Unnatural Selection

"Can gays switch?"

That was the headline that greeted me when I opened up The Denver Post this morning. Obviously, intrigued by the headline I read the article. The article centered around the "Love Won Out" conference being put on by Dr. James Dobson and Focus on the Family. I didn't expect to see an article where proponents of the homosexual lifestlye suddenly would admit their sin and repent. After all, I should not be surprised when the lost don't admit that what they do is sin and then proceed to defend it. To paraphrase Jesus, "they know not what they do." However, what bugs me the most is when supposed Christians will defend the homosexual lifestyle as though it is normal and not discouraged by Scripture. A companion article called, "We're... modern-day lepers," quotes a gentleman named Joe Quillen, a 59-year-old gay evangelical Christian. Quillen says, "Ever since I was a kid, my faith has always been something very real to me. I was never willing to sacrifice my faith for my sexuality. But I also can't deny this God-given desire. I never questioned whether being gay was a choice. It was not." It upsets me when somebody can simply say they are a Christian and that somehow validates their sin. As if those of us who know better about homosexality are somehow the ones with the problem.

"Haven't you read," he replied, "that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female, 'and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." Matthew 19:4-6

If Mr. Quillen would have been alive when Jesus was walking the earth, I could see Jesus asking him the same question He asked the Pharisees, "Haven't you read?" The article states that Quillen was raised in a "large Southern Baptist congregation in Dallas." I don't know for certain, but I would hope that somewhere in those 50 plus years of Sunday messages that he heard scriptures like the one from Matthew. It clearly states God made them "male and female." He did not make male and male or female and female. Jesus says that the two, male and female, "will become one flesh." And punctuates it by saying that no man should separate what "God has joined." Quillen needs to explain what faith he claims to have that says his sin was not a choice and that allows him to blaspheme God by saying his sin was "God-given." Because that faith is not one that originates from the Bible. The article, to my pleasant surprise, even posted scriptures that it says "condemn homosexuality." Those passages are Genesis 19: 4-9, Leviticus 20:13, Romans 1:24-26, 1 Corinthians 6: 9-10, 1 Timothy 1:8-11 and Genesis 2:18, 23-24. These are just a few passages that condemn homosexuality as sin or affirm the union of male and female in marriage as the natural order God established. So, again, Joe Quillen needs to clarify what Bible he is reading from that affirms his sexual deviance as, not only normal, but God-ordained. According to the paper, pro-gay theologians, "argue that the Bible condemns unnatural and excessive acts committed by apparently heterosexual persons. Pro-gay theologians also argue that, in the Genesis story of Sodom, it is rape being condemned, not homosexuality. Pro-gay theologians also like to point out what Jesus said about gay sex - nothing."

"Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom—both young and old—surrounded the house. They called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them." Genesis 19:4-5

So, let me get this straight, I am to believe that rape, not homosexuality, is being condemned in Genesis 19? Well, if "all the men" from the city of Sodom surrounded the house in order to have sex with the "men who came to [Lot]," that sounds like homosexuality to me. Unless men having sex with men is not homosexuality anymore! I have to admit that Jesus didn't say anything about homosexuality. But, as I stated earlier, Jesus reaffirmed the proper order God established back in the Garden of Eden. And that is God created man and woman for each other. In fact, God took woman from man! Joe Dallas, an author and founder of Genesis Counseling, is quoted in the article as saying, "Are we really to believe that Jesus didn't care about wife beating or incest just because He said nothing about them?" Amen! But, what the pro-gay theologians forget is that Jesus is God, the second Person of the Trinity. Being God, Jesus most certainly would not disagree with anything affirmed in other parts of the Bible. And homosexuality is condemned in the strongest of terms. It is called unnatural, detestable, listed with slave traders and murders and deserving of death! Would anybody claiming that homosexuality is natural extend that belief to slave traders, murderers or incest and wife beaters, as Joe Dallas used in his illustration? I would think not. Imagine the outcry from everybody if someone were to promote the idea that being a slave trader, a murderer or a wife beater is natural and not a choice?

"Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." Romans 1: 26-27

Anybody who has seen the naked bodies of a man and a woman does not need the Bible to point out what the natural use of them is in terms of sexual relations. In reference to Romans 1:26-27, author, speaker and radio host, Hank Hanegraaff ,writes in his work, The Bible Answer Book, "It would be difficult to miss the relationship between Paul's words and the current healthcare holocaust. More people die of AIDS than the United States of America has lost in all its wars combined. This is but the tip of an incidious iceberg. The homosexual lifestyle causes a host of complications including hemorrhoids, prostate damage, and infectious fissures. And even that merely scratches the surface. Nonviral infections transmitted through homosexual activity include gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphillis. Viral infections involve condylomata, herpes, and hepatitis A and B." Whoa! With such a littany of destructive health issues resulting from engaging in homosexual activity, it doesn't say much about God if we are to believe that this is what He wanted from a "God-given desire." Fact of the matter is that homosexuality is a choice, plain and simple. For a Christian to claim otherwise is a denial of biblical truth and reality. We are all born into this world dead in sin. So, the sin of homosexuality is just another in the endless options we have in order to indulge our flesh. Every sin we commit is a choice. It is proof that we are trying to gain from the world that which can only be found in a relationship with Jesus Christ. Elizabeth Bennett, a gay Christian, talked about how she feels the pain of partial acceptance and how their are those like her that "truly want to be loved." There is good news for people like Bennett, Quillen, the gay theologians and anybody in the homosexual community. And that is there is unconditional love, acceptance, meaning and purpose to their lives waiting for them in Christ Jesus. Not the acceptance of their sin, but the true acceptance we all desire in our spirits that can only come from knowing God. It is the pursuit of what only God can give that leads a person to choose a sinful and destructive lifestyle like homosexuality. It may sound unloving, but the lack of acceptance felt by these individuals from their congregations could lead them to the end of themselves. Thus, they may realize that what they seek to gain through the sin of homosexuality and from their fellow congregants pales in comparison to what God offers them in Christ. But, if they don't see themselves as a sinner, they won't realize their need for salvation in Jesus Christ.

From sinner to Saint. From lost to saved. From darkness to ligth. From dead to alive. The answer is clear.

Yes, gays can switch?