Bio-Ethics: A Different Perspective on Genetics and Homosexuality by Carolyn E.M. Gibney

 
And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth. And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents that he was born blind?  Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him.

Homosexuality is a way of life. You will know this if you look down any somewhat-busy street in any somewhat-busy city. Or watch any cable network. Or visit any bookstore, or video rental store. Some conservative Christians believe they are fighting a losing battle against gay culture. They are wrong. They have already lost.

Perhaps only in ancient Greece or Rome was homosexuality a more prevalent and accepted practice. But in those cultures, it was, for the most part, a tool used to leverage dominance. The older initiated and controlled the sexuality of the younger. Current Western culture may be the first in which homosexuality is being accepted as not merely an aberration, or as a hierarchical order by which the powerful subjugate the weak, but in terms of relationships. Loving, living, breathing relationships between two people who happen to be of the same sex. This is, I believe, what has some Christians so frightened. Being gay is no longer something that happens in a back room in the dark in a shady part of town. Gays walk openly, hand-in-hand, down the street. They live together and take care of each other. They want to adopt children together, and make sure that their partners have the same access to medical benefits that their spouse would have if they were straight. They are not fags or dykes  they are men and women. They are in your city, on your street, in your church. And they will not go away.

 
A lot of ink (and blood) has been spilled on the question of whether or not gays can help it. Whether or not they are born gay, or if their orientation is the by-product of a lecherous age. Many Christians, in my experience, believe the latter. That gays have given in to a strange sort of lust that straight people have somehow been able to fight off. Homosexuals cry from the other side that their attraction is genetic, and thus, why should they be punished by not being allowed to marry or adopt children? This is perhaps the most sensitive issue in the church today: on one hand, Christians are dealing with harsh language from St. Paul on the matter (Romans 1:7-8) and on the other, with the (often very damaged) hearts of millions of people.

 
The other morning I was reading through John, sort of soaking things in. Id just finished the story of the woman caught in adultery, whom Jesus saves by telling people to stone her and then doodling in the sand. But when I reached John 9, I was struck. Jesus meets a blind man  not an unusual occurrence in the gospels  but this time, his disciples ask why he was blind. Whose fault? His moms? His dads? His? I imagined Jesus looking at them for a minute, hoping they might for once answer their own question, and then telling them, no, no, it was no ones fault. This happened so that I could show you what it means to heal someone.

 
I believe it is the same way with homosexuality. I believe it is genetically predetermined in the same way that the blind man had no sight

 
But what exactly does that mean? How does it play out? As far as I can see, it means that Christians ought to be a lot more compassionate. Just as families ought not reject and dispel their children born with cystic fibrosis, so they ought not reject or dispel their children who are born gay.

 
However, that brings up other interesting questions. Having cystic fibrosis certainly isn't a sin, whereas most orthodox readings of the Bible show that homosexuality is. The important distinction, I believe, is how one acts in response to their situation. It is just as much a sin for a person born with cystic fibrosis to curse God for his disease as it is for the person born with attractions to the same-sex to act on those attractions. We are not allowed to use genetics as an excuse for what we do. We must fight against the flesh, as Paul says in Romans 9. Therefore, it is not sin to struggle with homosexual feelings; in fact, it is the very opposite of sin. It means that one is fighting something that one knows is wrong. Will he or she fail sometimes? Yes, more than likely.  But all have sinned. And it is no less sin to condemn a homosexual than to be a homosexual.

 
I thank God that homosexual culture is becoming more and more prevalent. It means that people are being more and more honest. Not only about how they feel, but about the fact that they know they need love, and are willing to do anything to get it. I thank God that there are fewer and fewer tucked away in the dark corners of closets with their hearts rotting away inside of them, because when they are in the dark, alone, how can we find them? How can we love them? How can we help them with their struggle in the same way that we have been helped? It is no ones fault. It is just another twist in the divine plot of grace. No, no. It is not because they have sinned. It is because he wants to show us how he can heal someone.

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