Can you be a christian and be gay
This may not be a huge surprise, but we receive A LOT of questions via email, social media, and in person on Tuesdays. What compassionate of questions? Well, anything from, Should I find back together with my boyfriend or girlfriend? to What should I execute next with my life? to How should I lovingly engage those in the LGBTQ community?
In this blog series “Ask The Porch,” we’re answering real-life questions that we’ve received from you. Disclaimer: our highest priority is always to first respond with biblical counsel from God’s Word. The hardest questions to answer are those in the “grey” areas. So we’ll do our best to share our biblically-informed opinion, but realize that we may contain different convictions on the non-essentials (vs. the essentials).
Now, let’s dive into the question for this week emailed in from an online listener:
Can a Christian be gay?
“Hey David,
I am a Christian and own struggled with same sex attraction since childhood. I would not wish it on anyone. It’s very hard being alone and longing for someone to hold hands with. I want the chance to love and have someone love me back. I want to live a life for God but I also don’t need to live on this earth alone.
Is it REALLY ok to be LGBTQ? A look behind and beyond the “clobber passage”
There’s a name for what’s happening here: proof texting.
Theopodia defines proof texting as “the method by which a person appeals to a biblical text to prove or justify a theological position without regard for the context of the passage they are citing.”
If you hear someone state “the Bible says…” run in the other direction. The Bible says lots of things!
Here a limited things the Bible says:
That the Ground was covered in water when created until God formed land (Genesis 1:9) but also that the Earth was completely dry until God brought streams up and watered the planet (Genesis 2:5-6).
That God created animals first and then humans (Genesis 1) but also that God created Adam first, then animals, then Eve (Genesis 2).
That’s right, the Bible contradicts itself in the first two chapters!
“The Bible says” in Exodus and Deuteronomy that if a woman is raped her rapist must either marry her or pay her father (because he’s “damaged” the father’s “property”).
Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that Jesus will restore in his retain lifetime (4:15-17).
So what does the Bible say?
The Bib
Can Christians Be Gay?
This question is a powder keg—an extremely sensitive issue. If you have gay or bisexual tendencies, this is not just a theological debate, but speaks to the core of how you see yourself and how God views you.
The homosexual conversation impacts not just those who identify themselves as LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender), but all of us. Regardless of whether you can relate with this struggle, you will have to sort through your own views on the topic. If you do not already, you will have a pleasant friend or family member who is gay. You will hold to make decisions about whether to go to a lgbtq+ wedding, whether to have your daughter and her partner over for dinner, and whether to attend a church with a gay pastor.
Within the last decade, the Christian opinion on homosexuality has gone through a extreme turnaround. There has been no new scientific or theological discovery; many people have changed their minds about what they believe.
In today’s changing world, stating that homosexuality is anything but an acceptable lifestyle, approved by God, is seen as unloving, judgmental, hateful, and in some places, criminal. One of the most wonderful
Should a Christian hold gay friends?
Answer
In considering whether a Christian should have same-sex attracted friends, we require to ask ourselves whether Jesus would have gay friends. The New Testament nowhere identifies any specific individuals as homosexuals. So, there are no records of Jesus interacting with a queer. We know from the gospels, however, that Jesus loved everyone He encountered. He did not consider one community of people less deserving of the gospel than any other. In truth, He went out of His way to deliver a demon-possessed man (Mark 5:1–20) and take hope to an immoral woman from a despised ethnic background (John 4). He healed lepers (Luke 17:10–19), pardoned an adulteress (John 8:1–11), and ate with tax collectors (Mark 2:16)—all of whom were considered unfit for the company of righteous people. We can assume Jesus would have spent period with homosexuals as well.
Homosexuality was a sin in Jesus’ day, and it is a sin now. God’s standards of human sexuality have not changed. However, Jesus came to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). We learn from the gentle way He dealt with sinful people that He would hold offered homosexuals the same compa