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Episcopal Synod of America |
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Episcopal Synod of America |
| Articles |
Rector of Blessed Sacrament Parish Placentia, California
Dear ------
Thank you for your good letter! As usual, you have asked a good question. The answer which I believe most fits real life experience is as follows.
There is much more to a person than sexual orientation, whether heterosexual or homosexual. It is the whole person who matters to God and is loved by Him. The underlying matter of the Gospel is that we are infinitely loved by God, and are commanded to love others as we ourselves are loved.
God became a man in Jesus. Fallen and imperfect as we are, Christians extend the presence of Jesus in the world and in the hearts of others by who we are, how we act, and what we say. This is one way in which Christians make the incarnation present in each generation.
We are responsible before God for our sexual lives. Because of this, we are commanded to "honor God with the body" (1 Corinthians 6:20); we are taught the high doctrine that our bodies are "temples of the Holy Spirit" (1 Corinthians 3:15); that men and women are "flesh of flesh and bone of bone" (Genesis 2:23); and, in holy matrimony, are made "one flesh" (Genesis 2:24). Christianity teaches that we are profoundly connected to each other by being members of one body (1 Corinthians 12:27), that we are to bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2) and share one another's joys (Romans 12:15), and that when one member suffers, all suffer together (1 Corinthians 12:26).
The Bible also teaches that marriage, and especially sex, is a particular sign of the great and mystical union between Christ and His Church, God and His people. (See Ephesians 5:32, among other places) We are continually taught that what we do with our genital organs is of eternal significance--and most of us are continually disconcerted to find that this is so.
The Bible teaches that sex serves two purposes. It is the means by which a man and woman express love and find intimate union in heart, body and spirit in marriage; and, within that relationship, for the procreation of children. The position of the Christian Church has always been and still is that Christians have two options: either sexual relations within marriage, or abstinence. No matter how much we may wish that it were different, or how few individuals may actually put this teaching into practice, there can be no serious doubt that the Bible tells us that this is God's will. Those who teach differently must eventually explain why the Bible doesn't really mean what it says.
God intends for all people that we steward our sexuality within the boundaries He has established. This is by no means in order to diminish our pleasure but, on the contrary, to enhance and magnify it. Marriage, the supreme life-long commitment between two people, is the context in which the union of a man and woman may take place and be nurtured as both are conformed into the image of Christ. No doubt many sexualized relationships outside of marriage can be tender and sacrificial, and may in some ways approach the ideal which God desires for His people. Nonetheless, in non-marital sex, ultimate momentary intimacy takes place without the full trust, commitment and permanence in which alone true intimacy is nurtured. Everyone is called by God to grow into full personhood. That cannot happen when people seek shortcuts to the full communion God has in store for those who love Him. There are simply no shortcuts to joy. God always brings people to Him by the fastest and most direct route possible.
There can be little doubt that today's culture is deeply disordered sexually. The two greatest sins of our society are greed and lust. We are very uncomfortable with any serious talk about sex. Probably, most people, including Christians commit sexual sin to a greater or lesser degree.
Regarding homosexuality, it would appear that the Biblical condemnation of homosexual activity in many ways assumes that homosexual practice is a conscious and deliberate choice to engage in immoral behavior. Yet nearly everyone is willing to differentiate between homosexual orientation (about which the Bible is silent, and few would maintain is a deliberate choice) and homosexual behavior. Many homosexuals, like heterosexuals, certainly can and do engage in sexual activity which is compulsive, destructive, and clearly outside God's will. There are also those, both homosexual and heterosexual, who sincerely want to know God's will and try to follow it.
Most would agree that Biblically, theologically, spiritually, psychologically, emotionally and sociologically, there is no consensus on the reason why some people have a homosexual orientation. Some say that it is genetic; others, that it is because of arrested sexual development; others, because of family dysfunction in the relationship between the child and his or her mother and father; others, that it is willful sin; others, the result of childhood trauma; others, that it is as natural as being left-handed or having red hair. We just don't know the cause, and the Bible is silent on it.
Yet, whatever the cause (or causes), I believe the Bible is clear that homosexuality is not God's will, nor a gift of God to some persons. There is no place in Scripture or in the life of the Church throughout the ages which teaches otherwise. Although there is much writing and teaching these days in the Church and our culture which would validate homosexual relationships as an "alternate life-style", I believe that Christians must decide these matters not from secular evidence but from seeking to discern the mind of God. Various scientific hypotheses and polls about rights, appeals to justice, and powerfully expressed feelings about pain and compassion cannot be allowed to sway the debate. In fact, they really ought to carry little weight except insofar as they attempt to provide insight into the mind of God concerning human destiny, life, and ultimate joy.
Some claim that homosexuals can become heterosexual through therapy and prayer, and there are many persons who bear testimony to that claim. Others claim that this is impossible, and that it is damaging and dishonest to try. Most homosexuals I know, if they have come to terms with their sexual orientation, have done so only after personal suffering and trial of a severity which most heterosexuals can only guess at. Many have even been married and become parents, perhaps in an attempt either to deny or to overcome their orientation. Almost uniformly, the results have been tragic for all concerned. After a traumatic divorce, once-married homosexuals painfully conclude that they cannot change, but not for lack of trying. They have come to accept what they believe cannot change. I honor their efforts, and trust that God in His own time will bring to wholeness both homosexual and heterosexual persons who look to Him for redemption.
My own conviction is that everyone is broken sexually--some more than others. I think that homosexual orientation is a particular expression of the sexual brokenness common to all, and one of the most complex. It seems clear to me that a penis and a vagina were made by God for each other, and that this is the only God-given way that sexual union is to take place. This is the mystical expression in human flesh of the union of Christ and His Church, the archetype of the only "blessable" sexualized human relationship, which is marriage.
This image is anticipated movingly in the book of the prophet Hosea, in which God is presented as the faithful Bridegroom of His beloved people, called His Bride. This image is also found many times elsewhere in the writings of other prophets, and finds its fullest expression at the end of the fifth chapter of Saint Paul's letter to the Ephesians. Only a male and female, vowed in love for life in Christian marriage, have at least the potential to live out this archetype. A sexualized relationship between two persons of the same sex cannot reflect the image of the divine Bridegroom and the Bride.
This does not in the least deny the reality of the love and affection that homosexual persons can experience and express in their relationships. God's gift to human beings of connectedness with each other works even if the means of connecting is not as the Bible teaches. To be sure, homosexual relationships, like those of heterosexuals, can be abusive, exploitative, and characterized by promiscuity. Yet, my pastoral experience shows me that, in varying degrees, stable homosexual relationships can also express some of the attributes of godly love found not only in heterosexual love but also in loves which are not sexual at all, such as affection and friendship. Qualities of this love include commitment, sacrifice, companionship and connection of spirit to spirit. And when this love is lost for whatever reason, those who have loved certainly experience loss and grief as the mirror of the love once known.
If the sexually broken should be anywhere, they should be where they are loved best and longest and deepest, and that is within the Church of Jesus Christ. It is the sin of the Church that this has frequently not been the experience of homosexuals, who have often been quickly classified as unrepentant sinners and outside the realm of possible redemption. To act in such a fashion is to reject those whom God loves, for God loves all that He has made, and Jesus came to all to save all.
The Church errs equally when it fails to teach chastity to all its members, young and old, homosexual and heterosexual. In these days of sexual confusion and promiscuity, some elements of the wider Christian Church are rigid and judgmental, while others are lax and willing to approve the status quo. A message of either automatic rejection or blanket approval is a diminished Gospel. The upward call of God in Jesus Christ is a call to purity, honor, self-discipline, love of God and neighbor, joy, mercy, and delight, all of which are attributes of the holiness to which all are called.
Obviously, we are all sinners but, presumably, those who are in the Church are striving to become more and more what God has in mind for them to be. The Bible teaches that, as we grow in Christ, we should "live up to what we have already attained," and that whatever is still confusing to us, "God will make clear" in His own time, as is best for us (Philippians 3:15-16). On the one hand, we can never give up on our journey to Christian perfection nor, if we truly love others, allow them to give up on their journey either. On the other hand, if we truly love others, we cannot reject them if their sins, state of perfection, or their place on the pilgrimage are different from our own. To do anything else is to short-change the mercy of God.
Homosexuals have been members of the Church as long as there has been a Church. Many have been dedicated to Christ, exemplified great holiness, and offered manifold gifts for the up building of the people of God and the glory of His name. They have lived lives of suffering and self-denial. In our current age, in which the media and wider culture are fascinated with sexual matters and strongly resistant to any suggestion of abstinence, those who strive to know God's will in these matters and follow it are to be commended. It is not easy, today, to hear the message that Jesus is Lord and Savior, the One who brings sexual wholeness to all who look to Him--yet this message is vitally needed.
I am convinced as a Christian that whatever our sexual disorders and whatever their source or expression, only in Jesus can full redemption be found. At the end, all who seek it shall be given forgiveness and set right and strong. What matters is whether we are on the road, not how many times we fall while on it. It is sinners whose marriages we bless and it is sinners whom we ordain, including the sexually impure and broken. In the Church of Christ, there are fornicators, adulterers and users of pornography. Some of each of these have recognized the weight of their imperfection and, in spite of it, have produced "thirty-fold, sixty-fold, or a hundred-fold" in the service of Christ. As they are willing to acknowledge their sins and become penitent, they are to be forgiven and restored, not rejected. Only the stubbornly unrepentant are to be rejected, and only then that they may be brought to their senses and seek reconciliation with God in Christ and His Church.
Many Christians, both homosexual and heterosexual, understand these things. Many, however, do not. Just as some portions of the Church have often sinned by a blanket rejection of all homosexual persons, and other portions have sinned by near-unqualified support of a variety of sexual behaviors, still other portions of the Church often sin by condemning as "homophobic" all who do not accept and support homosexuality as an "alternate life-style."
Of the many homosexuals I know and have spoken to about these matters, not one has "chosen" to be homosexual. It is as they are and have grown up. This is why so many claim that it is a natural, acceptable, alternate life-style which they cannot change, and say that those who do not accept this are persecuting them. I do not agree with them. They must recognize and accept that one can love homosexuals without agreeing with or supporting their homosexuality.
True love does not mean, "I agree with you in everything"; rather, it means, "I acknowledge that you are of infinite value to God and I want what is best for you, which is the fulfillment of God's will. I will strive never to treat you in any way which is inconsistent with that will." After all, Jesus loves every human being infinitely, and does so without agreeing with any of us.
Homosexuality, I believe, is a very complicated sexual disorder. A better question to ask than, "Is homosexuality a sin?" is "Is homosexuality within God's plan for human life?" I believe that the answer is clearly No. And there is a way out--it is the same way out of any disorder or sin or manner of life which falls short of God's plan: mercy, forgiveness and grace through Jesus. I have seen it work with homosexuals.
I know of a few homosexual couples who moved from promiscuity to fidelity within their relationship, and then into celibacy and deep love beyond sexuality. Conversion to Christ and growth in the spiritual life brought redemption of their sexual lives in this way. They learned to love Christ, each other, and all people more and more deeply, until their sexual natures were increasingly transformed. This is what sexual redemption looks like for all the sexually broken, no matter how their dysfunction has manifested itself.
The book of Revelation ends with the great vision of the consummation of the world's redemption. The vision is that of a marriage, with the Church as bride and Jesus as the Bridegroom (Revelation 21:2). How wonderful that the analogy for us of the consummation of God's kingdom should be a wedding! Then, all who desire it shall finally be brought to what the Bible describes as "the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23), and so find their own perfection and fulfillment. Until then, all are broken and in need of the power and mercy of God. And He gives it abundantly, always, to all who seek it, at the time and in the fashion that is best for them.
Thanks again for your kind words. Cordially in Christ,
The Reverend David M. Baumann
Copyright (C) 1993 by David M. Baumann being an excerpt from a full-length book manuscript on God's promise of eternal life. All rights reserved.