The church and homosexuality - the real issues

It doesn’t take a genius to realise that homosexuality is a key issue facing the church today. There was the whole same-sex marriage debates a year or so ago in the UK. In the US there is currently a big controversy over the state of Indiana and its introduction of a religious freedom act. Then there are debates within the church or Christian community around such questions as “Is the church failing gay Christians” as a recent episode of Unbelievable was entitled. It seems that in these debates we are often missing the key point.

Let’s start with “Is the church failing gay Christians?” First, why don’t we have debates about the following questions:

• Is the church failing adulterers?
• Is the church failing fornicators?
• Is the church failing liars?
• Is the church failing thieves?
• etc

Now considering this highlights two issues: one for the “gay community” to consider, and one for the church to consider. Behind the question “is the church failing gay Christians” is the implicit demand that the church say that homosexual activity is OK, but it is dressed up as “you are not treating me properly”.

For the church we need to realise what our mission is. Jesus came to die for sinners, He died on the cross to pay the price for our sins. If the church does tell society that “homosexual activity is OK” then we are truly failing people. A central part of the good news is to help people come to a place of repentance so that they can receive forgiveness and new life from Jesus.

In the US there are increasing issues over whether Christian businesses should be forced to actively participate in “gay weddings”, the Indiana controversy is the latest manifestation of this. Similar issues have arisen in the UK. As with the “Is the church failing ...” question, we again seem to be missing the point, or only considering one of the important questions. The concern is focused on religious freedom. However, as the church we should be concerned to tell people what sin is and what the remedy is. I would very much prefer to be free, but my rights are not actually the central issue. There is a lot of shallow thinking about Jesus. Jesus said He did not come into the world to condemn the world, but this manifestly does not mean that He had nothing to say about what is right and what is wrong, and even who is right and who is wrong. Look at the gospels and you will see that he frequently made “judgements” on what is right and what is wrong. So as the church we should want to tell society that homosexual activity is wrong, but we do not do so in order to condemn the world, but in order to give people the chance to repent and turn to Jesus, to receive forgiveness and to receive new life. This is often portrayed as being bigoted or self-righteous, but this should not be so. We are all sinners, it is not singling out any one group, and even if we already know Christ there is still much sin in our own lives that needs to be dealt with. The mission of the church is declaring good news to sinners, and this is where as the church we are missing the mark. We so often preach a “nice” gospel, or a “prosperity” gospel, or an “environmental” gospel. We need to preach the gospel that Jesus and the apostles preached.

Having said that the question of religious freedom is important. Let’s look at the matter of different religions. The secular response is to say that all religions are essentially the same. Any true Christian, Jew or Muslim knows that this is complete nonsense. There are fundamental and irreconcilable differences, and if you say the differences do not matter you are saying that what we believe does not really matter, and that is showing respect for no one. However, it is far better that we live in peace with each other, it is far better that we have sensible dialogue with one another.

Now if we go back to the situation of preaching repentance, we can see the real challenge. The gospel is offensive. No one likes being told they are living their lives the wrong way, no one likes being told that there is no way we can save ourselves. Now that society has decided that homosexuality is OK it is not surprising that there is conflict between the church and society.

So the true challenge for the church is how do we preach a gospel that calls on people to repent. Changing the gospel, or rather abandoning the gospel, which is what many are doing, is no answer at all, and is no help to anyone. One part of the answer is that we preach that all need to come to repentance. The gospel says that all have sinned. Whatever label we put on ourselves, or someone else puts on us, we are included in that “all”. Equally, all can be saved through faith in Jesus Christ. This is what we need to preach.