On Homosexuality, Christianity & ‘Intolerance’

Introduction

I’ve been meaning to write about this for some time now, but kept putting it off because it is such a sensitive topic. It’s especially difficult to write about a topic from the outside, being a heterosexual individual. But I have tried my hand at it anyway.

In recent times, there has been a wave of an ‘anti-intolerance’ movement towards homosexuality, where people who do not believe that homosexuality is morally right have been 'witch-hunted' and lambasted. It is because of this I thought it worthwhile to write about homosexuality and the issue of intolerance. The conversation regarding the acceptance, or lack thereof, of homosexuality has been thrust into the limelight in recent times, leading to often aggressive discussions about that way of life.

So, we begin with definitions: 1)

• Homosexuality: sexual desire or behaviour directed towards a person or persons of one’s own sex

• Christianity: of, relating to, or derived from Jesus Christ and His teachings

• Intolerance: unwillingness or refusal to tolerate or respect opinions or beliefs contrary to one’s own

As a Christian, I am interested in – and believe – what the Bible says about homosexuality. Romans 1: 24-28 and 1 Corinthians 6: 9 +10 point to homosexuality being ungodly (i.e.: a sin – a transgression of divine law). However, the conversation doesn’t end there; there are various aspects to it:

• There are several other sins stated in the Bible which people partake in and have not drawn the degree of criticism and condemnation homosexuality has drawn over the centuries. The above 1 Corinthians scripture alone mentions idolatry, adultery, stealing, greed, drunkenness, slandering and swindling as sins that will disqualify you from entering the kingdom of God. There are also other sexual sins like fornication, rape, incest, prostitution, bestiality, masturbation, pornography, all of which barely get the spotlight from Christians as being ‘big and bad’ like homosexuality does. In fact, the sexual sins mentioned in the book of Leviticus 20 (verses 10 – 16) were punishable by death. So why is there a limelight on homosexuality in particular? If all sin takes us away from an intimate relationship with God, why is homosexuality always focused on by Christians?
• Over the course of the centuries, homosexuality had been seen as a form of insanity/mental illness, and it was only in 1987 that homosexuality was no longer classified in the DSM (the American classification of mental disorders). It has thus followed that homosexuals had been ostracized and maligned because of their sexual orientation – and still continue to be in many parts of the world today. For example, there are stories of attacks and killings of homosexuals in Nigeria. In 2014, the Nigerian Senate passed a law which crimialised homosexuality and made it a crime punishable by up to 14 years imprisonment. Such laws, in my view, muddy the waters, making what should be a “moral” issue, a “legal” one. 2)
• I am not a homosexual, and as such do not know what it feels like to be sexually and emotionally attracted to another woman, and to desire her the same way I would a man, and so I do not understand what it feels like to be maligned for something that feels ‘natural’ to me.

As mentioned above, in recent times, the aspect of tolerance has entered the conversation, whereby people – like me – who do not believe that homosexuality is morally right are being ‘forced’ to be tolerant or indifferent on the matter; that is, being coerced to see it as right or acceptable, or at least pretend to, so as not to be labeled “intolerant” or “homophobic”.

In 2012, Jack Phillips, a Christian owner of a cake shop in Colorado, USA, turned down a request by a gay couple to bake their wedding cake, telling them he didn’t create wedding cakes for same-sex weddings because of his religious beliefs. The couple took Phillips to court, alleging discrimination based on sexual orientation. In August 2015 (the US Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide in June 2015), a Colorado appeals court ruled that Phillips cannot refuse to make a wedding cake for gay couples based on his religious beliefs. There is also the well-known case of Kym Davis, a county clerk in Kentucky who refused to issue marriage licenses to gay couples because of her religious beliefs and was sent to jail by a judge.

While some might argue that the actions of Phillips and Davis were likened to ‘discrimination’ (the treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favour of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit), what can we say about the case of Margie Winters? Winters is a lesbian who worked as a teacher at a Philadelphia Catholic school and was fired in 2015 when her marriage to another woman became public knowledge. A petition with over 23,000 signatures demanded that Winters was discriminated against by the school and should therefore be reinstated. Winters claimed that she had disclosed that she was lesbian at the time she was being hired by the school years ago and that the school was aware she was married to a woman. 3)

Like the Archbishop of Philadelphia, Charles Chaput, said, the nuns and board members who run the school “[took] the steps to ensure that the Catholic faith is presented in a way fully in accord with the teaching of the church. They [showed] character and common sense at a moment when both seem to be uncommon.”

This is a line of reason I entirely agree with; why should the Catholic school be seen as discriminating against Winters when the church under which the school operates does not accept homosexuality? Why should the school be forced to tolerate homosexuality? Doesn’t freedom of choice depict that a person can choose what they accept, the same way homosexuals have chosen their way of life? 4) If a person is free to be homosexual, I too am free to decide that I do not consider homosexuality morally right. How far will the label of ‘intolerance’ be passed before it begins to infringe on the rights of freedom of opinion of individuals and institutions, like it did Phillips’ and Davis’? Why can’t the owner of a business decide who they want to attend to? We are using the baton of intolerance and homophobia to curtail people into doing and accepting things they do not want to under the guise of 'human rights'.

At this point, I should mention the likening of LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender) rights to human rights. The human rights movement has progressed over the centuries in regards to race in America, for example: from slavery to segregation and then to the integration of blacks into society. The premise is this: If human rights have, through activism, awareness and enlightenment, been able to advance, why can’t the LGBT rights movement be given the opportunity to experience the same level of freedom and acceptance?

My answer to this premise is: God opposes homosexuality. It is truly as simple and as unsavory as that. Romans 1 (mentioned above) clearly states this. Exodus 21 outlines the ways in which God sought to protect slaves who had been sold into slavery. If you ask me, God himself is the ultimate human rights activist. While He desires that no man, woman or child live under inhumane circumstances (e.g.: like those experienced by black Africans during the Transatlantic Slave Trade when they were taken away from Africa to America to work on plantations), the institution of marriage (between man and woman) is not to be toyed with.

A lot of people say that Christians use religion as an excuse not to think for themselves and to be dogmatic in their views. I think, if you’re still with me, I have shown that I do have thinking faculties, which I utilize. Besides, where does logic come from, if not from God?

The LGBT movement represents different facets of people:

• Lesbians: women who are sexually attracted to and date/marry other women
• Gays: men who are sexually attracted to and date/marry other men
• Bisexuals: people who are sexually attracted to and date both other women and men
• Transsexuals: people who have had surgery to change their physical appearance to match their target gender, opposite to their birth gender, and live as this ‘new’ gender fulltime; i.e.: a male who has changed to become a female or a female who has changed to become a male
• Transgenders: people whose identity, expression, behaviour or general sense of self does not conform to what is usually associated with the sex they were born in. Sex is often depicted as a matter of the body, while gender is a matter of the mind – this differentiates transsexuals from transgenders
• Drag queens: gay men who wear traditionally female clothing – they are different from cross-dressers/transvestites because while drag queens tend to be homosexual, cross-dressers tend to be heterosexual. Cross-dressers do not associate themselves with the LGBT community and do not see themselves as anything but heterosexual
• Genderqueer: people who don’t feel like part of the societal norm of binary gender (male or female) and the stereotypes associated with each gender. 5)

There are also heterosexual people who date transsexual and transgender people. I might read about and study these definitions and group of people but will never fully understand them because, as I mentioned earlier, I am a heterosexual.

There is also the issue of hermaphrodites. A hermaphrodite (or intersex person) has both female and male genital characteristics; this means that the organs on the inside of the person are of one sex while the organs on the outside are of another sex. Sometimes both genitals are present (both vagina and penis) in a baby at birth and it is often left to the parents to opt for surgery in order to determine the baby’s gender. I often wonder, if we are created in the image of God, like the Bible says, why does he create people with both types of genitalia?

As I round this post up, I ask myself an important question: “Do I support the LGBT movement?” I support the fact that LGBTs, as human beings, have their rights to safety and freedom from harm, freedom of movements, access to health care, education etc. What I do not, however, support is the bamboozling and bullying nature the movement often takes on, where they demand to have rights to raise children in same-sex couple homes, to be given jobs at institutions whose mandate do not accept homosexuality, to be attended to by companies that do no support homosexuality. That is my bone of contention and that is why I am writing this post. A person is free to be homosexual the same way I am free to stand by my beliefs and, as a Christian, I am called to show love as I do stand by those beliefs.

Conclusion

In this post, I have tried to be objective and logical, because objectivity and logic appeal to me. In fact, this post has taken me so long to write because I kept battling coming across as logical and ‘open-minded’, as opposed to opinionated and narrow-minded. But I realise that, in respect to this topic – as many other topics dealing with morality – I should not be concerned with being seen as ‘neutral’, ‘liberal’ or ‘agreeable’. What God has called wrong is wrong – and it’s as simple (and unsavory) as that. LGBT rights can never supersede divine law (the Word of God). Morality itself can be contested and is relative, but the Word of God is not and God is the boss.

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1) Definitions culled from dictionary.com

2) In another essay, I will write about Nigeria's misplaced priorities – homosexual-castigating instead of power-, road-, health care-providing.

3) If this allegation is correct, then one thing the Catholic school did wrong was to know from the beginning that Winters was a lesbian, still proceed to hire her and tell her to hide it away from pupils and parents. If this was the case, they should not have hired her in the first place.

4) In comes the discussion that homosexuality is not a choice the individual makes, but a choice made for the individual right from birth. I believe people like Donny McClurkin and Jackie Hill Perry, who were once homosexuals, are in a better position to discuss this

5) Definitions culled from Ask The Gay and Medical Daily.