Homo erectus'Homo-Erectus', Funny name is it not? This is because of what the word 'homo' has come to mean in our times, especially nowadays, years after it 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 sexual taboos
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 (I forget the actual number) 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 and evolutionary dogma. 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
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 inundate 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. Its 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)!
Internet porn star kid exposes his dark underworld on Oprah:
http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200602/tows_past_20060215.jhtml
Sex makes the grade in college:
www.cbn.com/cbnnews/news/050315a.asp
Criminal behavior
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 flood gate 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! 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.
As a man thinks of himself so is he!
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" and so he will do and 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 maybe 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 Orieilly's for some sexual gratification).
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 bio-genetic 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(Ephesians 2:2-3).
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!
"....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"(Paraphrase I Corinthians 6:9-11)
Writer's note: Having spent the last decade as a celibate Christian man, I have had little or no direct personal dealing with this particular sin or temptation. I have had struggles with other temptations where slowly but surly I have been able to gain ground simultaneous with my maturing as a Christian. Those of you who seek help in this area can check out the links bellow for some solid, godly help and advice.
Changed to live the higher life! Homosexuals who changed!
http://www.leaderu.com/orgs/probe/docs/ex-gay.html
Reinforcements:
http://www.exodus-international.org/
Conflicting paradigms and the arts
However, there will always be powers that will want to maintain the status quo 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.
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 publicized story one formerly abused man accused a priest that allegedly abused him of "making him into a homosexual!"
Pro love, not anti-gay
This 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. 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
Therefore, God must punish sin but instead of making us know the full burnt of His wrath, He let His son Jesus Christ carry that wrath fulfilling His own requirement for justice. Through the substitution of Jesus (He was made sin for us!) 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
The text of his sermon that got him in trouble with the law
http://www.akegreen.com/sermon_transcript.htm
Next: The spiritual roots of homosexuality
