I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I am very thankful to be a heterosexual. I can’t imagine what it would be like growing up in a solid, non-abusive, healthy conservative Christian home, having been raised with black and white convictions about sin and – in particular – about homosexuality, only to discover as you hit puberty, that you are not attracted to girls at all, but to guys.
It is hard not to feel wrenched at this kind of statement:
“I would sit in Wheaton’s prayer chapel, staring at the cross, and beg God to please just let me be attracted to girls.”
So said a man who went by the pseudonym Jordan in a recent (Feb-Mar) Christianity Today (CT) article titled “Hope for the Gay Undergrad.” Many gays, says the article have a long and lonely battle to face. They are captured by fear that if they tell their Christian brethren of their orientation, that they will be judged. Some feel compelled to leave their faith, others join liberal branches and embraced the gay lifestyle. Still others have chosen to live celibate lives and few have even committed suicide, explains the article.
When I read stories like Jordan’s, or like Justin Lee’s (read Torn), I find my biases, my naive assumptions, my black-and-white blinders are rapidly eroding. In their place is sympathy, nah, empathy even, in so far as it is possible.
Jordan said that one of the reasons he “hesitated to identify with the gay community” was that he perceived them to be “flamboyant and sex-obsessed.” Indeed that is my perception too, and gay pride parades do little to change that impression. In this regard I wonder if the “gay community” is damaging their own cause. I’m referring, of course, to those who don’t want to be perceived as a flamboyant sex-crazed deviant.
A final observation I’d like to make is in reference to what William Struthers, author of Wired for Intimacy, says according to the CT article. To quote it:
“He said that the traditional labels (such as gay or straight) concerning sexual orientation are outdated and inaccurate. ‘Human sexuality is a lot more complex than four or five letters.’”
It’s true. Every time the subject of homosexuality comes up a deeper, far more troubling question lurks in the back of my mind. “Never mind people who say they are attracted to the same-sex, what about those who are born with parts from both sexes?” (I believe the technical term is intersex or hermaphrodite.) To my mind the fact that some people are born with parts from both sexes destroys any lingering arguments against the idea that a person can be born gay.
Do you think Gay Pride parades are good or bad for gay Christians?
