Homosexuality and Choice ...

Perhaps one of the most perplexing questions a Christian faces in our world is … “is homosexuality a choice?”  If the answer is yes, then adopting this lifestyle is a matter of conscious choice and as the Bible points out, it is a sin against God.  But if the answer is no, then how can God, or the Christian community hold those without choice accountable for this sin?  But beyond a simply yes or no answer are the gray scale responses that occur when regardless of what might have been the original ability to choose, evil inserts itself and corrupts that choice through abuse or rape, particularly when it occurs on children unable to defend themselves or mature enough to know their own sexual preferences.  In these situations the idea of “choice” itself is even murkier.  But then perhaps on an even more profound basis, we might all ask if sin itself is a matter of choice or not.

Most Christians believe that acts of sin are matters of conscious choice.  If this is true, then man should be accountable for both the commission of sin as well as the cessation of sin.  If I CAN choose not to sin, but do NOT choose to stop sinning, then I am alone responsible for the sin in my life.  And more to the point, if I am able to choose to stop sinning, why do I need a savior to save me from my pain?  It seems then the only role for Christ in this version of Christianity is to provide forgiveness for my past.  Going forward, if the actions of sin are nothing more than choice, I can simply elect to sin no further.  Perfection then, should be instantaneous, complete, and permanent.  Sounds like the twinkling of an eye to me which is not predicted until the second coming. 

Others believe it is the action of the Holy Spirit that drives sin from our lives.  That once “the Spirit falls” on us, our sin is removed from us and we are made perfect by the indwelling of the Spirit.  At its heart this is true, but we are still free to reject our salvation from sin, even after the Spirit has fallen.  On the Day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit was made manifest in the upper room, all present were “of one accord”.  All 12 of the disciples as well as the rest of the servants of Christ were physically touched by the Spirit of God.  They spoke, and their words were heard in the native languages of all present.  It was a miraculous event.  Yet it did not prevent later dissention over preaching to the Gentiles, even in the heart of Peter who had to receive a further dream from God before he was convinced the gospel was meant for ALL the world, not just all Jewish peoples.  It did not prevent the later dissention about who should accompany various disciples on their journeys to spread the word.  Arguments were not permanently disabled thru the initial touch of the Holy Spirit.  They were abated only while His presence was among them.  Later imperfections still revealed themselves and it was obvious perfection had not been obtained through that singular incident.

Paul considered himself chief among sinners.  This was not merely a reference to his murderous past, but a declaration about his immediate present as he penned those words.  “That which I would not, that do I do” – these words reflect Paul’s struggles against sin long after his Damascus Road conversion being directly touched by Christ.  Paul knew the horror of sin, as well as the love of Christ.  His written letters of encourage to the churches of his day were designed to point all to the love and ministry of Christ on our behalf.  Paul who was responsible for writing nearly half the books included in the New Testament portion of our Bible, inspired of God, had not reached the perfection we all seek.  Paul who died a martyr’s death, had not reached perfection despite his being so close to Christ.  Paul’s own words reflect on our discussion of choice – Paul states – “that which I would not” – this means that Paul does not desire to do what he does, yet he does it anyway.  If sin was merely an act of choice why would Paul simply not do, what he does not wish to do.

Scripture also provides us with incidents that do appear to be matters of choice such as the act of Judas in betraying our Lord.  Judas makes a bargain with the Jewish religious leadership to betray Christ to them for a few pieces of silver.  No one knows why he committed this act.  It could have been to simply increase his greed.  But it might also have been to force Jesus to act to save himself when confronted with his imminent death.  Judas may have been trying to compel Jesus to become the earthly king the Pharisees had so long predicted would come.  There was no doubt in Judas’ mind as to Christ being the Son of God.  He had been with Jesus almost as long as any other disciple, he had seen the same miracles, and performed them himself like all the others.  He had the same understanding of scriptures as EVERY other disciple did.  They ALL used to argue about who would be greatest in the coming kingdom Jesus would implement in this world.  They ALL believed Jesus would eventually be an earthly king.  This is what their religion had taught, and what history had always seen develop.  Israel would sin, be invaded, and after repentance (which John the Baptist had called for), they would be delivered from their enemies.  Their current enemy was Rome, so they all believed Jesus would deliver them from Roman oppression.  Judas may have only believed he was forcing this to occur sooner rather than later.  So his act was a conscious decision, despite what his motives may have been.  A sin of choice.

Peter too sinned by choice.  Peter in an attempt to preserve his own life, denied even knowing his Savior.  These were sins of self-preservation, lies told to protect himself from the fear of discovery and association with Christ; sins that broke the heart of Peter when the words of Christ earlier in the day rang true in his ears with the cock crowing.  Judas’ sin broke his heart too as he realized that the ministry of Christ would not be to setup an earthly kingdom at all.  Both saw the death of Christ as a permanent thing (forgetting the words of Jesus about His own resurrection).  They saw their own acts of shame in the demise of Christ as unable to receive forgiveness for their Lord had died.  Judas elected to hang himself in his despair.  Peter simply cowered in the shame of what he had done.  Had Judas waited and witnessed the resurrection of his Lord, he too might have gotten the forgiveness of Christ he so longed to have.  No one can judge.  But clearly both men chose to do as they did.  Neither was compelled to do so.

So perhaps sin is sometimes a choice, and seems sometimes to be beyond what we would classify as choice.  Choices do have consequences.  It is the nature of sin to be addictive.  Not just the sins that alter our body chemistry through drugs or alcohol; but every sin has the propensity to become habit.  Any action we repeat can move from singular acts to acts of habit.  As habits grow they become part of our nature, part of who we are.  It is our brain chemistry itself that is altered with repeated behavior that moves a single choice, into a repeated pattern, into a “natural” part of who we are.  The pathways in the brain develop electrical superhighways that conduct the electricity in our brains with greater and greater ease as we repeat actions over and over again.  Ever heard the term “pathological liar”?  A person who lies over and over and over again, it becomes more natural to lie than to tell the truth – even when the truth might be better for you – even when telling the truth would decidedly prevent pain from lying, the liar may still lie, and defy explanation in doing so.

So there may be a choice that an alcoholic makes to take the first drink, but once the chemistry is altered in his brain, taking the second drink is significantly easier.  Over time, he loses his ability to choose.  Over time, he becomes an addict to alcohol.  Adam once had the ability to choose not to sin.  When he consumed the forbidden fruit, he lost the ability to say no to sin entirely.  He could war against it from then on, but was destined to lose.  Adam lost for us our dominion over ourselves.  We no longer have the ability to “just say no” to sin.  We are slaves.  We are addicts.  We have generations of our parents propensities built into our DNA, along with an environment of moral decline that has existed for over 6000 years.  We are programmed to fail in our current state.  When scripture proclaims there is not “one” who is holy outside of Christ, it states a fact of obvious observation.  So then our only real choice is “who” we wish to dominate our lives – not whether our lives will contain sin.

When we choose Christ, we learn to submit ourselves to Him.  Submission is not merely an act of acknowledgement that we require forgiveness for our past.  It is an act of surrender regarding our desperate need of a Savior in our present.  We must be saved from ourselves.  It is “I” who is the enemy of Christ.  It is “self” that must die, in order that life can be worth living.  Our surrender or submission to Christ then is about letting Christ change “who we are”.  We need to allow Him to remake what we want, what we desire, and what we love.  We need to allow Christ to teach us “how” to love, and what love really means.  We need to be willing to “let go” every shred of what we think is wisdom and instead accept what He teaches us as being truth.  Our own common sense must be abandoned in favor of trusting God.  Many times in scripture our God asks us to do things that defy common sense, and we agree miracles are performed by His great power.  The miracle of a changed life does not occur in the strength or desire of the subject, it occurs in the complete domination of a life submitted to Christ.  It is Christ’s strength that drives sin from our lives, our hearts, our minds, even our DNA.  It is Christ’s strength that is sufficient to do what cannot be done through “normal” means.  It is Christ alone who can, and “we” who can do nothing.

In this context, it does not matter whether homosexuality is brought on by choices repeated over time, or by inherent propensities of our genetics, or by the victimization of predators upon young prey.  The reason why a condition exists becomes less important than the process to reach perfection in our lives.  Gay, straight, adulterer, liar, drunkard, no matter our condition – we ALL exist in sin at the present.  And we ALL require healing.  And there is only ONE method by which healing can be attained; in the complete and total surrender to Christ.  When Christ leads, the reasons why we are in the condition we are do not matter, only that we reach the life He intended for us.  It is NOT up to us to define the sins of others, it is up to us to allow Christ to remove the sins that harbor within us.  It is not up to us to define how others must love; rather it is up to us to allow Christ to teach us what love means and how to love others without condition.  We must ALL learn to love like He loves, and not according to our own ideas on the topic.

The problem Christians truly face in questions of homosexuality is not about choices, but about judgment and condemnation.  We center our attention on a sexual sin, most of us are not confronted with, and decry it as being an abomination before God.  Yet we completely ignore the pride in our own hearts that would lead us to make these declarations.  We ignore the greater sin of self-focus in our own lives and hearts and focus only on what we believe to be aberrant in others; all this while indulging in lies, pride, avarice, greed, manipulation, and lust of another variety.  Our own cups of iniquity are overflowing while we cast dispersions and judge the motives and histories of others who are caught up in a different kind of pain and struggle than our own.  It is the world who would have us believe we should be “all we can be”.  It is the world who would have us believe we should be “true to ourselves”.  It is scripture that teaches us that “we” cannot be trusted to want the right things.  It is scripture that teaches us that our ideas of wisdom are actually folly.  It is scripture that teaches us that we can be SO much more than we are, if we are willing to allow Christ to remake us into His image once again.

The work of a follower of Christ must reflect the work of their leader.  Christ did not come to our world to condemn it, but to redeem it.  We are NOT called to condemn the sins of others, but to work for their redemption.  We must lead in this work by submitting to it ourselves FIRST.  We are not capable of witness to a life in pain, while we embrace the pain of evil in ourselves.  We are not capable of witness to how evil is defeated while we continue to war against it in our own strength, denying our need of a savior, and calling sin merely a matter of choice.  We must lead lives of submission found only in Christ before we have anything to say to the world around us.  We must see sin taken from us FIRST.  We must see sin disappear in our hearts FIRST.  We must see the clear leadership of Christ in our OWN desires, needs, wants, and love BEFORE we are qualified to talk to others about what Christ has done for us.  The process for the removal of sin, all sin, is the same.  The journeys are as different as fingerprints and DNA that make us unique.  God must reach each of us personally, if we are to be saved.  It is in our interests, and the interests of those we would wish to save, to keep from inserting “ourselves” in the process and allow Christ ALONE to do the work He alone is capable of doing.  We must learn to trust our own salvation to Him, and allow Him the freedom to do the same with others, in the manner He sees fit, in the timeline He chooses to use, and without our considered second opinions on the process at all.

If there is to be a choice at all – let it be to choose Christ and give Him the freedom to save us from ourselves.  This alone is the only “choice” worth making.