Can We Talk?
Speaking Plainly About Homosexuality and Scripture
Pastor’s Perspective, South Stevens County Times
June 2023
By Pastor Tim White
Has anyone ever approached you and asked, “Can I be completely honest with you?” To this, one could reply: “You mean you have not been completely honest with me up to now?” However, the first question is how we ask permission to approach a person about a very polarizing issue. So, since June is designated as “Pride Month,” can I be “completely honest” with you, the reader, about homosexuality from a biblical perspective?
Before I go any further, I want to clarify something. Although I have followed Christ for over 50 years, I continually need the mercy and grace of God as I live out my faith and commitment to Christ. I am a Child of God simply because of God’s mercy and grace and my faith in the resurrection of His Son (Rom 10:9, 10).
With this understanding, “Can we talk?”
Some time ago, I referred to the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” I won’t belabor the whole story except that two “scoundrels” had fooled the self-absorbed Emperor into thinking they had made him new clothes so extraordinary that only people worthy of their position could see them. The end of the story is the emperor parading himself (fully nude) down the main street, convinced he was arrayed in the most spectacular clothes ever seen. Of course, the problem that day was that the people were seeing something quite different.
Initially, the people were shocked when they saw the emperor, but they knew they must conform to the accepted narrative or risk losing position and standing in the kingdom. Then, one young boy, unconcerned with such mindless compliance, shouted, “But he has nothing on at all.” Finally, the truth came from someone who believed what he saw, doing so without hate, anger, or judgment.
When we look at our incredible world filled with countless species of life on land, in the sky, and in the sea, and observe all that lives in our natural world, one thing is consistent throughout – new life is produced only when a “male” and “female” join in a manner consistent with their “kind” (Gen. 1:11-25). This binary process of creating new life is ubiquitous, with very few exceptions. No compatible model exists in nature in which two males or two females join together to produce new life.
So please hear me – as a fellow observer of human life and nature who harbors no ill will toward others who hold different beliefs – this one thing should be as clear to us as was the emperor’s bare buns to the boy in the fairy tale – homosexuality is unequivocally contrary to all of nature. That is not a hateful or “phobic” statement; instead, it agrees with the overwhelming testimony of nature and science.
Nature came from God, and His Word (the Bible) clearly distinguishes between proper and improper sexual relationships. man, example, the following verses from both the Old and New Testament reveal that all sexual acts outside the institution of marriage (which is between one man and one woman) are sins with many negative consequences for the individual and eventually bring God’s judgment upon the society that embraces them: Gen. 19:1-13; Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Rom. 1:26-27; 1 Cor. 6:9; and 1 Tim. 1:10 (and there are others).
The same can be said for the current “transgender” craze sweeping our adolescents as a social “trans-demic.” This fear of stating the obvious (i.e., feelings do not change your biology, and men’s and women’s bodies are different) destroys children’s bodies with chemicals and surgery, destroys women’s sports, and traumatizes girls in restrooms and locker rooms. So how can we stay silent in the face of something so obvious and destructive?
Under the surface, many who identify as LGBTQ have hidden trauma, abuse, or some victimization in their past or present. And therefore, so much of their chosen way of living is merely a symptom of more profound hidden hurt, trauma, abuse, PTSD, or mental illness. But, ultimately, it all comes back to the spiritual condition of the human soul.
However, just knowing that sexual acts and relationships outside of traditional marriage are wrong is not enough reason to reject them and obey God’s standards. We need something more than another “Thou shalt not.” We need an awakening to the reality that we are lost and separated from the God who created us, and to the eternal consequences to those who continue to reject the Lord and His Truth. Included in that awakening is a Heavenly Father who has provided the way for you to become His child and to know His immeasurable mercy and love
A natural longing for significance and identity is at the core of everyone’s being. Within the LGBTQ ideology, one’s identity comes down to a verb – an action – (the sex act). However, biblically, your significance and identity are found in a noun – you have the “right to become a child of God” (John 1:12).
Seeking significance, fulfillment, and identity through unnatural sexual relationships is like trying to fix your Ford F-150 with a microwave repair manual. You can work at it your whole life and never get your truck running; instead, you will end up frustrated and confused, paying more than you ever intended to spend.
Also, struggling with intense and unnatural sexual desires is not new to humanity. However, the desires themselves are not sin, but what leads us into sin when we surrender to them. Even then, it is a sin that Jesus already paid the penalty for. So, your first step is to confess it as a sin to Christ and turn your life over to Him, for “For God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:17).
You are more than a sexual desire or act – you are the highest-created life form on earth. And God the Father has opened the way for you and me to come to him in humility – the opposite of pride – and find forgiveness, mercy, and the identity as a child of God.
Rejecting lustful desires and choosing to live according to God’s moral standards are the by-products of knowing and loving the God who “so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
The Father created you to be much more than what “Pride Month” represents – let’s talk.