Why Is Being Anti-Gay So Important to Some Christians?

The culture is shifting.  Whether you like it or not, attitudes towards gay, lesbian, and transgender people are changing, becoming more accepting.  You may or may not be happy about this.  In the interest of full disclosure I'll say that I'm thrilled.  I do not believe that being gay is a choice. Therefore, if I believe that God created everything, he must have created them that way.  I have no problem with gay people entering into a marriage contract in the legal sense or a marriage covenant in a religious sense.

Now let me explain myself before you all either tune out the rest of this entry or fire up your flame throwers.  First off, I don't believe that churches should be forced to perform gay marriages if that doesn't align with the views of the congregation.  I also don't believe that the current court proceedings are going to force them to do so.  Churches refuse to marry couples everyday of the week across the country.  My wife and I were married at All Souls Catholic Church in Sanford, Florida.  We didn't just show up and say "Marry us or else."  We had to talk with a liturgist, a priest, and take a day long class before we could enter into the sacrament of marriage.  Had the church told us no, we wouldn't have been able to sue them.  So let's all calm down about that.

I have a question though.  Why is being anti-gay so important to so many people who call themselves Christians?  What is it about this issue that divides people, splits churches, and ruins entire families? After all, Jesus didn't address the issue in the recorded gospels.  So one of two things happened. Either Jesus didn't say anything about it or the writers of the gospels didn't think about it enough to include it.  So that being said, what's your problem with it?  At best this is a secondary theological issue.  Surely had it been more important there would be a recorded teaching from Jesus.  Yet all of Jesus' teaching about love and inclusion are so often tossed out the window when it comes to gay people.  I've boiled this down in my own thinking to five reasons why this seems to be such a big deal to so many Christians.

First off, Christians seemed to have adopted so many of the negative stereotypes about gay people that emerge from an aggressive male dominated culture, independent of religion.  How many times have you heard, or even perpetuated the thought that gay people are pedophiles?  Search the discussion on social media and I bet you find a reference to this harmful stereotype in less than 5 minutes.  Another one is the thought that a same sex couple cannot be suitable parents or that children in same sex households will grow up to be utterly confused in their sex roles.  The academic/scientific community consensus  is that there isn't a basis for this conclusion either, but that doesn't seem to matter.  For some reason, many Christians seem to be vulnerable to these kind of stereotypes, or even hoaxes.  How many times have you seen some chain mail sent through email or social media that is patently false, only to see it being perpetuated and nurtured by Christians?  The answer is.....a lot.

The second thing that leads to this issue being such a sore point is the practice of biblical literalism.   For people who read the Bible literally, every word of it is divinely penned and contains ultimate authority.  This authority cannot be contradicted.  They see the Bible as book that tells one story and should be read cover to cover, with every word being taken absolutely literal.  Of course, many problems arise from this.  The universe was created in six days.  People lived to be 900 some years old.  A major flood wiped out all of the animals in the entire world except for a few that some guy put on a boat.  Then when we get to Leviticus, being gay is an abomination and non-celibate gay people should be executed.  That's not very nice now, is it?  I mean, even the most stringent anti-gay people that I know don't want to see them executed.  But why?  I mean it says so right in the Bible!

Let's first say that the Bible is not one book that's meant to be read cover to cover with every word to be taken literally.  The Bible contains material related to two different cultures: ancient Jews and early Christians.  It records how both of these cultures, thousands of years ago, responded to the life and times around them.  The Bible contains poetry, mythology, metaphor, personal correspondence, legend, and a dash of actual history.  You can't read a book like that and take every word literally. Psalm 91 says that God will cover you with his feathers.  So God has feathers.  He's a chicken. Hebrews 12 says that God is a consuming fire.  Now he's a blast furnace.  Which is it?  Oh, you mean it's a metaphor?  Weird, I'll stop worshiping the chicken that lives on the next street I guess.  The plain fact is that while Bible passages have to be read in context with other passages, they also have to be read in the context of the historical time in which they were written.  When viewed this way, the Bible becomes not a constitution that must be followed to the letter, but a library of different books, written at different times, that conveys the feelings of different authors.

But you might say, "Ok, what about Romans 1?"  Yes, in Roman 1 Paul lists homosexuality as "ungodly."  First off, he lists a lot of other things too, and a lot of us are guilty of most of it.  However, something happens if you read the passage in context and you check out the first verse of Romans 2.:

"Therefore you have no excuse. whoever you are, when you judge others; for in passing judgement on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, are doing the very same things." (Romans 2:1 NRSV).

Sounds like what we were all taught as kids: "when you point a finger at someone else. three point right back to you."   So when you're using the passage against others, you're doing exactly what Paul tells you not to do.  Now yes, Paul still does seem to be against homosexuality, but in 1 Corinthians he also says that women should keep their mouths shut in church.  This view is also part of a bygone era.  If you're interested in learning more about the "Clobber Passages" that Christians use against gay people check out Ronald Goetz's blog Bible Thumping Liberal.

The third reason being anti-gay is so important to some Christians is because they are obsessed with sin and judgement.  It doesn't seem to matter that the expressed mission of Christ was to free all from sin and judgement.  For some reason, a requirement for being a Christian seems to be that you follow the Hebrew law as laid out in the Old Testament.  As Paul himself insists, this is patently false. He treats this subject extensively in Galatians.

"The only thing I want to learn from you is this: Did you receive the Spirit by doing the works of the law or by believing what you had heard?" (Galatians 3:2 NRSV)

"For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written 'Cursed is everyone who obeys all the things written in the book of the law'." (Galatians 3:10 NRSV)

"Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us." (Galatians 3:13a)

Paul seems to be pretty clear on the subject.  Throughout his epistles he constantly stresses salvation, or transformation, through grace, not through the following of a moral law code or by doing good works.  It is the central theme of his message.

Now that's not to say that Paul is giving everyone a license to go out and do as they please.  However what Paul is stressing, and what the church in the modern era seems to have largely forgotten, is a process of personal transformation made possible by Christ's love and grace, not through moral codes or judgement.  As so many people in the emergent view of Christianity are pointing out, this process leads to a person who becomes like Christ, a person who loves and serves everyone, including their enemies and people who disagree with them.

Yet of course, bending back into Biblical literalism, many Christians see being gay as a sin, or at least not being a celibate gay person is a sin.  And so this obsession with sin, despite clear teaching otherwise, becomes the central focus of faith.  The point is to abhor and virulently condemn anything you see as sinful because you're "standing up for God's will."  But guess what, God doesn't need you to defend him. He's good there.  Plus, why does he keep on creating all these gay people if he hates them so much?  Not to mention, our calling as Christians is not to go around proclaiming God's judgement on those whom we disagree with, or anyone for that matter.  Our calling as Christians is bear the image of Christ into the world.  That image is one of love, service, and sacrifice; not sin, judgement, and dogmatic obsession.

Fourth, not only are modern Christians obsessed with sin, but they're obsessed with sex.  Now there are a lot of people that are obsessed with sex, and a lot of it is unhealthy. Modern American Christians have taken this to new heights in the western world though.  For so many people the biggest part of that Law code that they think everyone has to follow is about sex. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex.  Nymphomaniacs aren't as obsessed with sex as some conservative Christians are.  So much of the conversation turns into issues about sex.  "That person is having sex before they're married."  "That couple is using birth control when they have sex."  "Those guys actively engage in gay sex."  "Those guys have multiple partners." "This person's kid is sexually active."  The list goes on and on and on and on.  Then when Christians are confronted by a sexual relationship with someone of the same sex the discussion nearly always devolves into things like incest and bestiality.  Seriously, who spends so much time thinking about sex with animals?  Conservative comment boards and websites have been full of it this week after the Supreme Court actions.  Sigmund Freud would have a field day.  Brian McLaren has a term for this kind of sex obsessed Christian in his book "A New Kind of Christianity." He calls it "fundasexuality" and devotes a whole chapter to it.  For McLaren, this obsession with sex comes not from faith or religion, but from an orientation of fear.  These people fear new things, new ideas.  They fear things and people who different.  They fear religious authority figures.

I totally agree with him there and I encourage everyone to check out that chapter in his book, well check out the whole thing too.  Certainly certain patterns of sexual relationships can have destructive consequences, but that's not where this is obsession comes from.  As McLaren states: "Sociologists sometimes say that groups can exist without a god, but no group can exist without a devil. Some group or individual needs to be identified as an enemy" (A New Kind of Christianity, Pg 175).

That leads me to my final reason as to why Christians get so upset with gay people.  People say that they're protecting their religious rights, but that is a phantom fable.  These folks aren't REALLY worried about their rights, they're obsessed with OTHER PEOPLE and what OTHER PEOPLE are doing.  Look, I promise you, gay marriage could be legal all through the country and you'd still get to go to church whenever and wherever you want.  As I said earlier, your church will not be forced into performing gay marriages.  You can go right on believing that being gay is a sin.  Nobody from the government is going to come stop you.  More and more people might disagree with you, but nobody is gonna throw you in prison for having that opinion.

Let's face it, what people are actually doing is being nosy, superior, and attempting to force their belief onto others, it's exactly what they fear that gay people are going to do to them, and it's exactly the the opposite of what Jesus asks us to do.  Once again we see the fear of the "other" rear it's head in our culture.  The problem for Christians is that Jesus didn't call on us to judge the other.  He called on us to love and serve the other.  Don't forget that Jesus was a guy who hung about with prostitutes, tax collectors, working class people, the sick, and dirty fishermen, all while being reviled by the religious conservatives of his day, people to whom he referred to as "white washed tombs," pure and clean on the outside but dead on the inside.

Look, I'm not under the impression that I'm going to change anybody's mind here.  I don't believe that being gay is a sin.  I don't believe that gay people having a committed sexual relationship is a sin.  I might be wrong, but if I am, I rest comfortably in the fact that I still try my best to exhibit the love of Christ to anyone and everyone, and I'm just fine with that being a legacy that I leave when I'm no longer on this earth.

If you're a Christian who doesn't share my views, that is your right, but I hope what I've had to say can help you understand where people like me are coming from.  You may cling to your rigid belief, but times are changing, and my viewpoint is not going away.  If you're a gay Christian who reads this, please take heart and know that not everyone is against you.  I can't imagine what it might be like for you to be placed in certain situations.  Know that I accept you for who you are, and that I will pray not for you to be "cured" of who you are, but that someday a spirit of love and understanding will prevail for everyone.

If you're gay but you're not a Christian and you read this, please know that not all Christians are against you.  I am not.  I'm certainly not in this to try and convert anyone, but as religious institutions are often leading the fight against your rights, please know that many of us, more than you might think, care for you and are trying to change things from the inside out.

May Christ's Peace and Love be upon ALL.