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January 13, 2013

Ep.744: Can Gay Rights and Christianity Co-Exist?

Practical and scriptural perspective on gay marriage

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Theme Scripture: 1 Corinthians 10:23

Some subjects stimulate the heart and not the mind and others stimulate the mind and not the heart. Then there are those that do both – to an extreme. Today we have such a subject: gay rights, gay marriage and Christianity. How should we view these things? Should we be redefining our vision of families? Should we be focusing on being compassionate and understanding? How much of the Bible is relevant to this issue here in the 21st century? Stay with us as we honestly and respectfully take this journey.

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2 replies
  1. Peter Schwartz
    Peter Schwartz says:

    My background is Jewish, and I now belong to the Unitarian Church. I happened upon your website, and having many gay and lesbian friends, I was interested in your program on how gay/lesbianism fit into Christianity. I was excited about the open way you presented yourselves, but found the opposite was true: you seemed to have pre-conceived conclusions and used (misused) the bible to prove your points. I only listened to 30 minutes of your program, and will give you the most relevant example of what I am talking about.
    You focused on the story of Adam and Eve to prove your point that God meant marriage to be between a man and a woman, only. You point out that God created Adam, alone. And then, out of man, woman is taken, and that this is the original model for living: woman was created for man (and therefore, man was not created to be man’s mate). I look at this story completely differently. This story acts as if man is the goal of God’s creation of humanity, and somehow God at first believed that it was all right to only create man. (…as if God did not understand that the race could not procreate without woman.)And when God finally got around to creating women, it was because man was lonely. And furthermore, he created woman from man’s ribs. So one can conclude that woman was created to keep man company, and her very creation was dependent upon man (being created from man’s ribs). You use this story as proof that God meant (only) woman to be the mate of man. I see this story as created and written by a man, to glorify man, and proof that God did not create the human race this way: creating woman only as a companion to man. No wonder women have been subservient to man for so many centuries: the Christian view of creation clearly present women as an after-thought!
    It amazes and disappoints me that you view this story–which clearly creates woman as a second class citizen to man–as proof of what God actually wants. I feel that you are blinded by your own circular thinking. This is not the way you first presented this program on Christianity and gay marriage. Your program is not an open and objective view on the subject. Your program simply repeats the Christian view, acting as if the Bible is proving your point.
    It is very sad to me–a non-Christian–that there are those who take the gospel of love of Jesus Christ and use it to reject a group of people that probably number in the millions.

    Reply
    • Christian Questions
      Christian Questions says:

      Thank you for your comments. We understand this is a serious, relevant and emotionally-charged subject and presented the point of view we understand to be true from the Scriptures. First, we encourage you to listen to the program in its entirety so that you can more fully understand the overall position we take. In addition, we highly recommend you listen to our program on marriage from this past Valentine’s Day, Is Marriage Really Needed? as you appear to misquote our viewpoint relating to the account of Adam and Eve. Eve was created as Adam’s equal and only became subservient as a result of sin and not as a result of design.

      To address the rest of your comments, there are many, many human behaviors that do not please God, including lying, greed, fornication, stealing, and the list goes on. One is not “more wrong” than the other. We do not believe that homosexuals are any more or less sinful than heterosexuals. However, it is a fact that the Bible only discusses marriage as being a state between a man and a woman. Unmarried individuals of any orientation should not engage in a physical, sexual relationship. While we believe such behavior is displeasing, we repeatedly stated in the program that gay individuals are not “bad.” One can be gay but put aside a gay lifestyle, just as one with the propensity towards illicit child pornography can be acceptable to God by fighting daily and overcoming such urges.

      We believe that Jesus accepts ALL in whatever state they are in. But the challenge is to come up higher – to “mortify the deeds of the flesh” (Romans 8:11-13) – to change into a “new creature” with a new mind and dedication and to the greatest extent possible, not allow any unedifying practice deter us from bringing the most glory to God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) Jeus preached accepting people, but he always spoke in the context of drawing people from where they were as sinners to a higher way of living. We want to live to the highest standard we can, which means we struggle and internally war against lying and greed and cheating and stealing and pornography and the list goes on and on, including unmarried sex.

      The plan of God for all of mankind – gay, straight, Jewish, Christian, ancient Greek, black, white…ALL mankind…is bigger than our temporary sexual desires and bigger than whatever our temporary governments mandate. Our task is to conform to what God wants us to be, and NOT the other way around. If pleasing Him means that we are to sacrifice any and all parts of our lifestyle, no matter what our propensity, than that is to be our goal.

      We at Christian Questions have many wonderful, beautiful, loving gay friends. We pray for them as we do all of our friends, brethren in the faith, and the entire world of mankind. Again, this is a very difficult subject because it is dealing with the very basic emotions of humankind – the desire to love and be loved in the most fulfilling way. We love and respect gay people. In the strongest of terms, we in no way “take the Gospel to reject” this group of people. We in no way believe that gay people are lost or will be outside God’s glorious plan of resurrection in the kingdom. It is our view that according to Scripture, we need to ALL behave in a way that is acceptable to God. ALL of us are charged with leaving sinful and earthly emotions and activities behind to strive towards what is spiritual.

      Thank you again for sharing your perspective with our listeners. We pray for continued guidance and forgiveness for all that we do that is not in accordance with His will, and we wish you the very best in your walk with the Lord.

      Reply

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