excuse because there may very well be hundreds of people with violent tendencies who don’t act on them.<\/p>\n
In other words, the yearning or the attraction doesn’t make the person culpable of acting out those actions—it just exposes X individual to their personal fallen humanness. In my case it might be violence, in someone else’s case it could be a desire to lie and in yet others it could be an attraction to the same sex; but in each case possessing those feelings doesn’t justify acting on them.<\/p>\n
Secondly, the bit about God creating a person to be that way not being sin doesn’t follow at all. I mean, if we can find different reasons why someone is actively wrestling with sin then caddy cornering it to just "either its right or God is unjust" would make an odd conclusion. <\/p>\n
Here’s several possibilities (and I’m not suggesting any one is right, only showing that there are other possibilities that are not being considered): 1) God has no control of sin; it’s not His fault 2) God has total control of every event and works them out for a greater purpose; ends justifies the means 3) God allows things like this because they illustrate His perfection 4) There is no God 5) God created X and Y and stepped back; the current events are the natural collision of unmonitored forces 6) Our definition of sin and\/or God is wrong.<\/p>\n
Like I said, I’m not endorsing any of those and I could probably come up with more, but I think it helps in illustrating the point that it’s not as easy as "I’m this way—it’s gotta’ be okay!"<\/p>\n
Lastly, I’d like to highlight Paul’s point to the Corinthians where he shows that they are defrauding each other with their lawsuits. Why are you acting like this, he asks them. Don’t you know that the wrongdoers, the unrighteous will not inherit God’s kingdom? Neither will people who sleep around, nor idol worshippers, nor people who cheat on their spouses, nor passive gay partners or the active gay partners, not even crooks, greedy people, drunks, the verbally abusive nor those people who swindle will inherit God’s kingdom? And some of you were like all that, living that way—but now you are washed clean, you are set aside, you are called Not-Guilty in the name and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God! ({{1 Cor 6}})<\/p>\n
In other words he points that they were active participators in those bad sins but now they’re not. Does this mean that they were so miraculously changed that they didn’t have those yearnings anymore? Not at all, because Paul is addressing the fact that some of them are defrauding each other and swindling and so on! In his other letter to the Romans he highlights the fact that people who are saved and declared righteous will wrestle (and wrestle hard) with the things in their body that they’re attracted to: be it envy, lying, other people—whatever. ({{Rom 7}})<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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