God's Gays

Rev. R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, God bless him, has really caused a stir ever since he conceded that homosexuality might have a biological basis. But not to worry, he's busy in his secret underground laboratory divining a holy hormone patch that will convert the wayward chromosomes.

Harold Meyerson at Wapo yesterday explores the moral dilemma Mohlerites now face:

how to reconcile a God who creates homosexuals with a God who condemns practicing homosexuals to hell?

Unfortunately Meyerson is right, the Mohlerites - and their numbers are legion - will hardly skip a beat with this new revelation. They will smugly repeat their mantra, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." Only now they can be more empathetic, being as we now know that God made you a sinner, God bless you. And look on the bright side, they do affirm that aborting chromosomes that fail to convert is still inappropriate.

Here's my rant on homosexual behavior in the Bible. Mohlerites would like you to believe that all homosexual behavior is the same and all is sinful. Homosexual behavior in scripture is not our contemporary understanding of a mutual, consensual, loving relationship. Most often it was an older man exercising coercive power over a young boy, who most likely had been sold into the situation or won in battle. We're talking rape here and no one today would condone such behavior, homo- or heterosexual. With the popularity of 300 in some circles, I would suggest checking out The Spartans at PBS to see the homosexual behavior of that society.

And here is Desmond Tutu's rant:

"To penalise someone because of their sexual orientation is like what used to happen to us; to be penalised for something which we could do nothing [about] -- our ethnicity, our race," said Tutu. "I would find it quite unacceptable to condemn, persecute a minority that has already been persecuted."

There are a few Christian Americans who believe that all are created in the image of God and that everything God creates is good...even very good. God bless the United Church of Christ who will let anybody join their churches. My prayers go out to the Episcopal church where differences over homosexuality threaten to split the church. My own denomination, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to ordination. And, frankly, I don't believe our small numbers could survive a split.

But I say homosexuality is not a moral issue. It shouldn't be an issue for Christians at all. But I have gained a greater empathy for the Mohlerites who worship a God who creates for the sheer pleasure of smacking it down, God bless them, because deep in their hearts they fear that their God also enjoys a good game of what goes around, comes around.

P.S. to Mr. Meyerson, if you really are a modern man who wants to expand the scope of the word "man," dropping the capitalized Him would be a good next step.

TAGS: Christianity, homosexuality