Does God Hate Homosexuals?

"Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."

- Leviticus, 18:22

With the controversy of legalized homosexual marriage celebrating its one year anniversary here in the state of Massachusetts, I thought it might be appropriate to tackle this particular question. I am sure many of us remember that Pastor who, several years ago, stormed the funeral of a recently murdered homosexual man to proclaim loud and clear that "God hates fags." I am sure many of us remember the "religious right" trying to impose its values upon all of America by pushing to protect the sanctity of marriage.

But before I go anywhere with this topic it is very important that I make a distinction that we, as a people, are in danger of forgetting: there is a big difference between disapproval and hatred. When I was growing up as a young child, I remember occasionally being a little too rambunctious and getting into trouble. When my parents grew angry occasionally they would shout, and I would be sent off to my room. But after sufficient time had passed for me to calm down and be ready to listen, my parents would always come into my room to tell me that yes, they loved me but they did not love what I had done.

In an article entitled "You Would Cry Too if it Happened to You," Peggy Noonan writes of her experience witnessing a high school graduation. A young woman, big under her graduation gown with a late-term pregnancy crossed the stage to receive her diploma to the thunderous applause of the audience. And in that moment Peggy Noonan realized that something had changed, a deep belief that had permeated American thought had changed. As she wrote, ..."applause is a right and generous response for a girl with grit and heart, a girl who kept her child and remained in school despite society's disapproval. But society wasn't disapproving, it was actually applauding... The old America had a delicate sense of the difference between official disapproval and unofficial succor. The old America would not have thunderously applauded, but some would have gone out of their way to help what used to be called "girls in trouble." For all of our talk of acceptance, we don't show much love. As we have become more open-minded, we have become more close-hearted. My message to America is this: what you applaud, you encourage - but beware of what you celebrate."

Now let me distance myself a bit from this idea of what some of you may have in mind concerning "old America." But despite her waxing romantic concerning a previous American paradigm, Peggy Noonan's article is a telling one. There is a huge difference between showing compassion for someone and applauding a lifestyle that was, at least once, considered abberent or undesirable.

You see, we all like the idea of "doing our own thing," because it leaves us free to pursue whatever we like without having to listen to anyone else tell us that it is dangerous or even wrong. But when taken to its logical extreme, as we are beginning to do, we also remove any sense of social responsibility for, as Peggy Noonan called, "girls in trouble" (or people in trouble) because, according to our new paradigm, they are no longer in trouble - they are simply doing their own thing and do not need any love or support. Quite a throwback to Aldous Huxley who said in his book "Ends and Means," "...I want this world not to have meaning because a meaninglessness world frees me to pursue my own erotic and political desires."

Quite a contrast to the Bible, where God continually calls upon his people to care for the orphans and the widows, people in danger because they were in trouble and had no one to care for them.

But to deal specifically with homosexuality - why does God forbid it? As is written in the book of Genesis, "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and cleave to the woman, and the two will become as one flesh." The Bible is very clear that romantic relationships are only intended to occur between men and women who are not related to each other (Leviticus goes into detail about whom one is not allowed to lay with).

There are sociological studies that supposedly show that many people (up to one half and even more) of those who join the "homosexual culture" do so for social and psychological reasons, and not purely genetic ones. Now there are studies that supposedly show the opposite as well. But there was a brief write-up in Time magazine two years ago, or so, concerning a research project to find the source of homosexual behavior as a purely genetic one and that attempt ended in failure. When those results were published, the researchers received hundreds of angry letters - do you know why? Because if something cannot shown to be purely genetic, then free choice is part of the reason why a homosexual life is chosen, and all of a sudden homosexuals are no longer the victims of genetics but the pro-active selectors of an aberrent lifestyle.

There are also those who will argue that the only places where commandments against homosexuality are mentioned is when such behavior occures as a ritualized practice, a la temple prostitutes. This is patently absurd. Take any other specific sin in the Bible - such as lying or murder. Lying and murder are not only wrong when done in a ritualized fashion, they are wrong whenever they are done.

God does not hate homosexuals. God loves all people, of all races and walks of life. The reason why we react so strongly against the Bible on this point is that we have redefined sexuality to exclude God and include only ourselves and our partners, with no one else needing to be consulted, or whatever. But what we may forget is that God created sex! And he told people to engage in it - but only under certain conditions: in a marital relationship, as an act of love between a man and a woman. We have internalized and personalized sexuality so far that the definitions of what constitutes "right sex" have been lost.

Ravi Zacharias once gave this extrapolation of a Biblical truth that I would like to end on: There was once a young man, who was also a skeptic, who came to Jesus with a denarii coin. He asked Jesus to whom should they pay taxes? And Jesus, sensing the trap, asked in return, "whose face is on that coin?" "Ceaser's," came the reply. "Give to Ceaser what is Ceaser's, and give to God what is God's," said Jesus. But listen, if the man were not a skeptic seeking merely to trap Jesus, he would have gone on to ask "What, then belongs to God?" And Jesus, for his answer, would merely need to hold up a mirror and ask "Whose face is in this mirror?"

By the way, a real relationship with Jesus Christ does not motivate people to badger, harass, or threaten anyone. Nor does it "oppress" "natural desires" for people of the same gender. There are those who struggle with homosexuality and love Jesus Christ. There are those who have overcome their temptations through the ministry of Jesus in their lives.