Romans 1:21-31
The key to these passages is the word "natural". But first the story for those who are not familier with it. In these versus we see that there is a group of people who turn away from God. From this point on their lives begin to spiral downward and they commit all sorts of sins. One of which is turning from what is “natural” for them to that which is “unnatural”.
The issue here revolves around the word “natural” which is derived from two Greek words phusikos (Strong's #5446) and phusis (Strong's #5449). These words literally mean that which is a persons "natural disposition" and something that comes "instinctively" to them. In other words, it is who you are naturally; without reprogramming, counseling, or any other form of behavioral modification that attempts to change your behavior to that which society has deemed acceptable.
You ask any gay person what their natural sexual orientation is and they won’t even hesitate to tell you that being gay is. The problem is of course when you discuss the issue with a heterosexual person. Unfortunately many times people who belong to the majority tend to think of themselves as the ‘norm’ and therefore what is ‘natural’. Everyone else falls into another category altogether and in some cases is considered even slightly abnormal.
This point was illustrated best to me by a story my Grandmother used to tell me. In her day all the children were expected to be right handed. Anything else was considered slightly abnormal and therefore undesirable. Because of this if children showed a natural propensity to use their left hand they were repeatedly encouraged and then required to use their right hand. It wasn’t until years later when they realized that roughly ten percent of all children were naturally left handed that there were calls for this practice to stop. In spite of this, some time passed before the more forward thinking schools allowed left handed children to be who they were naturally without attempting to change their writing habits. Now day’s left-handed children are seen as just another everyday variation.
Our sexual orientation is no different. The vast majority of our population is predominately heterosexual in nature (approx. 90-95%) with the remaining minority being homosexual (approx. 5-10%). Researchers have found that these percentages remain pretty much the same across all racial and cultural lines. Varying only by the amount of tolerance or intolerance a particular society has for such differences.
Another key point in Paul’s story is that the people turned away from God FIRST and THEN began living a sinful ‘lifestyle’. If homosexuality is a sin. By this description we should see that every homosexual person first turned away from God and THEN became a homosexual. Yet I’ve seen everything but. I’ve met numerous Christians who were gay. Some were saved before they came to grips with their sexuality. Some were saved after they “came out”. There is no common denominator. I can only conclude that ones sexual orientation has nothing to do with ones relationship with God.
Another important point to keep in mind is what Jesus taught us concerning those who have ‘fallen away’ from God. That being that those who are separated from God will envariably exhibit the full gambit of bad spiritual “fruit” in keeping with who they serve. Jesus said that “a good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit.” (Matthew 7:18) Therefore “by their fruits you will know them.” (Matthew 7:20)
When I met my first Christian gay woman I knew something was a miss with the Church’s doctrine concerning homosexuals. Here standing before me was a person who professed Jesus Christ as their lord and savior and exhibited in their life the full plethoria of “good fruit” that Paul described in Galatians 5:22-23. How could this be? According to Jesus good fruit could not be produced on such a “bad tree”. If homosexuality was a terrible sin that separated us from God it was physically and spiritually impossible for this woman to be standing before me and yet she was.
Only one conclusion remained. That being that ones sexual orientation was not, in and of itself, a sin. It was instead just another variation in God’s grand scheme of diversity and as such we should not reject it merely because it was different.
Note: There is a much more thorough discussion of Romans and the other 'anti-gay' passages on the web site www.gaychurch.org which is a sister site of Justin's. Check out the section "Gay and Christian?" there you will find 3 excellent series of articles on the matter. One from E T Sundby the author of "Calling the Rainbow Nation Home" another from Justin the author of the web site truthsetfree.com and another from Bruce Lowe a retired (straight) Baptist minister and a theological school teacher.
