In my twenties, I thought I was bisexual, not because I felt any real attraction to women, but because beautiful women would proposition me. My straight male friends said stupid, immature things out of jealousy. I was too young and dumb to realize that fact. Their accusations made me question my own sexuality. I always thought women’s bodies were beautiful, but I never imagined being with a woman. I figured that since I wasn’t getting any male attention at the time, I must be bi and that gay women saw it before I did. After much therapy, I realized that this is not how any of it works.
People don’t choose to be gay because they are all out of options in the heterosexual community. People do not choose to be different. I think that homosexuality can be with someone at birth or conditioned through traumatic experiences. Some Christians say that God condemns homosexuality in the bible – for example, with the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19. However, if you read the passage, the men wanted to violently rape Lot’s guests. It was not consenual sex. As a woman, I have a problem that it was perfectly acceptable for the men to rape Lot’s daughters as long as Lot consented, but I digress.
My concern is how both sides of the conversation try to use the Bible to support their arguments, without acknowledging the entire Bible phrase. It is like both sides are doing what the Christian slave traders did to the African slaves – using the Bible to support slavery. However, ignoring the passages in the bible that told masters not to be abusive to their slaves, as they have the same master in heaven (Ephesians 6).
The LGBTQIA+ community and its supporters note that Jesus preached love and forgiveness. However, Jesus’ first words were not love one another but “repent” for the kingdom of God is at hand (Matthew 4:17), and “repent” and believe in the gospel (Mark 1:15). He did preach forgiveness, as noted in the woman caught in adultery. However, at the end of forgiving her of her sins, he stated, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:1-10). What I noticed in the Bible is that Jesus found promiscuity – sex outside of a legitimate and proper marriage – as a sin (see John 4 and his conversation with the Samaritan woman at the well). I think he is telling us to strive for monogamy, regardless of who you are attracted to. And when you fall, make a sincere and concerted effort to repent to God and not to commit the sin again. If you constantly have to seek repentance, I do not think God will be mad at that, as long as it is not just lip service. Believe me, God knows the difference. I’ve got called out on doing lipservice more times than I care to admit.
One thing we all can agree on is that Jesus was focused on saving us from ourselves, from our basic animalistic tendencies. The love he preached was one that transcends the physical – the denial of ourselves and our desires. Our sole desire in His eyes should be to be one with Him and our Father in heaven. Who you love is not as important as how you love others. If you’re not loving everyone as He loved us, He calls us to repentance and not to continually commit the sin. He calls us to continually grow in our spirituality and not be lukewarm in our faith. The Bible is a guide to spiritual enlightenment, not a tool to support political and personal beliefs.
Until next time!
R.R. Peace, Author and Poet 