Question 9: Are Christians anti-LGBT?
Adam Barr
Adam T. Barr (MDiv, ThM) serves as senior pastor at Peace Church near Grand Rapids Michigan. In addition to his work in the local church, Adam speaks and writes on Christianity and culture, helping followers of Jesus understand and apply God’s Word in an increasingly post-Christian society. His most recent book, Compassion Without Compromise, is available through Bethany House.
[[Synopsis:]] Increasingly, the Bible’s teaching on sexual ethics is coming under fire. While Christians cannot expect everyone to stand up and cheer our convictions about human sexuality, we can and should learn how to explain our stance with grace, love, and confidence. At the heart of the Bible’s teaching is the understanding that God is our creator. Our stand for sexual purity is based on His perfect design plan for life.
It has taken forty years for me to finally admit something to myself: No matter how hard I try, I am not very mechanically minded. I can review the instructions ten times, contemplate each step before I take it, and double-check before tightening the screw. Even if I carefully exercise each of those precautions, I can virtually guarantee I will mess up anything I try putting together.
Case in point: the Weber grill I got for Father’s Day recently. Unlike your average dude, I didn’t toss out the directions and proceed on intuition alone. I did everything right. Or at least, I tried. In the end, I realized I had skipped a step. That required me to remove a piece never meant to be removed and break a wheel that was meant to roll smoothly. Long story short, I was deeply frustrated. “Never again!” I vowed.
We all realize that certain things are designed to be put together a certain way. Most things are! We can figure out workarounds, and maybe try to customize, but in the end, inventors design things and these things tend to work best when assembled and used according to design. In many cases, ignoring the design plan will shorten the life of an object or even lead to a dangerous set of circumstances (think brake pads are poorly installed).
When it comes to questions of human sexuality, the Bible’s teaching that God has designed us male and female and made sex for marriage between a man and woman is increasingly viewed not only as misguided, but positively hateful. In fact, across our country students, employees, and human resources departments are required to attend classes, adopt attitudes, and modify behaviors in ways that are opposed to what Scripture tells us about the human person. Increasingly, Christians will need to be able to explain why our view of human sexuality is not an attack on people or a narrow-minded, stubborn refusal to accept individuals. Here are three ways we can explain this.
First, we should always emphasize that even though we might not agree with people’s life decisions, we love them as individuals and understand that their life experiences may be very different from our own. As Christians, we are not called to embrace simplistic slogans that pigeonhole people or write off their genuine struggles. Sexual orientation and gender identity are shaped and molded in a variety of ways, some genetic and some experiential. Our job is not to assume we can identify why a person feels the way they do. Our job is to let them know we love them right where they are.
Second, we need to help people understand why we take a certain moral stance. It is not because we are trying to enforce some random set of rules invented by people long ago. The reason we have a certain set of moral convictions is because we believe the God who designed us also understands the best way for us to live and flourish. Our ethical standards are simply reflections of the best way to live in the world God has made.
God made human beings in His own image. He put us in a beautiful world. His design plan is that we would live incredible lives in this amazing world. Sin has broken and distorted our lives, relationships, and environment. Not only that, it has impacted our decisions. We often choose to do things that, in the end, work against the Creator’s design. Inevitably, this leads to breakdown and even death. The laws of morality are like the laws of gravity, dangerous to ignore! We maintain our stance on human sexuality not out of stubborn hate but out of steadfast love. We love God and trust His design plan. We love people and want them to live in a way that leads to flourishing, not breakdown and confusion.
Finally, we should acknowledge our own sin and struggle. Christians are not moral superstars who have made it to the top of the mountain and wait for others to join them. We are fellow travelers who also struggle. Jesus Himself told us that external behavior is only one aspect of true morality (Matthew 5:21-30). Our very thought life must conform to His standards. In truth, every one of us has not only struggled with unhealthy behaviors, but we have given in to thoughts and desires that lead us away from life as it was meant to be lived. The apostle Paul has strong words for believers who fail to be real about their own shortcomings:
If you are convinced that you are a guide for the blind, a light for those who are in the dark, 20 an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of little children, because you have in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— 21 you, then, who teach others, do you not teach yourself? You who preach against stealing, do you steal? 22 You who say that people should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23 You who boast in the law, do you dishonor God by breaking the law? 24 As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.” (Romans 2:19-24, NIV)
In our changing world, Christians cannot expect things to be easy. The truth is, we will probably have to engage in some tough conversations. But I honestly believe this is one of the gifts that the Church can give to a fractured culture. In a society that has come to believe it is impossible to disagree and remain friends, we can demonstrate a different way to live!