What About Homosexuality*?

I guess you noticed the asterisk, huh? To tell you the truth, this particular blog is not about homosexuality. While I may venture to blog about the subject later, this is a more basic blog. It is about the preconceived ideas we bring in our search for meaning and spirituality and—well, God!

You see, often in a conversation about God and the particular community of faith, hope, and love that one enters as part of an authentic discovery of God, there comes a moment when the seeker asks the question, “What do you believe about ____________?” The blank can be filled in with all sorts of words… homosexuality, war, the homeless, riches, abortion, physical healing, the environment, efforts to convert people of other faiths… you name it!

From one perspective, it is quite right to ask such questions about faith. We want to know what God says about different subjects, and we want to know how the community of faith, hope, and love applies that word from God in the day to day of life. So, certainly questions are legitimate, and I welcome all kinds of questions from genuine seekers who want to know more.

However, there is also a sense in which such questions can not only be illegitimate but can thwart the seeker from finding the answer he or she truly seeks. Here’s what I am talking about:

When some folks ask, “What about homosexuality”—or any other subject—they are asking it in a way that it is a “deal-breaker” in the search for God and spirituality. In other words, if the God you are telling them about does not match up with the opinion they already hold, the search ends there.

You may ask, “What’s wrong with that?” If we weren’t talking about ultimate answers—God—it wouldn’t be as important. But think for a moment: if there really is a God, shouldn’t we be looking to Him for the guidance on these controversial questions of life, not judging Him by our little opinion? (I will put a caveat on that later, so stay with me.)

Shouldn’t we be seeking to find out, in the midst of all the different ideas of God or higher powers or cosmic consciousness (or whatever different people might call such things), if one is really true? And if we could somehow come to understand that there is one true God and that He speaks to us, shouldn’t we come to Him without our preconceived ideas of what is right and wrong and start looking to Him to tell us? (By the way, the word “good” comes from the word “God.” What God says, by definition, is what is “good.”) Isn’t it a little absurd to say to the big God of the Universe, if the evidence points to His existence, “I can’t put my trust in you because you have the wrong idea about government”?

Perhaps an illustration would be best. Let’s say that you absolutely love sugary desserts. They are what you live for. You have, however, been having some physical difficulties, so you make an appointment to go to the doctor. He has the reputation as the best doctor in the city. You are waiting for him to come give you the results of some tests, and as he walks into the examination room, you blurt out, “Doctor, I love sugar, and I live for sugar. What do you believe about sugar? I won’t accept any diagnosis that in any way limits my sugar intake.” The doctor says, “I’m sorry to hear that, because you have diabetes, and you absolutely will have to modify and monitor your sugar intake.”

What are you going to do? Are you going to say, “I don’t accept your diagnosis because I have already determined that consuming sugar is right”? Are you going to walk away from the treatment that is going to bring you health?

Well, that’s exactly what you are doing if you say, before you find out if God is real, “Well, if I find, God, that your opinion on homosexuality (or adultery or drunkenness or abortion or anything else) doesn’t line up with what I already believe, I will look for another idea of god who will agree with me and tell me that what I am already thinking or doing is okay.”

If you bring ANY preconceived notion as to what God has to say or do, you are limiting your search for the true God. And if you discover, say, that Jesus is truly God the Son and that God has left for us a book that reveals to us his ideas, we would ask the question we started with (and all others like it), not as a question of judging whether we will proceed down that path in our search, but in a humble attempt to find out what God says so that we can adopt His attitude as our own.

I often say to Bible study students, “We should approach the Scripture today with the attitude, ‘God, if I find today that my opinion is different from yours (after a careful study, of course), I’ll change mine.’” You see, if you would really search for God, you must be open to the fact that you might be wrong in one or two of the 10,000 opinions you currently hold!

I promised a caveat. If your search for God came to the place where, for instance, the one true God ended up being the god of this world (that is, the evil one)— a god who delighted in making us suffer and bringing destruction to our lives rather than loving us and seeking to rescue us from the mess our sins have made of the world—I certainly do not think that I would commit myself to such a god! I would hopefully fight against him tooth and nail.

The Good News for the believer in Jesus Christ is that our God is everything we could hope for and desire—a God of love, a God of justice, but also a God of mercy. And when we discover that, we are ready to put all opinions on the table. We are ready to say, “Teach me, O God, your ways.”

Please don’t let your pet opinion in this slice of history get in the way of your finding out the truth about God. Don’t go the doctor and rule out beforehand the diagnosis that can save your life!