Don Quixote lives! In every generation of believers, there are chimeras we seek to preserve. That is, we fight for things that cannot be, and what we should have struggled for is left in the dust. We add whole battle fronts on things that are inherently false, and allow the Enemy of souls too much victory in the real battles. For example, the Christian Right will publish reams of blather about homosexual activity as "unnatural." First of all, that's answering the wrong question. Secondly, it's the wrong answer to the wrong question.
It's natural for you to defecate in your shorts. It's also a health problem, so we train our children to wait until they can make such deposits in appropriate disposal facilities. It becomes a mark of our humanity that we control that urge, and is one of the first things torturers try to break down in dehumanizing someone. In this fallen world, what comes naturally to humans is hardly grounds for saying something is good or bad. Thus, to claim gay sex is "unnatural" is both false and missing the point.
Read ancient literature, and you can find the underlying assumption that men would be omnisexuals. That is, they would desire to have sex with just about everything. This wasn't just in a handful of Canaanite tribes, but everywhere. The expectation is that no one would question this; it had little to do with the concept of "sex partner" because it was more about use -- or abuse, if you will. A wife would be for pleasure, but primarily for bearing heirs in the tribal atmosphere of keeping property within the family. For the man to seek other sexual outlets was "natural." Slaves of both sexes and even some animals were a part of the collective resources for this, along with prostitutes and such outside the household. It was about indulging the man's appetite, and was a mark of dominance. However, men having sex as equals was rather disturbing, and out of norm. For men to be feminine was depraved in many cultures.
The Law of Moses was a grand promotion of the wife. It demanded he keep it all for her. The natural desire of sexual passion was her property, just as hers was his. Sex with anyone or anything else was flatly forbidden. Just how radical a change this was is hard to show. Read between the lines of Scripture and you realize the created order of things places sexual pleasure within the boundaries of the marriage covenant. To spread it around was to dilute the commitment, and commitment was the central issue. Thus, sex without a life-long commitment, and without some expectation of procreation, was altogether wrong, a giving into the petty desires of the self. Sex could properly be only a celebration of two-become-one. Any other outlet was selfish. That includes self-masturbation.
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah was not specifically about homosexual behavior, but a whole range of self-indulgent sin. Men having sex with each other was pretty wide-spread, and was considered about average. Men forcing social equals to have sex was evil, and that's what the Pentapolis was all about. They had a cult with initiation rites that demanded humiliation, as an offering to their pagan gods. To rape a man as social equal was a religious act. To rape a superior was an even greater offering. The men of Sodom knew the angels were somewhat above them at least. Abusing them until they died would have glorified their pagan god. Demanding Lot remove his protection from them was a hideous breach of protocol, and they knew it. Notice the opprobrium against the Benjamites of Gibeah, who had resurrected this ancient cult (Judges Genesis 19:22ff). There was, of course, a whole range of self-indulgent behaviors that helped earn the Pentapolis God's wrath. Mere homosexuality was probably not even central, but rather the most obvious symptom of a much deeper evil.
The old saw that Jesus never addressed homosexuality is a chasing of rabbits, a diversion. While arguing from silence can be weak, it's pretty clear we can use that here. Jesus spent most of His time preaching and teaching against false Judaism. What He mentioned were things the Jewish leaders were doing wrong, and were departures from the Law of Moses, and from truth. He would hardly have bothered to address the whole catalogue of things being done right. Jews rejected homosexuality, and there was no need to comment on it. The Apostles following Jesus did address it because it was an issue they faced outside Judea. While there were plenty of problems with hypocrisy and compromise, it was generally the case Jews had this one issue right.
Clearly then, the argument is not about natural versus unnatural. It's not about whether gays are born that way. It's not about whether there is homosexuality in the animal kingdom. It's not about whether gays deserve to have sex their way, too. It's about sin. For us to ignore the sins of adultery or fornication while decrying sodomy is hypocrisy. All sex outside the bounds of a marriage covenant is sin. Your aren't permitted by God to enjoy that release any other way. Committed monogamous homosexuals are exceedingly rare, so gay marriage is not a real issue, no worse than round-robin heterosexual marriages. We sin by letting the state get involved in licensing the marriage covenant. It's futile in a fallen world trying to regulate sexual activity among adults. It is the self-destructive, profligate pursuit of self-gratification we rightly address, in whatever form it takes. Appetites are not in themselves sinful; without them we would all die of starvation, among other things. There is in Christ a right way to satisfy every appetite, and lots of wrong ways. The real argument in public policy are things such as the demand to let our children choose, which is just an excuse to open them to manipulation. The argument that we should tolerate public displays of sexuality -- of any flavor -- is wrong for too many reasons to name. That it should be taught as normal is particularly wrong. It may well be completely natural, but it is sin.
In this public debate, keep it on track. Don't chase rabbits and destroy the focus. We have a command from God to call it sin, and demand our children not be exposed to it. We simply do not have the leverage to keep it out of public schools, but we should never hand over our children to Caesar in the first place. We must assert our duty from God to call it sin and not back down. Harassing someone for it is also a sin. Queers are sinners in need of redemption; you don't redeem by oppression and harassment.
Ed Hurst
08 May 2005
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