Homosexuality and Law: A Range of Christian Views
I have been noticing a range of views by Christians in the cyber-world
on the issue of legalising gay marriage. For the sake of simplicity, I thought
I would condense these Christian views into 4 main categories:
1. Homosexuality is such a vile sin that all homosexual acts
should be illegal.
2. Homosexuality is sinful. However, in a democratic society we
legislate less around what is “immoral” and more around that which causes harm
or loss to others. Consensual adult homosexual acts are wrong but should be
legal: the police have more important things to do with their time than monitor
sexual behaviour. However, we draw the line at “homosexual marriage”. Christian
marriage is between a man and a woman, and the laws of the land should reflect
this for the good of society.
3. Christian marriage is between a man and a woman. God is the Author of marriage, which existed for millennia before nation-states existed. Legal recognition of a
union by a nation-state does not make something a marriage under God, (although
in our society the two things are often closely linked, as the promises of exclusive,
life-long faithfulness are part of a legal marriage ceremony). Because the
Christian church defines marriage on its own terms, we are not terribly
bothered whether the state chooses to recognise “gay marriage” or not. Because
of the separation of church and state, even if the law recognises a gay
marriage as legal, the church does not recognise such a union as a “Christian
marriage”. We would not support denominations blessing gay unions as a “Christian”
marriage. (note: within this category there are both supporters and opponents
of legal gay marriage).
4. Gay orientation is not wrong, and it is not changeable.
Passages in the New Testament that appear to be condemning homosexuality were
almost certainly speaking against cultic sexual worship practices and the abuse
of young boys (especially boy slaves by their masters). Such things were
rampant in the Roman world by married men. Therefore the New Testament is “silent”
on gay orientation. Both social science research and testimony of gay people
tells us they do not “choose” to be gay, and methods to “fix” gay people have
done huge damage. Christian gay couples who want to be married should be able
to have a blessing from the church, because God’s love is unconditional, and
the church should express God’s unconditional love to gay people. Such blessing ceremonies should be offered whether
or not gay marriage is “legal” in society. Any move toward legalising gay
marriage would be enthusiastically supported as a human rights issue, and a way
of expressing solidarity with a marginalised group of people in society.
OK… so there are a hundred and one subtle and not-so-subtle
variations between these 4 views. But you
get the gist. To be honest, view number 1 is more there for completeness… I’ve never
met anyone in recent times who thinks this is a great idea in a modern democracy.
Why am I writing about this? Well, these thoughts were triggered
by visiting a Christian blog that seemed to make this equation crystal clear:
anyone who supports gay marriage is a HERETIC and a FALSE TEACHER.
Which is, of course, complete nonsense. Heresy was defined
by the early church in terms of our views around Christ, not by our views about
social issues. There are evangelical Christians in ALL of the camps noted
above. They all have orthodox views about Christ, and accept the authority of
the bible. They just have differences around how to interpret scripture, and/or
in how they view the relationship between the church and society.
Or have I just done this myself? What do you think?
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