Thursday, October 22, 2015

Are People Born Homosexual / Gay and what does it mean?

This is a complex topic, but here are some thoughts to considerThis post is clearly not comprehensive. There is much more information that can be found on this topic. The thoughts below may perhaps be a different angle that some have not considered.

Are people born gay?

This article does a good introduction into this topic and some of the implications:

Born that way - creation.com
http://creation.com/born-that-way

Due to living in a broken, sinful world brought forth by original sin,  we are all born with sinful desires. So, we might be asking the wrong question.  The real question might be:

If I am born with predisposition to a certain behavior, does that automatically make that behavior good, valuable, useful, and worthy of praise?


Substitute the word gay with a long list of other words (i.e. liars, cheaters, thieves, alcoholics, etc...) and see if the arguments still make sense.


Different Uses of a Word
I think that our current culture defines "gay" as same gender attraction.  I think a more accurate view for biblical Christians is to define gay as someone who acts upon same gender attraction. As we mentioned earlier, everyone has sinful desires, but only those who act upon those desires are sinning. If you use this definition, as I think is more accurate, then nobody is ever born gay.  You can be born with predisposition to same gender attraction, but that does not have to define you or be your primary identity.  We are more than the sum of our genetics.

[I've changed the section below to give it content that I hope reflects my views a little better]

Legal Implications?

Often when someone is investigating this topic they are really exploring other related topics like laws and innate attributes of a person (attributes that a person has at birth that they did not choose).  My thoughts on these issues are as follows:

Legal standing
All people are created equal and should have equal legal standing before the law. regardless of everything else. We are all equal in God's eyes. we are all sinners. However, it is important to note that equal does not mean the same. Women and men are equal but different; intentionally unique. We should all have equal legal standing, but that does not mean that men should be able to use the women's restroom.

Innate
Regarding the use of innate things about a person. I think that the word innate might not be specific enough by itself to address the ideas that people are exploring these days. I am not sure what words to use to be more specific, but lets try innate attributes and innate behaviors.

We will define innate attributes as attributes that make up who someone is entirely separate from how they behave. These attributes are almost always something that can be seen with the eye or observed/measured in some way. Examples: hair color, skin color, eye color, blood type, length of legs, DNA, country of origin, etc....

We will define innate behaviors as those behaviors that one does not choose, but that a person feel strongly drawn to, possibly starting from birth. We will also include ideas, thoughts, and desires in this category because those are the seeds of behavior.

Regarding laws and creating protected classes:  I believe that only innate attributes should be used and innate behaviors should be excluded. Otherwise we open up Pandora's box with a very large list of potential classes.  Someone might feel like certain behaviors chose them and not the other way around, but is that enough to create a protected class for them?

This is not to say that only innate attributes should be used to create protected classes. I am saying that if innate factors are the fundamental concept used to decide if a class should be protected or not, then I believe innate attributes (and not behaviors) are the relevant factors.  There may be other innate factors that should be included, but at this time this is what I have come up with. The main point being that we should be very careful what we consider innate enough to make it a protected class.

Final Thoughts
As the article I linked to says, we all need the gospel. Homosexuals need God, as does everyone else. Only when we pursue the one true God, and let that pursuit change us, can we find the strength to live in a broken and sinful world.


Saturday, October 17, 2015

Does Death have a Purpose?


I do not want to get too theological, but the world was created by God without death. Death entered the world with Adam sinned and forever made this world broken and cursed.


However, even in this broken world death can have a positive effect.  Sometimes the death of a loved one is the only thing that can get through to us.


  • Death reminds us what is important in life.
  • Death makes us challenge what we value.
  • Death reminds us we are mortal and makes us think about life after death.
  • Death can bring our families closer.
  • Death can remind us we are loved by many people.
  • Death can bring us closer to God. 
  • Death can make someone who believes in no God and no after life, reconsider.
  • Death can get our attention in ways that nothing else can.
  • Death can make us think about how we invest our time.
  • Death can make us reach out to people we would normally ignore.
  • Death can make us improve our lifestyle choices.