How to address homosexuality in our culture: continuing the conversation

Recently, there’s been a lot of talk going around on Christian blogs about how Christians should be responding to the ongoing movement  to normalize homosexuality in our culture.  Consider this my contribution to that conversation.

Many have rightly noted that we no longer live in a culture where the quoting of Scripture is going to be particularly persuasive to many people, especially in the public sphere.   The day has simply passed were people consider the revealed Word in the Scriptures to be an authoritative source of truth.

So what then are we Christians to do? We who are completely convinced that the Scriptures are an authoritative source of truth are often left baffled by those who do not share our conviction.  We often just go on saying, “This is wrong because God has said so in [insert chapter/verse].”   And while those statements are certainly true, we find it bearing very little fruit in the public discourse of our day.

Several writers including fellow pastors Michael Schmidt and Mark Lovett, not to mention well-known commentator Bill O’Reilly, have suggested that Christians had better understand quickly that the only real case against homosexuality that will be heard in our day is that which rests on what Christians often call “natural law” arguments.  In other words, we make our argument from things that are evident from nature.  In the particular area of human sexuality, we argue biology.  We have to be sexuality explicit even when it makes us uncomfortable.   We have to speak about anatomical differences in male and female.  And we have to, even when it means confessing our own idols, point out simple fact that the propagation of our very species demands heterosexual marriage where the possibility of procreation exists.

For a long time, I was convinced that this was the primary way that we needed to argue as well.  And I still think it is worth seeking to make these arguments.  For there are some people in our society who will still listen to a reasoned argument and be persuaded by it. 

But the sad truth is that most people in our day do not make decisions based on reason.   In our culture, more, more people make their decisions based on relationships and feelings than they do reason.  Most people did not come to believe that homosexual marriage was okay based on revelation or reason, so why would they be convinced that it is not by those same means?

This is why even arguments from natural law fall flat in our day.  People will say things like, “Well, I don’t care that only men and women can have babies, I want my friends to be happy.”  They will not argue the point but they will throw down the conversational trump card of our society.   They will say that not even reason is allowed if that reason offends someone or hurts feelings.

But if I am right that our culture largely will not accept arguments either from the authority of Scripture or from natural law due to their rejection of both revelation and reason, what are we to do?  I truly think there are only two real options.  [And I must say that I am not optimistic about either of these options yielding positive results in terms of legislation within our country in the near future.  But then again, Christ kingdom is not of this world, is it? ]

The first option would be to seek to argue with anecdotal evidence that moves the emotions.  If we really are going to play in our culture, that is where we must play.  Michael Schmidt rightly pointed out that in our culture which is readily accepting and normalizing homosexuality,  there is also a growing trend towards de-normalizing abortion even in secular circles.  He made the argument that this is because of science and technology.   While I will agree that it is science and technology that it made it possible, I think the real reason people have shifted their opinion on this topic is not science or technology at all.   They are moved emotionally and relationally by the pictures they see on the ultrasound.   To be honest, the ultrasound scientifically does not reveal anything we already didn’t know.   What it does do though is place an a living child before the eyes of those considering terminating it.  

Most of those who have recently come to believe that abortion is wrong have not done so because of the revelation of God’s word or because science has convinced them through reason.   They have done it because modern technology has manifested the relational and emotional nature of the scientific procedure called abortion.

And so, if we decide that we wish to argue in this culture based on how culture decides matters, we have to rely on anecdotes.   We had better expose the true nature of homosexual relationships by way of story telling and not mere statistics.   We need to point out that while heterosexuals have made an utter mess of marriage through divorce and remarriage, homosexual relationships do not even live up to those dismal standards.  We must be able to find notable examples in our culture that make this truth relatable to the average person. We must expose through real stories in real life the true nature of how the homosexual community is in large part antagonistic towards monogamy even when speaking about marriage.   We need to bring forward children raised within the homosexual context who have been damaged by the confusion and instability so prevalent there.

The other option is to recognize that we cannot play our culture’s games.  And that would mean that we simply go back to proclaiming truth and the consequence of denying it.  This way will seem most foreign to all but perhaps is where we must rest as God’s people living in our present culture.  Will their be discernable fruit in this approach, especially within our present culture? No, likely not.  But as we speak truth and leave that truth lingering in the conscience of individuals, people will be personally convicted by the Spirit.

But to honest, this is where I am leaning.  We do not quote scripture as an authoritative source all must revere, but we proclaim the truths we have learned  from Scripture and simply proclaim them as true.  We remind people of the temporal and eternal consequences of ignoring God’s truth.  And we stand ready to calm troubled consciences with the Gospel of Jesus. 

In playing the games of our culture, whether the current game is reason or feelings, I think we sometimes limit the ability of Christ’s Word to stand as authoritative on its own which it is certainly capable if doing. I think we should return to just speaking truth rather than trying to play the game of our culture with skill.  I would rather rest on the Spirit’s work than my own wisdom.

What do you think Please add to the conversation yourself.