I don’t feel that I have
anything to say about the events in Orlando that hasn’t already been said
numerous times, and more eloquently than I could manage. I don’t feel the need to express a deep
sadness and frustration, because they ought to be so automatic from every
single person that it can be safely assumed that I feel them. They have been expressed by other people, and
I have nothing further of any value to add.
However, naturally the
events have sparked a lot of debate. The
BBC opened up the story for comment, and inevitably a small
number of people blamed ‘religion’ for the attacks. I wearily took up my keyboard to try and
explain why I think they’re wrong.
During this exchange, the traditional Christian views of homosexuality
were raised and used a springboard to attack Christianity as a whole. I pointed out that I’m a practicing Christian
with no problems whatsoever with homosexuality, and that I considered that each
part of the Bible needs to be understood within its own historical and cultural
context. I received the following reply:
“A single question: as a practicing Christian, do you
believe your God is now very happy with homosexuals, and will embrace them
without condemnation or concidering (sic) them to have sinned?”
Unfortunately, this occurred during my lunch break, and I didn’t see that
message until the next day when the thread had already been closed. The BBC’s format of 300 characters and a
maximum posting rate of once every five minutes is deeply frustrating when
you’re trying to articulate a complex point, so I would like to try and answer
that question here.
It will be easiest to deal with this a piece at a time. Firstly then, do I considered that God is now happy with homosexuals? No, of course not. I think that He’s always been happy with
them. God is unchanging. I should clarify and say that by ‘happy’, what
I mean is that I don’t believe that God considers homosexuality, in and of
itself, to be a sin. Same-sex couples
are as prone to sins as anyone else; adultery (both physical and in the heart),
jealousy, anger, pridefulness etc.
However a gay person is not any more inherently sinful than a
heterosexual or asexual person.
What I believe has changed is people’s views of both what God considers to
be sinful, and more importantly, their notions of God Himself. I do not believe that a lot of the Old
Testament is literally true. Instead, I
view it almost as a record of humanity’s evolving understanding of God, from
one tribal deity amongst others, to the sole, strict and authoritarian ruler of
the universe, and ultimately to the creating, giving, loving, sustaining God of
the Incarnation and the Redemption. It
is not the case that God has changed His mind, it is that we never properly
understood it in the first place. Five
hundred years ago, the educated classes thought that there were four
elements. Nowadays that’s jumped to one
hundred and eighteen. No-one believes
that a hundred and fourteen elements have popped into existence in the last
couple of centuries; it’s merely that our understanding of the world has developed. I believe that the same is true of our
understanding of God. In the same way, I
don’t by any means think that we have achieved a perfect understanding of God
today, even so far as humans would be capable of it. No doubt our understanding will continue to
change and evolve as we received fresh insights and revelations.
Is God ‘very happy with homosexuals’?
No more or less so than with anybody else, which is probably to say that
no, he isn’t, very. They are human
beings, and as frail and prone to failure as everybody else, and just as
inclined to self-centeredness and pride and bitterness and anger. Sadly, because so many have received so much
ill-feeling and outright abuse from the hands of both the church and individual
Christians, perhaps fewer of them are likely to turn to God for help, which
would make Him happier. However, that
doesn’t mean that He loves them any the less.
Lastly then, do I believe that God will ‘embrace them without condemnation,
or considering them to have sinned’? Possibly
a deeper question than the asker realises.
To take the last part first, will He consider them not to have
sinned? No of course not, because
inevitably they will have done, but I don’t believe that He will consider being
homosexual, in and of itself, as being amongst those sins.
Do I believe that He will ‘embrace them without condemnation’? Yes. A
thousand times yes. They can shrug off
that embrace; they can duck aside from it; but if they want it, then yes,
because God has taken on the condemnation that is rightfully theirs as sinful
human beings, has expunged it and absolved them, has offered His all-embracing
and all-consuming love to them, as He has to every human being. If
they want to be, then yes, He will embrace them without condemnation, because
that is what my God does. He is a God of
love, of compassion, of forgiveness, and of grace, and all who believe in Him
shall not perish, no matter who they were or are, or what they have done.
That is my God.
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