In society today there are topics that are not considered acceptable and are very controversial. Homosexuality is among those topics. According to Barnhouse in her article “Homosexuality”, “Homosexuality will be defined as an adult adaptation characterized by preferential sexual behavior between members of the same sex” (107).
She uses “adult” because the adolescent stage of life is usually more of a transitional period of sexual identity confusion. The definition of the word homosexual from the Merriam Webster Dictionary is, “of, relating to, or characterized by a tendency to direct sexual desire toward another of the same sex.” Society has different opinions on whether this is considered right. Every person has different self-beliefs and then there are people who go by what the Bible says. Everyone has a right to believe in what they want, but there has to be a limit to the way their feelings are expressed.
For hetersexual people to discriminate against homosexual people is the same as racial discrimination. America has gone through the times of slavery and segregation. This may not be segregation of color, but it is segregation of people and their sexuality. Who is to say who can marry whom? Is the Bible really what dictates people’s beliefs and choices? Is God the only person that can say what people do with their lives? If God is the creator of all, then if He does not accept homosexuals, why did He create them? There are only twelve places in the Bible that mentions homosexuality. If it were so controversial in society you would think that there would be more to go from in the Bible than only twelve mentions. It is in the same category as abortion, which is not even mentioned in the Bible, but is a huge controversy in the world.
As for same-sex marriage there is no mention of it in the Bible at all. How can people bring religion into that when there is nothing to go off?In Christianity the idea that a couple has to be male-female started with Adam and Eve. In Genesis 1:26-27, the beginning of life starts with Adam and Eve, male and female. They are there to be caretakers of everything on Earth and to increase the number of humans. Today, people take this from the Bible and believe because that is how God made the world, that is how it must be.
They do not believe that there can be any alterations, such as homosexuality. The main reason that God made both male and female is for sex and reproduction. If there are men with men or women with women they cannot reproduce. According to “The Journal of Pastoral Care”, it says that Thomas Aquinas gave the reason why homosexuality is condemned: because the possibility of propagation was ruled out.
The Bible says that the only reasons to have sex are propagation, completion, mutuality, and enjoyment (The Journal of Pastoral Care, 5).Generally, Christians believe that one is not born homosexual. They believe that it is not predetermined, but it comes from life situation conditions after the birth. Christians say that a homosexual who has a desire to change is able to do it, but he or she has to go through a vigorous process of psychotherapy. One has to go back to the very instance that caused the individual to become homosexual and rework it so that he or she was not responsible.
To them this proves that science was right and that homosexuality is a condition that is brought by life conditions (The Journal of Pastoral Care). The Bible does not say the word sin when talking about homosexuality. However, Christians seem to have got the idea that a person must change who they are through psychotherapy just so they can be called a man or woman and be accepted and not be looked down upon by the rest of the Christian community.Similarly, Mainline Protestant leadership in the 1960’s was making a distinction between homosexual practice and homosexual orientation. “Along with this distinction, they began to view homosexuality as a disease” (Balch 23). Because homosexuality was considered a disease it could be cured, either through hormonal therapy or through counseling.
Homosexuality being a disease was now categorized with something like alcoholism and homosexuals were being shown sympathy. In the 1970’s the American Psychiatric Association said that homosexuality was not a mental disease but a disorder because it “related to a natural design of God’s creation.” Now that it is classified as a disorder, it is out of the control of the person and he or she is excused and not held responsible for being homosexual. Balch says, “homosexuals ought to live out the sexuality that matched their given condition” (24).Many people that are Christian who have admitted to being homosexual to their churches have been asked not to return or have been “defrocked by the church of God” (Wilcox). There is a man named Troy Perry who announced his homosexuality to his bishop who asked him to leave the church.
Perry decided to create the first Metropolitan Community Church (UMFCC) in 1968 that would “minister to gay and lesbian Christians” (Wilcox). The “denomination’s mission statement still defines it as ‘a Christian Church founded in and reaching beyond the Gay and Lesbian communities’.” It also says that “ We serve among those seeking and celebrating the integration of their spirituality and sexuality” (Wilcox). It is said that the denomination “moves in the mainstream of Christianity.”This statement includes seven points.
“These include belief in the trinity; the divine inspiration of the Bible; the dual human and divine nature of Jesus; the presence of the Holy Spirit as God’s love in the world; justification by grace through Christian faith; the special power of grace to save humans from ‘loneliness, despair and degradation’; and the evangelistic mission that mandates regular worship services as well as ‘edification through the teaching and preaching of the world’” (Wilcox). These statements define the so-called Christian way. (18) These statements also leave a lot of room for the individual to take what he or she wants, such as how they interpret the Bible.According to “Coming Out in Christianity” people could have been exposed to the idea of homosexuality as morally wrong because of their religious upbringing.
It says that they might have been “raised within religions that exposed them to negative teachings about homosexuality.” Statistics say that “the vast majority were raised as Christians; 12 percent of these were raised in conservative Protestant denominations; 33.3 percent in mainline Protestant denominations, and 6 percent in liberal denominations. Just under 30 percent of the survey respondents were raised Catholic.”Wilcox explains that the children’s grasp on homosexuality would have been easier if the children attended services instead of either not attending or attending many different religious things. He is trying to say that homosexuality is not necessarily a bad thing and that the reason why many Christians believe that is a bad thing is because they are brought up with negative religious attitudes towards homosexuality.
Wilcox’s view is more for homosexuality because he writes about the “converging and diverging roads” of the churches that believe in homosexuality and those that do not. (47)
