The Indian government seems to be swiftly moving towards accepting
same-sex marriage as legal. In the discussions, the term ‘homosexual’ has for
good reason been replaced by the term: LGBT – an acronym for Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual and Transgendered (‘trapped’ in a wrong body). This acronym actually helps
to clarify the multiple sexualities whose representatives have banded together
to seek legal recognition and relief from stigma and shame. We probably need to
add a few more letters to the acronym to make the label read as LGBT QIA - a
more inclusive coalition, by adding references to Queer (or Questioning),
Intersex individuals – the few whose bodies are born gender-ambiguous and Asexual
persons - who find their sexuality ill-defined by the existing heterosexual or
homosexual categories.
In reality, there is only one conviction that can hold
this coalition of disparate human experiences together. And it is the
irrelevance of bodies - specifically, the irrelevance of biological sexual
differentiation in how we use our bodies.
What unites the LGBT QIA coalition is a conviction that
human beings are not created male and female in any essential or important way.
What matters is not one's body but one's heart—the seat of human will and
desire, which only its owner can know. And, therefore, we are challenged: how
dare we speak against any person's heart? It is not his or her personal human
right.
I for one believe, based on the Bible that God made man, male and female
and that marriage is between one man and one woman. Because I take this position,
there is going to be great antagonism toward me. I will be seen as
un-enlightened, not in tune with the times and may be even homophobic. That’s
okay. If need be, I am willing to hold on to that position at a great social
cost, at least for the foreseeable future.
To uphold a biblical ethic on marriage is to affirm the
sweeping scriptural witness that God made man in His image, male and female and
that the creation of humanity as male and female was declared by God as being "very
good". Sexual differentiation (along with its crucial outcome of children,
who have a biological connection to two parents but are not mirror images of
either one) is not an accident of evolution or a barrier to fulfilment. It is
in fact the way fruitfulness, diversity, and abundance are sustained in the
world.
Can I hold
this position and love my LGBT QIA neighbours? Yes. True, the vast majority of
Christians are completely unequipped to handle someone who is same-gender
attracted. You may have been a drug dealer, alcoholic, a thief, or even a
murderer, but in Christ Jesus, you can find forgiveness for your sins. Likewise,
a person, who experiences same-sex attraction and handles it in accord with
God's revealed will, can be confident of God's love and is in a perfect
position to be the recipient of the full measure of God's grace. Unfortunately,
finding a church that will accept you just as Jesus Christ accepts you may be difficult
in the real world. Just as there exists Alcoholics Anonymous to cater to those
struggling with alcoholism, and just as there exit specialised ministries to
cater children, students, aged, handicapped,
etc, the Christian community should initiate specialised ministries that can
understand and effectively cater to the needs of our LGBT QIA
neighbours.
In 1 Corinthians 6:9,10 Paul lists homosexual practices alongside a list
of other immoral behaviours like greed, extortion, idolatry, robbery, etc. If
we were to attempt an acronym for the various immoral behaviours listed there
in, we would end up with the alphabet: A for adultery, B for buggery (Sodomy),
C for covetousness, D for deception, E for effeminate, F for fornication, H for
homosexuality and so on. In other words, it is an issue of activity, and not an
issue of identity. It is a form of bondage to redefine activity as an identity,
and say, This is your identity. You can't escape it, when in reality it has to
do with activity. In v.11 Apostle Paul goes on to say
that some of those who were now members of the Church at Corinth had a back log
of such immoral behaviour. They were at that time disqualified for the kingdom
of God; but now that had found justification in Jesus Christ sufficient for
their sanctification.
There is in fact just one common label or identity for all
those who practice immoral behaviour – we are all sinners. When we come to
Christ Jesus and find in Him forgiveness for our sins, we get a new identity:
Children of God – fully accepted and eternally loved by God. This potential
change of identity is open to all sinners, without any discrimination to those
who find themselves in the LGBT QIA coalition. God hates the sinful behaviour, but
God loves the sinner.
In some ways we are all queer. In the depths of our heart,
our yearnings, especially those bound up with our sexuality, are hardly ever
fully satisfied by the biblical model of one man and one woman yoked together
for life (even though, there is no doubt that in the present fallen world, that
is the least destructive and most sustainable model – the best for humanity and
therefore part of the moral will of God for mankind on earth). C.S. Lewis said
over 50 years ago, ‘If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this
world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another
world.’ I belong to that remnant, perhaps small or perhaps substantial, who will
continue to teach that we are created male and female, to bless the marriages
that reunite those two broken halves, and to remind all, married and unmarried,
that "in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in
marriage" (Mathew 22:30) - that ultimately our earthly struggle with our
sexuality only reflects the reunion promised between the Creator and his image
bearers. Along the way, we all will be queer, groaning as we await the
redemption of our bodies.
