Straight to the Heart

God loves gays. That’s what Andrew Wilson explained when he visited Queens Road Church last week. The author of the best-selling books “Incomparable” and “GodStories” was at his best as he contributed to our “Sex In the City” series. I found Andrew’s five tough questions on homosexuality so helpful that I’m blogging his questions and answers for you, so that you can be stirred and challenged too.

QUESTION #1: IS BEING GAY AN IDENTITY OR A TEMPTATION?

Andrew argued that most teenagers experience some form of gay attraction during their teens. How they respond to this is normally framed in terms of the question ‘am I gay or straight?’. He then encouraged us to think it through a bit more carefully. Since most teenagers also experience temptation to be heterosexually promiscuous in their teens as well, why don’t we frame the question for them in terms of ’am I promiscuous or monogamous?’

The reason is the Bible teaches that there is a difference between sexual temptation and sexual identity, and encourages us to make an active choice not to indulge sexual temptations by committing sexual sin. Our culture tries to put homosexuality in a separate category of its own, but the Bible doesn’t. Many of us will experience homosexual temptation, but God wants us to respond to that temptation in a godly way, like any other.

QUESTION #2: IF I AM GAY, AM I BEYOND GOD’S POWER TO CHANGE?

Andrew shared some great testimonies of people suspecting that ‘this may be the part of my life God can’t fix’. On the one hand, we have homophobic Christians who want to chase people away without trying to help them, and on the other hand we have defeatist Christians who love and accept gays without any real faith that the Gospel can set them free.

Andrew shared some great testimonies, and a former gay prostitute from Brighton shared his amazing journey of redemption and change through the Gospel. Each story was different, and if you are gay then yours will be too.

QUESTION #3: IS BEING GAY GENETIC OR ENVIRONMENTAL?

There has been a lot of debate in the British newspapers over whether people are born gay or become gay through childhood experiences. Andrew argued that this is asking the wrong question. The debate has been framed as a battle between ‘it’s not their fault’ and ‘they should stop it’ - but neither of those approaches is right!

Andrew pointed out that as a man, with XY chromosomes, he is genetically predisposed to think more about sex than women. However, he can’t hide behind that to generate a large porn collection on the basis that “I’m a man, I have genetic needs”! Similarly, a report in “The Metro” newspaper suggests that scientists have found a link between people having a long fourth finger and having a higher sex drive. If the (fairly dubious!) report is right, then that’s genetic, but it isn’t an excuse for bad behaviour. We need to be like the child of an alcoholic who knows that there is a predisposition in his genes to become an alcoholic himself. He doesn’t use his genes as an excuse. He says “because it’s in my genes, I have to be even more careful around alcohol than anyone else”.

But suppose it turns out that being gay is environmental rather than genetic. That still doesn’t change anything. I am an extrovert because of my environment as a child, which means I’m more predisposed to sins like gossip. The fact that my environment has shaped me that way doesn’t mean that I can excuse my sin. I have to work all the harder not to gossip.

Therefore Andrew argued that the genetic/environmental debate is a red herring. It doesn’t matter why people feel gay attraction. What matters is how they handle it.

QUESTION #4: DOES FOLLOWING JESUS MEAN A GAY PERSON WILL BECOME HETEROSEXUAL OR GAY+CELIBATE?

Andrew took as his passage 1 Corinthians 6:9-20, where Paul says “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders … will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.” He pointed out that Paul doesn’t actually tell us the answer to this question. He just says that they had been forgiven, washed and made part of the People of God.

Again, Andrew warned us not to frame the question as if homosexuality were unlike anything else. If we asked ‘does following Jesus mean an alcoholic will become a social drinker or a teetotaler?’, then we would have to say it could be either. Some ex-alcoholics find that they can drink in moderation, but others find that they mustn’t touch a drop or they will binge drink again. Andrew argued that the same is true of gays who turn to Christ. Some (like the former gay prositute who shared his testimony) are changed and go on to live ‘normal’ heterosexual married lives. Others, however, find that they retain gay feelings but don’t act on them. The point is, both may happen. Andrew recommended Wesley Hill’s book on the gay+celibate experience, called “Washed and Waiting”.

QUESTION #5: IS FOLLOWING JESUS MORE COSTLY FOR A GAY PERSON?

Although many people do find complete freedom, Andrew argued that it’s not unreasonable for gay people to complain that following Jesus sounds a lot more costly for them than for heterosexuals. Is it fair for them to need to be gay+celibate if their feelings don’t change? What about the social implications of conversion, in terms of break-up with their gay partner and being shut out of the gay social scene?

Andrew pointed out that many gays therefore understand Christian conversion far better than straight people. Jesus referred to conversion as dying. It means saying to him: “Lord Jesus, you are God, and you are so amazing that you are worth giving everything else up for.” Yes, it’s very costly for a gay person, but it is just as costly for a straight person, they just haven’t seen it right. Andrew speculated that the two groups of people in the UK who understand what conversion really costs are gays and Muslims. They know it costs everything, so conversion is costlier but the Christian life is then easier. Most British people kid themselves it doesn’t cost everything, so conversion is cheap but their Christian life is then a daily battle.

If you are gay, you can download Andrew’s message for yourself at www.qrc.org.uk  I hope it gives you faith that God loves you and that the Gospel not only forgives but also sets free. I hope it helps you to grasp that you have a unique perspective on what it costs to follow Jesus. I hope that this blog and Andrew’s MP3 will help you to bring your life to Jesus.

Most of all, I hope that we can help you to say with Paul’s Corinthians: “that is what I was, but I was washed, I was sanctified, I was justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of my God.”

God loves gays. And because he loves them, he died to save them and set them free.