Sexual divergence in post-modernity

Monday, October 26, 2009
Sexual divergence in post-modernity


Introduction

Imagine a you-tube video that is directed towards Homosexuals which goes viral. It’s not offensive and not full of hate. It points out that its producers are not posting it because of their hate for gays but rather their intense love for their soul. It makes clear that God does indeed love homosexuals yet does not condone their sin. It shows that the creators are not merely tolerant but care enough for gays to tell them that they need to change and that God has a plan for their salvation. Some homosexuals might get saved while others may get angry. This is the nature of preaching of the gospel. Jesus said, “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.”[1]

The Social consequences of evolution:

What we in general, and our youth in particular believe about origins will determine the moral choices they will make in the future. The ruthless assassin Vincent played by Tom Cruise in the movie 'Collateral', says as he goes about his killing, "..Improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, ---- happens..whatever, roll with it". He says again, "Millions of galaxies of hundreds of millions of stars..each a speck on one in a blink..thats us lost in space" [2]. This is part of his rationalization for the terrible things he is doing! Its not an accident that both evolution and the idea of a godless universe are used by the writers when they created this amoral fictional character. He believes he is alone in the universe and has no moral qualms about killing people to get what he wants. The question then, that should be asked is, how do these 'celebrated' scientific theories filter down into our psyche and affect the moral choices we make everyday?


Man, a law unto himself, Secularism

Evolutionary theory along with the big bang theory have set aside or altogether replaced the creator God making man seemingly unanswerable to Him, His moral laws or judgments! This has been and still is a huge split with Christianity whose tenets include that there is a day of reckoning, a day of judgment and accountability serving as a strong moral deterrent (when conscience goes awry[3]*)! These scientific theories, at times overly presumptuous in their claims of having cornered the truth have garnered a faithful following. Together with anti-religion and atheistic philosophies, these theories form a wedge between genuine faith and honest science that seeks to ascertain the truth. Religious faith is being usurped its effectiveness as a moral & spiritual agent in a needy world. Some such philosophies have gone as far as to state religion to be a sinister plot by certain men to keep certain other groups of men under subjugation[4], making a "prison for their minds"![5] This is seriously doubtful since the progenitors of these faiths were themselves poor or belonged to lower economic and social strata and getting ahead was never their motivation in preaching and establishing their message, "The Lord Your God is one"![6]


The Anti God age

Under the sway of the 'Evo-bang' theories and philosophies that permeate our world, man is left to make his own moral boundaries and decisions, making them up and changing them as he wills to fit his own selfish motives. Traditional social norms have been eroded and replaced by irreverent cultural mores leading to what one might call an amoral/immoral society and a type of a biblical Sodom that would unashamedly say, "Bring out the men so we can know them".[7]

Therefore, "Thou shall not lie, steal, commit murder or covet your neighbors property" and other divine laws and tenets that were given to be honored and have served societies well in the past have been weakened or have a convenience clause added to them or are denied altogether! (Think of the rising divorce and crime rate in western societies)[8]. Science has also been wrongly used to furnish some of the justifications (By painting a godless universe and by sometimes blurring the lines between right and wrong) for which certain moral and spiritual principles are to be abrogated for 'better' ethics and man made laws plunging us straight into an Anti God age (Anti-Christian[9] if you will, to invoke Nietzsche) where we find ourselves today and where we have been for a while now! This might spell our demise! Unknowingly, we are cutting away at the pillars and limbs that support the very fiber of our society, its laws, education, its government and most of all the family structure! As it is said of the Anti-Christ, "He will change times and laws"[10] . May God help us if we cast away and forget these eternal words and principles by which we were created that have upheld us up to now. Perhaps indeed the end is near!

Darwinian roots to bold sin

Evolution is but a scientific denial of God and that under girds the thick unbelief prevalent in our world today especially among the elite. There is actually a relationship between Homosexuality and Homo erectus. 'Homo-Erectus' was coined as a Latin phrase to represent a precursor to modern man in the evolutionary development, meaning the erect human or a hominid who stood up straight. (The theory goes something like this: Supposedly our ancestors lost the curvature of their spine through painstakingly slow incremental physiological changes, that took thousands or millions of years , when one sunny morning a baby hominid came about who would not gallop the hillside and would not skip trees in the tundra anymore but stood erect on his(her) two feet!?) Fast forward to old Canaan land in Bible times. Can you imagine poor Mr. Lot, who was living in the ancient party town of Sodom, as some 'Homo-Erectus' men came and wanted to forcibly have sexual relations with a couple his guests? Ok, this is not that much of a funny joke! Especially to God, because according to the bible, that kind of attitude resulted in the whole town being overthrown due to his fierce anger.


Evolution and its affect on cultural and sexual norms

One of the influences of evolutionary theory on modern life may have been that it has made certain sexually taboo activities to be more acceptable as it has filtered down into the beliefs of so many of today's people both young and old. One man with such a disposition, when engaged in a religious debate, said the following. "Even 30 percent of animals including elephants engage in homosexual activity". He added that, he thought he himself was an accident of nature. His defense of his life style and actions was based on science droppings, evolutionary dogma and knowledge that had been gained from National geographic and Nova cable channels. We replied, "Not only was he not an accident but that he is a veritable miracle". We also wanted to add, that all the earth was in a fallen state and as such does not always act in line with the highest purposes intended for it.

Another individual angrily shouted that being gay was what he chose to be and do, when pressed by people he felt had misunderstood him. The politically correct term a 'lifestyle choice' resulted from terminology designed to protect his rights under the constitution. However, some other men claim that if they could help it, they would rather be heterosexual, implying that they act and live in such a manner because that's who they are and that's what they must do. For yet others it seems to be an experiment in an experience, which is to be prolonged or aborted, based on how one enjoys the initial and/or subsequent experiences. "Of course" they say, "You should try everything at least once". In a generation where 'Survivor' and 'Fear Factor' and other reality based shows have come to be popular, this seems to be the approach people take towards a lot of things including sexual encounters with individuals of the same sex.


Nature, nurture or spirit?

This leads to the question, how exactly is homosexuality to be understood and how does it arise? Some people will say, "Its all in the genes. You can't fault someone if they were born with that disposition". Hence we have the term 'sexual orientation', which is believed to be an outcome of one's genetic and/or psychological, make up! This leaves all of us to overlook our apparent gender identity and wonder if we don't have a bio-genetic makeup that disposes us to certain sexual pulls and attractions. It also puts a shadow on what we all should be able to take for granted. I.E. that our original gender bestowed upon us at our inception is what determines how we are to behave socially and sexually after we grow up.

Here we will introduce yet another possibility. Namely, that such pulls and a disposition toward such activity might lie in the spiritual aspect of our make-up rather than the biological or the psyche. In the book of Romans Chapters 1 & 2 Paul says that denying the evidences of God's created work (evolution?), banishing Him out of one's thoughts and failing to acknowledge and worship him as such will lead to being given over to a reprobate mind and what he calls unlawful and unnatural desires. This might explain why people who have been seeking a remedy in the psychology department have not been able to be successful.


Robbing the glory off of the children, Unholy entertainment

"From their children have you taken away my glory forever" Micah 2:9[11]

On a wider context, if we enlarge our subject to include all of our youth, we find that alarming trends are happening with respect to their sexual behavior. The effects of conditioning happening through lewd images that inundates the print media, the entertainment industry and new technologies like the Internet is incalculable. Porn is readily available over the internet, coming right into the rooms of most young people today, who have the internet savvy to get around any and all protection that parents might install on their computers. It’s an understatement to say that they are being corrupted and being initiated into all kinds of debauchery and lewd acts or what the bible collectively calls as 'sexual immorality'. Fewer and fewer children have the opportunity to grow up with their innocence intact and without being exposed to violent or sexually charged images or lyrical gyrations of lewdness. A large part of the responsibility goes to those who are profiting from the production, publication and dissemination of this kind of smut. You can go to some college campuses today and see a form of ancient Caligula-like pleasure romps happening with youngsters as onlookers and participants (Sometimes with authority figures as advocates)! [12]


Criminal behavior, hiding behind science

Coming back to the issue at hand, if it were true that there was some other hidden biological determinant, this on its own, in one stroke, would undo all old world taboos and superstitions having to do with ancient moral codes, permitting one to engage in activities considered very sinful and even abominable by society and especially by religious faiths, their adherents and institutions. THIS WILL LEAD TO A LOT OF IRRESPONSIBLE AND DANGEROUS BEHAVIOR, opening the floodgate to ungodliness and immorality, an abyss for which there is no bottom! This kind of thinking is behind the various amoral social groupings seen on the rise today where its ok to do anything and everything that would otherwise be considered morally repugnant. May God give us the grace to repent and open our eyes to see! On a recent web blog article, former homosexual Greg Quinlan denounces fallen artist Ray Boltz as false in a reaction to his recent confession that he is gay. He adds, “The director of the Human Genome Project, Dr. Francis Collins, said this: homosexuality is not hardwired. There is no gay gene. We mapped the human genome. We now know there is no genetic cause for homosexuality”[13]

For some, science has become a fig leaf with which to hide one's nakedness by passing responsibility for one's selfish behavior to individual genes or one's biological makeup. (Granted certain ailments and disorders have bio-genetic roots, all behavior may not be so rooted. Notice how certain criminal defenses are mounted today to evade responsibility! With respect to our discussion our Lord places the sources of such sins squarely within our evil hearts, Mark 7:21) We can only hope (said sarcastically) that scientist will soon find the individual sins (..er genes) that have to do with murder, rape and violence so that we can either quarantine and/or neuter people before they actually commit their first crime. In ethics for a brave new world, the two Feinbergs invoke Evelyn Hooker as saying the following.

Thus, Evelyn Hooker is most likely correct. Homosexuality is the result of a variety of causes, none of which decisively determines sexual preference. There may be some biological factors which either predispose or contribute to homosexuality, and the home environment is also a significant factor. Still, in cases where all of these elements are present, one will not necessarily become a homosexual[14]

After arguing that no scientific study has conclusively supported a biological cause for homosexuality, Richard Kirby comes to the following conclusion, “ Scientists may indeed discover a clear biological predisposition to sexual orientation. But a predisposition is not the same as a determination.”[15]

However there is are political reasons for the insistence that bio-genetic causes are responsible for sexual orientation even if studies on the subject may not be conclusive,

Many have concluded there is a genetic reason for homosexuality. Of course, this claim is extremely important to homosexuals for at least two reasons. First, if homosexuality is something innate or constitutional, then homosexuals are no more responsible for their sexual orientation than for eye color or height. Attempts to get homosexuals to change their sexual orientation will also be useless. Second, this claim has political ramifications. If there is a biological basis for homosexuality, then there will be pressure to grant them minority-rights status. This is a special civil rights status that would protect them from discrimination on the basis of their sexual orientation.11,[16]


As a man thinks of himself so is he!

Could it be that We become who we believe ourselves to be! As the old but true wisdom adage goes, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he"[17] and so he will do and act. How we see ourselves can determine how we act. The Issue then becomes whether we are doing the things we are doing because we are helpless victims of our nature or whether we are allowing ourselves to be overcome by our lower, baser selves? The answer may be somewhere in the middle, where our flesh and spirit constantly strive against one another. Although our biological makeup has a lot to do with our inclinations and behavior we have also been given a conscience and a will that we ought to exercise in making the right decisions. Further, being informed of our creator's intentions for our life can aid us in making the right decisions concerning how we are to keep and utilize our bodies so we can progress from the realm of sensations to the higher and fuller life that God intended for us to have. Yes, we are spiritual beings who live in a physical body with dual natures and created with the higher purposes of worship and communion (and definitely not for a one night stand hookup down at Oreilly’s pub for some sexual gratification). It all revolves around a question of anthropology and the nature of man.

On the other hand, if we think of ourselves as animals we will act as animals! In fancy scientific terms, if we think that we are some half-baked by product of evolution that inherited genes with a confused gender roll, we will act and live that way. (The argument will go something like this: After all biogenetic information is being recycled and passed in a continuous cycle of conception, birth and dying. Surely, there is bound to be an error where certain of the files with ones bio-genetic information got lost or confused with certain other files: This argument assumes a universe without an all powerful creator and sustainer of life). It is this latter view that we consider false and seek to challenge here. It is a fatal error to assume man to be just a biological without a soul, genetically pre-programmed to act in a certain way without recourse or choice. The real truth may be that there are both biological and spiritual aspects to our nature that are susceptible to various kinds of temptations. It might be closer to the truth to say that there are spirits (entities that beguile, tempt and even possess us) behind these and other types of human behavior, that can take over and control our lives in the absence of Godly influence and resistance on our part[18]


Who we are


Our mind is subject to tremendous outside pressures in the modern world that wants to imprint its own impressions on us, vying for our allegiances. Therefore, we need to have an honest mirror as a reflection of our true self and that mirror is the Word of God. We cannot see ourselves in a true light unless we have experienced regeneration. Who we truly are has always been a question of anthropology and theology. Jay E. Adams says the following of man’s nature, “ In all parts and aspects of his(Man’s) life he is depraved”[19]


Hope for a remedy, washed and changed

It seems that one of the illusions of being under the sway of gender-bending spirits is to believe this to be one's permanent biological state or condition or one's inborn nature! For those who seek hope or remedy, we dare suggest, that if it be a spiritual problem it has a spiritual solution. And even if it were a physical or biological ailment, God is the God of all flesh, its maker sustainer and healer! Having full faith in the maker's love for mankind, we dare suggest that one can have full deliverance and recovery if one were to come to Christ seeking it! Our hearts are full with faith to say, its possible in God for one to have restored the natural desire that one should have for a spouse of the opposite sex and lead a natural fruitful life! In the Corinthian church, there were former homosexuals who had been saved. Paul says to them in effect, “some of you used to be homosexuals and used to make yourselves into women, such things can leave one out of God's kingdom, but now you are washed and changed, sanctified and justified in the name of our lord Jesus and by his spirit”[20] What a powerful testimony this is of a transformed life. Even so today we have gospel ministers and singers who have been taken out of these lifestyles and been transformed. One famous example of this is the gospel singer, Donny Mcklurkin.

Helpful Websites


Changed to live the higher life! Homosexuals who changed![21]
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/ex-gay.html
http://www.exodus-international.org/[22]


Conflicting Paradigms and the Arts


Homosexuality and the media


However, there will always be powers that will want to maintain the status quo of sinfulness and who do not want change (spiritually speaking) and would rather battle to keep things as they are. One can always circumvent biblical morality by creating ones own religion or infiltrating the religious institutions with ones prophets and messiahs. Proponents of the gay rights movement have taken the battle to all fronts of society all the way from the streets, to the media, to the courts and into the church. The struggle would also have to include using the arts to propagate one's message by putting it in movies, music, the theater, sitcoms, talk shows and all the mainstream venues and media outlets. The gay cowboy movie, Broke Back Mountain is an example of this as well as the sitcom ‘Will and Grace’. It also proves how powerful these groups can be in being able to share their message of ‘understanding and tolerance’ (toward sin) and fighting ‘hate’.

For better or for worse, we saw all these things take place just within the last few years, as homosexual people fought to have their lifestyle acknowledged as a viable and healthy way of living worthy of acceptance of all. However, art cannot make sin beautiful any more than adding a realistic touch to Monet's paintings (by having some dog-pie appear on the left frame of his water lilies or flower beds) will make his work look better!

This has left people of faith sometimes reeling and seeking to strike a balance on how to resist this mounting assault while simultaneously showing love to people within their families and communities by providing the right spiritual guidance and support on such issues. It has not helped that in recent years, some mainline churches have lost the moral high ground to speak down on such debauchery because of scandals that took place in their parishes that have reverberated in the media, making it hard for everyone to decide on whom to trust on such issues. In a recent well publicized story one formerly abused man, accused a priest that allegedly abused him of "making him into a homosexual!"


Christ: The only ethical approach towards the homosexual community

The lord is interested in sinners and loves them. so we must also be and do likewise. This is the basis of compassionate ethics. Reinhold Neibuhr states, “ The crown of Christian ethics is the doctrine of forgiveness. Love as forgiveness is the most difficult and impossible of moral achievements”[23] Therefore, this paper is not an ant-gay diatribe! It's a pro-righteousness treatment of this issue with the hopes of winning hearts to the truth or truths set forth in the bible and mainly of the deep love that God has for his miss-stepping creation. Hatred of anyone within the reach of God's grace (and who isn't) although they engage in sexually divergent sins (and who hasn't) is wrong. It's the sin to be hated and not the sinner himself; because most of us whether we like to admit it publicly or not, have done things that have made us ashamed. Some of us have done even worse things while hiding behind a religious cloak and should be pointing a finger at ourselves not others.

The Theology of sin and redemption

The simple truth is that God loves all men (and women) and wants to save them when bent on things that will eventually destroy them and further, He wants to make them His own by saving them to the uttermost*[24]. And why does He hate sin in man? This is because sin is like a flaw or a blemish in an otherwise beautiful and beloved image of Himself. Because it subverts the creators intentions and hopes for the one created so much so that it frustrates and grieves and saddens Him. Therefore He hates it much like a father grieved by a wayward son who is doing drugs, carousing or involved in criminal activities. He is also forced to approach man in two ways I.E. Through the whip or through the loving Word calling him to repentance.


The Good news concerning overwhelming sin & substitutionary atonement

God must punish sin[25] but instead of making us know the full burnt of His wrath, He let His son Jesus Christ carry that wrath[26] fulfilling His own requirement for justice. Through the substitution of Jesus (He was made sin for us![27]) in our stead, our sins have already been bourn by our savior and therefore we can have forgiveness and reconciliation when we trust in Him.

Here is the good news concerning this or any other sin. This is simply that, you can be forgiven and also be totally and completely cleansed from it! Through The Blood of Jesus applied to your life when you believe, you are able to be purified and stand before your loving father with a pure conscience through the work of His grace, and subsequent sanctification. Jesus said that all sins that men do shall be forgiven them except one(and homosexuality is not that one). The Bible counsels us to flee "sexual immorality" and to keep our eyes and mind on things good, wholesome and spiritual.

Related links:
Swedish pastor convicted for preaching against homosexuality
http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05111504.html[28]


Bibliography

Bible

All verses have been quoted from The King James Version of The Bible

Books

Anderson Kerby, Christian Ethics In Plain Language. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005

Marx Karl and Friedrich EngelsThe Communist Manifesto,

Nietzsche Fredrick, The Antichrist, 1895

Feinberg, John S. ; Feinberg, Paul D. ; Huxley, Aldous: Ethics for a Brave New World. Wheaton, Ill. :

Crossway Books, 1996, c1993, S. 189

Cal Thomas, “Sexual Preference Is Not Determined by Genetic Factors,” DH, September 6, 1991.

Adams Jay E., A Theology Of Christian Counseling, P.141

Neibuhr, Reinhold An interpretation of Christian Ethics. New York Harper and Brothers 1935 P. 223

Website sources and links

http://blog.nola.com/faith/2008/09/gospel_singer_ray_boltz_admits.html

www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050315a.asp

http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/ex-gay.html

http://www.exodus-international.org/

http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05111504.html

Movies

Mann, Michael Collateral film directed by and written by Stuart Beattie. 2004 crime/thriller

Wachowski, Larry and Andy The Matrix written and directed by, 1999 science fiction-martial arts-action film

Footnotes.

[1] John 15:18-19 (KJV)

[2] Collateral is a 2004 crime/thriller film directed by Michael Mann and written by Stuart Beattie.

[3] Proverbs 1:7 (King James Version)

[4] The Matrix is a 1999 science fiction-martial arts-action film written and directed by Larry and Andy Wachowski, ‘The blue-red pill scene’ also
[5] The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
[6] Mark 12:29-31 (New King James Version)

[7] Genesis 19:5 King James Version

[8] Kerby Anderson, Christian Ethics In Plain Language. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005. P.136, 143

[9] Fredrick Nietzsche, The Antichrist, 1895

[10] Daniel 5:7 King James Version

[11] King James Version of The Bible, Micah 2:9

[12] www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050315a.asp

[13] http://blog.nola.com/faith/2008/09/gospel_singer_ray_boltz_admits.html

[14]Feinberg, John S. ; Feinberg, Paul D. ; Huxley, Aldous: Ethics for a Brave New World. Wheaton, Ill. : Crossway Books, 1996, c1993, S. 189

[15] Kerby Anderson, Christian Ethics In Plain Language. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2005. P.112

11 Cal Thomas, “Sexual Preference Is Not Determined by Genetic Factors,” DH, September 6, 1991.

[16]Feinberg, John S. ; Feinberg, Paul D. ; Huxley, Aldous: Ethics for a Brave New World. Wheaton, Ill. : Crossway Books, 1996, c1993, S. 187

[17] Proverbs 23:7, The King James Version of the Bible.

[18] Ephesians 2:2-3 The King James Version of The Bible

[19] Jay E. Adams, A Theology Of Christian Counseling, P.141

[20] I Corinthians 6:9-11Paraphrase King James Vesrion

[21] http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/ex-gay.html

[22] http://www.exodus-international.org/

[23] Reinhold Neibuhr, An interpretation of Christian Ethics. New York Harper and Brothers 1935 P. 223

[24] Hebrews 7:25

[25] Roman’s 6:23 KJV Bible

[26] 2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV Bible

[27] 2 Corinthians 5:21 KJV Bible

[28] http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2005/nov/05111504.html