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Is Homosexuality a Sin?

By Jeremy Cagle

When I was in high school, one of my heroes was a guy named Ted who was several years older than me.1  He was a great athlete who drove a sports car that made me drool with envy.  One day, I noticed that Ted had a rainbow spectrum on the back of his car.  I also noticed that Ted wore an earring in his right ear, which was strange because most guys wore earrings in their left ear. 

Then Ted told me his story.  He grew up in a broken home where he became sexually active with girls at a young age.  That behavior soon led to a sexual attraction to men which horrified him.  He thought that it was wrong but he did not know how to stop the attraction.  He felt so bad that he grew suicidal over it.  On several occasions, he sat in his garage with all the doors shut and the car engine running, hoping he would die from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Eventually, Ted grew tired of fighting and gave into the attraction.  By the time I knew him, he was openly gay.  He had a boyfriend in a nearby town and had had several boyfriends before that.

Ted was the first homosexual person I ever met, but his story would be common today. Homosexuality is constantly before us.  It is a frequent topic in the news and in public debate.  According to some statistics, less than 3 percent of the population is gay2 but gay awareness is talked about incessantly. 

So what should Christians think about it?  How should we respond to people like Ted?  To answer that, let me answer five questions related to homosexuality.

I. WHAT DID THE ANCIENT WORLD THINK ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

There is an argument floating around right now which says that our society’s growing acceptance of homosexuality indicates that we are moving forward.3  It shows that our culture is making progress.  To answer that, we need to go back and see what the ancient world thought about homosexuality.

When we do that, we see that homosexuality is nothing new.  It is all over the pages of history.  For instance, many of the Roman Caesars were gay or bisexual including Julius Caesar,4 Tiberius Caesar,5 and Nero.6  They had their wives and they had their homosexual lovers.  Some believe that Alexander the Great behaved that way.7 His father, Philip of Macedon, definitely did.8  Many of the Roman gods were bisexual including Zeus, and Herocles, and Apollo.9

The Romans and the Greeks also kept boy slaves in their home for homosexual purposes.  Plato defended this practice in his book, Symposium.  He said that in foreign lands this is disgraceful but, in Athens, it was okay as long as it was done with “honor.”10  Here is what one modern author wrote about this:

Greece was perhaps the ancient society in which homosexuality was most prevalent. Plato says that a male’s devotion to his male lover transcended devotion to office, money, parents, comrades – anything or anyone else. Such a relationship transcended even death.

The Greeks idealized such loves believing that their gods engaged in it and that some people were homosexual by nature. They institutionalized pederasty (boy sex slaves) within the educational system. While male homosexuality and transvestitism were openly regarded, there were even a few references to women who engaged in lesbianism.11

Egyptian folk tales talked about homosexual acts being committed by the gods.12  The Babylonians had temple prostitutes who were practicing homosexuals.13  In fact, Will Durant, in his 11-volume history of the world, said that homosexuality existed in every major ancient society including Egypt, Babylon, Assyria, Phoenicia, Persia, India, China, Greece, and Rome.14

The interesting thing about this is that none of these societies took homosexual marriage seriously.15  They all acknowledged that marriage was reserved for one man and one woman or one man and many women.16  Another interesting thing about this is that none of these societies gave minority status to homosexuals.  Most of them believed that homosexuality was a choice.17

Homosexuality is an ancient thing.  There is nothing progressive about it.  If anything, our society’s growing acceptance of it shows that we are moving backwards, not forwards.

II. WHAT DOES THE OLD TESTAMENT THINK ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

The Bible was written in the time period that I just described.  It was written to a society that embraced homosexuality.18 So what does it say on the subject?

Genesis 1:27-28 tells us about the first sexual relationship between human beings.  It says:

God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

A couple of things are worth mentioning in this passage.  First, this relationship was to define humanity.  “Man” is not a sexist term here; it is a general term describing every human being.19  God created us to be male and female.  He created us to be man and woman. 

Second, this relationship was to define sexuality.20  In 1:28, God tells Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.21  In 2:24, he says:

 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

“Shall become one flesh” implies a sexual relationship.22  This is what sex looks like without sin.23  It looks like one man and one woman.

It does not look like two men.  It does not look like two women.  It does not look like one man and several women.24  It looks like one man and one woman united in marriage.25

The Old Testament does not mention homosexuality often, but when it does, it is consistent.  In Genesis 19, God destroys Sodom and Gomorrah for their sins, one of those sins being the sin of homosexuality.26  In Judges 19, a Levite spends the night in Gibeah and the men of Gibeah try to rape him.27  Leviticus 18:22 says:

 You shall not lie with a male as one lies with a female; it is an abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 also says:

 If there is a man who lies with a male as those who lie with a woman, both of them have committed a detestable act; they shall surely be put to death.

The argument has been made that these commands were just cultural,28 that Moses was simply repeating the opinions of his day, but we have already seen that the opinions of his day were for homosexuality and not against it.  Furthermore, a comparison of other passages in this section shows that these commands go beyond Moses’ culture.  Leviticus 20:14 says:

If there is a man who marries a woman and her mother, it is immorality; both he and they shall be burned with fire, so that there will be no immorality in your midst.

Most people today would say that it is not okay for a man to marry a woman and her daughter.  They say that because this command was not based on culture.  It transcends culture.

It is the same way with the command against bestiality.29  Leviticus 20:15 says:

If there is a man who lies with an animal, he shall surely be put to death; you shall also kill the animal.

It is the same way with the command against a man having sex with his sister.  Leviticus 20:17 says:

If there is a man who takes his sister, his father’s daughter or his mother’s daughter . . . it is a disgrace; and they shall be cut off in the sight of the sons of their people.

Those commands were not based on Moses’ culture.  They were based on God’s design for sex.  God created sex to be between one man and one woman in marriage.  Any other use of it is a sin.

III. WHAT DOES THE NEW TESTAMENT THINK ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

The New Testament echoes what is said in the Old Testament.  For example, Romans 1 says this:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them.

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse . . .

Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.  For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper . . . (vv. 18-28).

Since men did not acknowledge God, God gave them over to their sin.  What was the result?  Verse 26 says, “Their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural.”  Verse 27 says, “And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another.”  In other words, they became homosexual.30

The New Testament teaching on sexuality is the same as the teaching of the Old Testament.31  Paul says in verse 18 that God’s wrath burns against those who disobey his commands for sex.

The same idea is taught in the rest of the New Testament.  First Corinthians 6:9-10 says that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, or revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

First Timothy 1:8-10 says that homosexuality is against God’s Law and a behavior of ungodly and sinful people.

But we know that the Law is good . . . but for those who are lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers and immoral men and homosexuals and kidnappers and liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound teaching . . .

Second Peter 2:6-9 says the behavior of Sodom and Gomorrah was “ungodly” and “lawless.”32  Jude 7 says that these men “indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh . . . and are undergoing the punishment of eternal fire.”

The Bible is consistent.  Whether it is in the Old Testament or the New Testament, it teaches that homosexuality is a sin.  It is not what God intended for sex.

IV. WHAT DOES MODERN SCIENCE THINK ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

This may be the biggest question in people’s minds today.  After all, if homosexuality is purely biological, it would seem wrong for the Bible to disapprove of it.  If someone is born gay, then it would not be fair for God to call it a sin.33

To answer this, it would be helpful to define the term “science.”  According to The World Book Encyclopedia:

Science covers the broad field of knowledge that deals with observed facts and the relationships among those facts.34

Science deals with observed facts.  It deals with things that can be seen and tasted and felt, but it does not deal with the interpretation of those things.35  Science is supposed to be looking for a gene that causes homosexuality.  It is not supposed to be looking for a gene that could be interpreted to cause homosexuality.  Science, by its very definition, should stay out of the realm of interpretation. 

With that in mind, every scientific study that has been conducted on the origins of homosexuality has come out inconclusive.  It has not found a gay gene. 

For example, a 1991 issue of Science magazine recorded the findings of Researcher Simon LeVay who conducted experiments on the bodies of 19 homosexual men and 16 heterosexual men who died from AIDS.  His results showed that the brains of the heterosexual men had more cells in a specific area than the brains of the homosexual men.36 Some interpreted this to mean that homosexuality is purely biological.

LeVay disagreed.  He said that his results proved nothing.

For one thing, the tests did not tell whether the small number of brain cells caused or were caused by homosexuality.  In order to know that, LeVay would have to know how many brain cells the patient started out with and he did not have that information.  He also said that the number of men used in the study hampered his research and that 3 of the 19 homosexual men had the same number of brain cells as the heterosexual men.37

Here was his conclusion to the study:

The results do not allow one to decide if the size of the brain cells in an individual is the cause or the consequence of an individual’s sexual orientation.38

Science cannot tell whether an absence of brain cells causes or is caused by homosexuality.  Science cannot find a gay gene.  It is still undecided on that issue.  Ed Welch, who has a Ph. D. from the University of Utah in Neuropsychology, said this about it:

The only thing certain is that human sexuality is too complex to be reduced to the workings of the brain.39

The only thing science has really concluded, at the end of the day, is that human sexuality is too complex to be purely biological.  There is more going on here.  Science has never proven that men and women are born gay.

A person may be born with certain sexual desires that tempt them to be gay.40  They may have an experience that pulls them in that direction but they still have a choice in the matter.41  That means there is hope. 

V. WHAT SHOULD THE CHURCH THINK ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY?

The church’s job is to give hope to homosexuals.  Our job is to love them and show them there is a better way.  Homosexuality is not the unpardonable sin.42

Paul’s words to the church at Corinth are very insightful on this.  He says in First Corinthians 6:9-10:

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, or revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

After saying that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of God, Paul goes on to say:

Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

Corinth was a pretty immoral city in Paul’s day.43  It was so bad that “to play the Corinthian” meant to commit sexual sin.44  Therefore some of the Corinthians were effeminate45 and homosexual before they came to Christ, but they were saved from all of that.  They were washed, sanctified, and justified from that lifestyle.  Jesus died for every sin, including the sin of homosexuality, and that is what the church needs to be telling homosexuals.

A lot of the debates over gay marriage and gay rights in the media are scaring people today.46  It is frightening to think of where some of it is heading. The answer, however, is not to fear.  The answer is to make disciples. The greatest priority we have as Christians is evangelism.  If we want to make a difference, this is where we start.47

We start by telling homosexuals that they do not have to live this way.  We start by telling them that Jesus Christ can give them a fresh start.48  We start by taking every chance we can to show God’s love to them.  They are not unreachable.  They are not hopeless.

When I was in seminary, one of my part-time jobs was to shuttle patients back and forth from a health clinic in Southern California.  They could not drive due to their injury so it was my job to drive them back and forth. 

One of our patients I cared for was gay.  He had been a practicing homosexual for many years and had suffered a stroke.  His partner would visit him from time-to-time to care for him, but it was my job every morning to help him take a shower and get dressed and eat his breakfast.

Do you know what that experience taught me?  It taught me that this man was no different from me.  He was a human being created in the image of God just like I was.  He needed a Savior just like I did.

Is that what you think about homosexuals?  Do you see them as no different from you?  Both of you are created in the image of God and both of you need a Savior.  So do you think of them that way?  Or do you see them as your enemy?  Would you shudder if one of them turned from his sin and joined your church?

If so, then you need to repent. 

It is the church’s job to tell them that there is hope.  It is the church’s job to tell them that they can be clean.  It is the church’s job to show them the love of God.  Al Mohler summed it up best when he said:

Salvation and repentance must be preached to homosexuals and to heterosexual as well . . . To the homosexual, as to all others, we must speak in love, never in hatred.  But the first task of love is to tell the truth.  Those who genuinely love homosexuals are not those who would revolutionize morality to meet their wishes, but those who will tell them the truth and point them to the One Who is the way, the truth, and the life.49

 

 

 

  1. “Ted” is not his real name. [↩]
  2. “Health Survey Gives Government Its First Large-Scale Data on Gay, Bisexual Population” by Sandhya Somashekhar, July 15, 2014 at [↩]
  3. For a small sample of articles that discuss the benefits of gay marriage for our society: www.huffingtonpost.com published an article on June 6, 2013 entitled “7 Ways the U.S.A. Benefits from the Legislation of Gay Marriage.” www.pbs.org published an article on May 29, 2013 entitled “The Economic Benefits of Gay Marriage.” www.livescience.com published an article on February 27, 2013 entitled “Legalizing Same-Sex Marriage May Improve Public Health.” www.philly.com published an article on May 28, 2012 entitled “Why Gay Marriage is Healthy.” [↩]
  4. Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, Translated by Robert Graves (New York: Penguin Books, 1957 ed.) 23. Suetonius was a Roman historian from the Second Century A. D. who wrote a biography of twelve Romans caesars, starting with Julius Caesar and ending with Domitian. He also wrote about their sexual relationships. [↩]
  5. Ibid., 127. [↩]
  6. Ibid., 222-223. [↩]
  7. Peter Green, Alexander of Macedon, 356-323 B.C.: A Historical Biography (Berkeley, Cal.: University of California Press, 1991) 66, 464-467. While I could find nothing definite about Alexander’s sexuality, there are indications that he was bisexual like most of the rulers in his day. He had several wives but was also scandalously close to several men in his army. One of them was Hephaestion. According to Peter Green: “Both [his father and mother] were worried by, among other things, the boy’s lack of heterosexual interest.” [↩]
  8. Ibid., 105-107. Philip of Macedon was actually murdered by one of his homosexual lovers. [↩]
  9. James B. DeYoung, Homosexuality: Contemporary Claims Examined in Light of the Bible and Other Ancient Literature and Law (Grand Rapids: Kregel Publications, 2000) 123. [↩]
  10. Ibid., 253. [↩]
  11. Ibid., 122-123. [↩]
  12. Ibid., 123. [↩]
  13. Ibid. [↩]
  14. Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 1 (New York: Simon & Shuster, 1935) 166, 244-248, 275, 296, 373-374, 401, 789. [↩]
  15. Suetonius, 222. There were times when ancient rulers mocked the idea of a homosexual marriage but they never took it seriously. For example, Suetonius writes about Nero, “Having tried to turn the boy Sporus into a girl by castration, he went through a wedding ceremony with him – dowry, bridal veil and all – which the whole court attended, then brought him home and treated him as a wife. A rather amusing joke is still going through the rounds: the world would have been a happier place had Nero’s father Domitius married that sort of wife.” [↩]
  16. Polygamy is the marriage of one man to multiple women. That polygamy was practiced in ancient times is seen in the Bible. Jacob had multiple wives (Gen 29:14-30) as did King David (1 Sam 25:43; 27:3), King Solomon (1 Kings 11:1, 4), and King Rehoboam (2 Chron 11:21). This does not mean that the Bible supports polygamy. See footnote 24. [↩]
  17. DeYoung, 189-190. The ancient Greeks were an exception to this. “Aristophanes posits that from the beginning there were three kinds of human beings – male, female, and a third gender composed of male-females or men-women. The three types of human beings were part of the ‘original nature.’ Zeus sliced these human beings in half to weaken them so that they would not be a threat to the gods. Since, then, each person seeks his or her other half, either one of the opposite sex or one of the same sex.” [↩]
  18. John MacArthur, The MacArthur Bible Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2006) xxxvi, 1094.  The Bible was written between the years 1445 B.C. and A. D. 90, putting it in the period that was discussed in Section I above. [↩]
  19. John H. Sailhamer, Genesis in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1990) 37. [↩]
  20. Raymond C. Ortlund, Jr. in Recovering Biblical Manhood & Womanhood (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 2006 ed.) 99. Ortlund explains the connection between sexuality and Genesis 1:27-28 this way: “It is God who wants men to be men and women to be women; and He can teach us the meaning of each, if we want to be taught . . . Sexual confusion is a significant, not a slight, personal problem, because our distinct sexual identity defines who we are and why we are here and how God calls us to serve Him.” [↩]
  21. Gordon J. Wenham, Genesis 1-15 in Word Biblical Commentary (Nashville, Tenn.: Thomas Nelson, 1987) 33. “Here, then, we have a clear statement of the divine purpose of marriage . . . it is for the procreation of children.” [↩]
  22. Ibid., 71. [↩]
  23. Sin does not enter the picture until Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therefore, everything that happened from Genesis 1-2 was without sin. This is why Genesis 1:31 says: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good.” [↩]
  24. Merrill F. Unger, Unger’s Bible Dictionary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1967 ed.) 697. As mentioned in footnote 16, there are numerous instances of polygamy in the Bible but this does not mean that God approves of it. In the words of Merrill F. Unger, polygamy was “tolerated, but never with God’s approval.” [↩]
  25. Jesus showed this in Matthew 19:4-6. For a full quotation of this passage, see Footnote 31. [↩]
  26. James White & Jeffrey Niell, The Same Sex Controversy: Defending and Clarifying the Bible’s Message about Homosexuality (Minneapolis, Minn.: Bethany House Publishers, 2002) 31, 40. “There is something more than inhospitality in view here . . .  Through the centuries the story of Sodom and Gomorrah has been understood to communicate God’s wrath against sin, and in particular, the sin of homosexuality.” [↩]
  27. This leads to an outcry from the men of Israel.  Judges 20:12-13 says: “Then the tribes of Israel sent men through the entire tribe of Benjamin, saying, ‘What is this wickedness that has taken place among you? Now then, deliver up the men, the worthless fellows in Gibeah, that we may put them to death and remove this wickedness from Israel.’ But the sons of Benjamin would not listen to the voice of their brothers, the sons of Israel.” [↩]
  28. Daniel Helminiak, What the Bible Really Says about Homosexuality (San Francisco, Cal.: Alamo Square Press, 1995) 53-54. In the words of this author, “The point [in these passages is that] Leviticus prohibits male same-sex acts for religious reasons, not for sexual reasons. The concern is to keep Israel distinct from the Gentiles. Homogenital sex is forbidden because it is associated with Gentile identity. It departs from the Jewish understanding of how things should be.” [↩]
  29. Beastiality is the act of sex with an animal. There may be some who approve of bestiality today but they are comparatively few. [↩]
  30. Douglas J. Moo, The Epistle to the Romans in The New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1996) 114-115. “The sexual sin that Paul singles out is homosexuality . . . It is clear that Paul depicts homosexual activity as a violation of God’s created order, another indication of the departure from true knowledge and worship of God.” [↩]
  31. Jesus shows this when He quotes from Genesis 2:24 in Matthew 19:4-6: “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female,  and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” [↩]
  32. 2 Peter 2:6-9 says in its entirety, “And if He condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter; and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly fromtemptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment.” [↩]
  33. There are a good number of articles being published today that discuss the biological origins of homosexuality. A small sample include: “Scientists May Have Finally Unlocked Puzzle of Why People are Gay” by www.usnews.com on December 11, 2012. “Biological Causes of Same Sex Attraction” by www.samesexattraction.org on n.d. “5 Big Ideas about the Origins of Homosexuality” by www.psychologytoday.com on December 29, 2012. “A ‘Gay Gene’ – Is Homosexuality Inherited?” by www.pbs.org on n.d. [↩]
  34. The World Book Encyclopedia, Volume 17 (Chicago, Ill.: World Book, Inc., 1994) 191. [↩]
  35. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Truth Unchanged, Unchanging (Wheaton, Ill.: Crossway Books, 1993 ed.) 111-112. “The true realm of science is that of phenomena which can be seen and touched, felt and handled; and the moment the scientist moves out of the realm of the tangible, he becomes a philosopher with no more authority than any other thinker.” [↩]
  36. Edward T. Welch, Blame It on the Brain?: Distinguishing Chemical Imbalances, Brain Disorders, and Disobedience (Phillipsburg, N. J.: P & R Publishing, 1998) 165-166. [↩]
  37. This information is taken from Blame It on the Brain, 165-167. [↩]
  38. “A Difference in Hypothalamic Structure Between Heterosexual and Homosexual Men” in Science 253 (1991) 1034-1037. [↩]
  39. Welch, 171. [↩]
  40. Just like someone may be born with certain desires that tempt them to lie or steal or covet, every human being is born in sin, although the type of sin may vary from person to person. See Romans 3:9-20, 23. [↩]
  41. Welch, 169. “Our sinful hearts express themselves in behavior via hundreds of factors, biology being one. A person whose sinful heart acts out in murder may have been influenced by unjust treatment, by parents who allowed him to vent his rage on siblings, and by Satan’s incessant suggestions to kill. But none of these influences remove his personal responsibility for his intentions or actions.” [↩]
  42. The unpardonable sin is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. See Matthew 12:31. [↩]
  43. F. F. Bruce, Paul: Apostle of the Heart Set Free (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1977) 249. “[Corinth] enjoyed a reputation for luxury and its name became proverbial for sexual laxity.” [↩]
  44. Ibid. [↩]
  45. Simon J. Kistemaker, Exposition of the First Epistle to the Corinthians in New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids: Baker Books, 1993 ed.) 188. The word for “effeminate” here is malakos, which refers to “men and boys who allow themselves to be misused homosexually.” It was generally used in Greek to describe the passive member in a homosexual relationship. [↩]
  46. An example of this is the recent attempt of Houston Mayor Annise Parker to subpoena sermons from pastors who spoke out on homosexuality. For more on this, see “Houston Sermon Subpoenas are Censorship Pure and Simple” by Cal Thomas at www.worldmag.com. Also see “Sermons are ‘Fair Game’ in Houston” by Al Mohler at www.almohler.com. [↩]
  47. John MacArthur, Why Government Can’t Save You: An Alternative to Political Activism (Nashville, Tenn.: Word Publishing, 2000) 8. There is a place for Christians to get involved in politics to try to stop some of the advances of the gay movement but it needs to be kept in perspective. John MacArthur writes this about the Christian’s role in politics: “[Christians] ought to express their political beliefs in the voting booth, and it is all right occasionally to support legitimate measures designed to correct a glaring social or political wrong . . . A certain amount of healthy and balanced concern with current trends in government and the community is acceptable, as long as we realize that such interest is not vital to our spiritual growth, our righteous testimony, or the advancement of the kingdom of Christ. Above all, the believer’s political involvement should never displace the priority of preaching and teaching the gospel.” [↩]
  48. Sam Allbery, Is God Anti-Gay (U. K.: The Good Book Company, 2014) 37. Writing about homosexuals who come to Christ, this author says, “However ingrained it may be in someone’s behavior, homosexual conduct is not inescapable. It is possible for someone living a practicing gay lifestyle to be made new by God. Temptations and feelings may well linger . . . But in Christ we are no longer who we were. Those who have come out of an active gay lifestyle need to understand how to see themselves. What defined us then no longer defines us now.” [↩]
  49. Al Mohler in The Popular Encyclopedia of Apologetics, ed. by Ed Hindson & Ergun Caner (Eugene, Ore.: Harvest House Publishers, 2008) 271, 272. [↩]