16: Homosexual Partnerships?
from Issues Facing Christians Today by John R W Stott (Marshalls, Basingstoke, 1984),
pp. 301-
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Because of the explosive nature of this topic, let me begin by describing the proper context for our thinking about it and by affirming a number of truths about my readers and myself which I am taking for granted as I write.
The Context for Discussion
First, we are all human beings. That is to say, there is no such phenomenon as 'a homosexual'. There are only people, human persons, made in the image and likeness of God, yet fallen, with all the glory and the tragedy which that paradox implies, including sexual potential and sexual problems. However strongly we may disapprove of homosexual practices, we have no liberty to dehumanize those who engage in them.
Secondly, we are all sexual beings. Our sexuality, according to both Scripture and experience, is basic to our humanness. Angels may be sexless; we humans are not. When God made humankind, he made us male and female. So to talk about sex is to touch a point close to the centre of our personality. Our very identity is being discussed, and perhaps either endorsed or threatened. So the subject demands an unusual degree of sensitivity.
Moreover, not only are we all sexual beings, but we all have a particular sexual orientation. The American zoologist Alfred C. Kinsey's famous investigation into human sexuality led him to place every human being somewhere on a spectrum from 0 (an exclusively heterosexual bias, attracted only to the opposite sex) to 6 (an exclusively homosexual bias, attracted only to the same sex, whether homosexual males or 'lesbians', as homosexual females are usually called). In between these poles Dr Kinsey plotted varying degrees of bisexuality, referring to people whose sexual orientation is either dual or indeterminate or fluctuating. His researches led him to conclude that 4% of men (at least of white American men) are exclusively homosexual throughout their lives, that 10% are for up to three years, and that as many as 37% have some kind of homosexual experience between adolescence and old age. The percentage of homosexual women he found to be lower, although it rises to 4 between the ages of 20 and 35.1 The numbers are high enough to warrant Dr D. J. West's comment that 'homosexuality is an extremely common condition.'2
Thirdly, we are all sinners, indeed (among other things) sexual sinners. The doctrine
of total depravity asserts that every part of our human being has been tainted and
twisted by sin, and that this includes our sexuality. Dr Merville Vincent, of the
Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, was surely correct when he wrote
in 1972: 'In God's view I suspect we are all sexual deviants. I doubt if there is
anyone who has not had a lustful thought that deviated from God's perfect ideal of
sexuality.'3 Nobody (with the sole exception of Jesus of Nazareth) has been sexually
sinless. There is no question, therefore, of coming to this study with a horrid 'holier-
Fourthly, in addition to being human, sexual and sinful creatures, I take it that
we are all Christians. At least the readers I have mind in this chapter are not people
who reject the lordship of Jess Christ, but rather those who earnestly desire to
submit to it, believe that he exercises it through Scripture, want to understand
what light Scripture throws on this topic, and have a predisposition to seek God's
grace to follow his will when it is known. Without this kind of commitment, it would
be more difficult for us to find common ground. To be sure, God's standards for non-
Having delineated the context for our discussion, I am ready ask the question: are homosexual partnerships a Christian option? I phrase my question advisedly. It introduces us to three necessary distinctions.
First, at least since the Wolfenden Report of 1957 and the resultant Sexual Offences Act of 1967, we have learned to distinguish between sins and crimes. Adultery has always (according God's law) been a sin, but in most countries it is not an offence punishable by the state. Rape, by contrast, is both a sin and a crime. What the Sexual Offences Act of 1967 did was to declare that a homosexual act performed between consenting adults over 21 private should no longer be a criminal offence. 'The Act did not in fact "legalize" such behaviour,' wrote Professor Sir Norman Anderson, 'for it is still regarded by the law as immoral, and devoid of any legal recognition; all the Act did was to remove the criminal sanction from such acts when performed in private between two consenting adults.'4
Secondly, we have grown accustomed to distinguish between homosexual orientation or 'inversion' (for which people are not responsible) and homosexual physical practices (for which they are). The importance of this distinction goes beyond the attribution of responsibility to the attribution of guilt. We may not blame people for what they are, though we may for what they do. And in every discussion about homosexuality we must be rigorous in differentiating between this 'being' and 'doing', that is, between a person's identity and activity, sexual preference and sexual practice, constitution and conduct.
But now we have to come to terms with a third distinction, namely between homosexual
practices which are casual (and probably anonymous) acts of self-
The question before us, then, does not relate to homosexual practices of a casual
nature, but asks whether homosexual partnerships -
The Biblical Prohibitions
The late Derrick Sherwin Bailey was the first Christian theologian to re-
There are four main biblical passages which refer (or appear to refer) to the homosexual
question negatively: (1) the story of Sodom (Gen. 19.1-
(1) The Stories of Sodom and Gibeah
The Genesis narrative makes it clear that 'the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the Lord' (13.13), and that 'the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah' was 'so great and their sin so grievous' that God determined to investigate it (18.20, 21), and in the end 'overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities' (19.25) by an act of judgment which was entirely consistent with the justice of 'the Judge of all the earth' (18.25). There is no controversy about this background to the biblical story. The question is: what was the sin of the people of Sodom (and Gomorrah) which merited their obliteration?
The traditional Christian view has been that they were guilty of homosexual practices, which they attempted (unsuccessfully) to inflict on the two angels whom Lot was entertaining in his home. Hence the word 'sodomy'. But Sherwin Bailey challenged this interpretation on two main grounds. First, it is a gratuitous assumption (he argued) that the demand of the men of Sodom 'Bring them out to us, so that we may know them' meant 'so that we can have sex with them' (NIV). For the Hebrew word for 'know' (yada') occurs 943 times in the Old Testament, of which only ten occurrences refer to physical intercourse, and even then only to heterosexual intercourse. It would therefore be better to translate the phrase 'so that we may get acquainted with them'. We can then understand the men's violence as due to their anger that Lot had exceeded his rights as a resident alien, for he had welcomed two strangers into his home 'whose intentions might be hostile and whose credentials . . . had not been examined'.6 In this case the sin of Sodom was to invade the privacy of Lot's home and flout the ancient rules of hospitality. Lot begged them to desist because, he said, the two men 'have come under the protection of my roof' (verse 8).
Bailey's second argument was that the rest of the Old Testament nowhere suggests that the nature of Sodom's offence was homosexual. Instead, Isaiah implies that it was hypocrisy and social injustice, Jeremiah adultery, deceit and general wickedness, and Ezekiel arrogance, greed and indifference to the poor.7 Then Jesus himself (though Bailey does not mention this) on three separate occasions alluded to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, declaring that it would be 'more bearable' for them on the day of judgment than for those who reject his gospel.8 Yet in all these references there is not even a whiff or rumour of homosexual malpractice! It is only when we reach the Palestinian pseudepigraphical writings of the second century BC that Sodom's sin is identified as unnatural sexual behaviour.9 And this finds a clear echo in the Letter of Jude, in which it is said that 'Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion' (verse 7), and in the works of Philo and Josephus, Jewish writers who were shocked by the homosexual practices of Greek society.
Sherwin Bailey handled the Gibeah story in the same way, for they are closely parallel. Another resident alien (this time an anonymous 'old man') invites two strangers (not angels but a Levite and his concubine) into his home. Evil men surround the house and make the same demand as the Sodomites, that the visitor be brought out 'so that we may know him'. The owner of the house first begs them not to be so 'vile' to his 'guest', and then offers his daughter and the concubine to them instead. The sin of the men of Gibeah, it is again suggested, was not their proposal of homosexual intercourse but their violation of the laws of hospitality.
Although Bailey must have known that his reconstruction of both stories was at most tentative, he yet made the exaggerated claim that 'there is not the least reason to believe, as a matter of either historical fact or of revealed truth, that the city of Sodom and its neighbours were destroyed because of their homosexual practices.'10 Instead, the Christian tradition about 'sodomy' was derived from late, apocryphal Jewish sources.
But Sherwin Bailey's case is not convincing for a number of reasons: (1) The adjectives 'wicked', 'vile' and 'disgraceful' (Gen. 18.7; Judges 19.23) do not seem appropriate to describe a breach of hospitality; (2) the offer of women instead 'does look as if there is some sexual connotation to the episode';11 (3) although the verb yada' is used only ten times of sexual intercourse, Bailey omits to mention that six of these occurrences are in Genesis and one in the Sodom story itself (about Lot's daughters who had not 'known' a man, verse 8); (4) for those of us who take the New Testament documents seriously, Jude's unequivocal statement cannot be dismissed as merely an error copied from Jewish pseudepigrapha. To be sure, homosexual behaviour was not Sodom's only sin; but according to Scripture it was certainly one of them.
(2) The Leviticus Texts
Both texts in Leviticus belong to the 'Holiness Code' which is the heart of the book, and which challenges the people of God to follow his laws and not copy the practices either of Egypt (where they used to live) or of Canaan (to which he was bringing them). These practices included sexual relations within the prohibited degrees, variety of sexual deviations, child sacrifice, idolatry and social injustice of different kinds. It is in this context that we must read the following two texts:
18.22 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.'
20.13
'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is
detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.'
'It is hardly open to doubt,' wrote Bailey, 'that both the laws in Leviticus relate to ordinary homosexual acts between men, and not to ritual or other acts performed in the name of religion.'12 Others, however, affirm the very point which Bailey denies. They rightly point out that the two texts are embedded in a context preoccupied largely with ritual cleanness, and Peter Coleman adds that the word translated 'detestable' or 'abomination' in both verses is associated with idolatry. 'In English the word expresses disgust or disapproval, but in the Bible its predominant meaning is concerned with religious truth rather than morality or aesthetics.'13 Are these prohibitions merely religious taboos, then? Are they connected with that other prohibition 'No Israelite man or woman is to become a temple prostitute' (Deut. 23.17)? For certainly the Canaanitish fertility cult did include ritual prostitution, and therefore provided both male and female 'sacred prostitutes' (even if there is no clear evidence that either engaged in homosexual intercourse). The evil kings of Israel and Judah were constantly introducing them into the religion of Yahweh, and the righteous kings were constantly expelling them.14 The homosexual lobby argues therefore that the Levitical texts prohibit religious practices which have long since ceased, and have no relevance to homosexual partnerships today.
(3) Paul's Statements in Romans 1
verse 26 'Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women
exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.'
verse 27 'In the same way the men
also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another.
Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty
for their perversion.'
All are agreed that the apostle is describing idolatrous pagans in the Graeco-
(2) The Other Pauline Texts
1 Cor. 6.9, 10 'Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God?
Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters nor adulterers nor
male prostitutes (malakoi) nor homosexual offenders (arsenokoitai) nor thieves nor
the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of
God.'
1 Tim. 1.9, 10 'We also know that law is made not for good men but for lawbreakers
and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious; for those who kill
their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for adulterers and perverts (arsenokoitais),
for slave traders and liars and perjurers -
Here are two ugly lists of sins which Paul affirms to be incompatible in the first place with the Kingdom of God and in the second with either the law or the gospel. It will be observed that one group of offenders are called malakoi and the other (in both lists) arsenokoitai. What do these words mean? To begin with, it is extremely unfortunate that in the original Revised Standard Version translation of 1 Cor. 6.9 they were combined and translated 'homosexuals'. Bailey was right to protest, since the use of the word 'inevitably suggests that the genuine invert, even though he be a man of irreproachable morals, is automatically branded as unrighteous and excluded from the Kingdom of God.'15 Fortunately, the revisers heeded the protest, and the second edition (1973), though still combining the words, rendered them 'sexual perverts'. The point is that all ten categories listed in 1 Corinthians 6.9.10 (with the possible exception of 'the greedy') denote people who have offended by their actions, e.g. idolaters, adulterers and thieves.
The two Greek words malakoi and arsenokoitai should not be combined, however, since
they have precise meanings. The first is literally 'soft to the touch' and metaphorically,
among the Greeks meant males (not necessarily boys) who played the passive role in
homosexual intercourse. The second means literally "male in a bed" and the Greeks
used this expression to describe the one who took the active role.'16 The Jerusalem
Bible follows James Moffatt in using the ugly words 'catamites and sodomites', while
among his conclusions Peter Coleman suggests that 'probably Paul had commercial paederasty
in mind between older men and post-
Reviewing these biblical references to homosexual behaviour which I have grouped,
we have to agree that there are only four of them. Must we then conclude that the
topic is marginal to the main thrust of the Bible? Must we further concede that they
constitute rather flimsy basis on which to take a firm stand against a homosexual
lifestyle? Are those protagonists right who claim that that biblical prohibitions
are 'highly specific'19 -
'The Bible clearly condemns certain kinds of homosexual practice (. . . gang rape,
idolatry and lustful promiscuity). However, it appears to be silent in certain other
aspects of homosexuality both the "homosexual orientation" and "a commited love-
But no, plausible as it may sound, we cannot handle the biblical material in this way. The Christian rejection of homosexual practices does not rest on 'a few isolated and obscure proof texts' (as is sometimes said), whose traditional explanation can be overthrown. And it is disturbing to me that those who write on this subject, and include in their treatment a section on the biblical teaching, all seem to deal with it in this way. For example, 'Consideration of the Christian attitude to homosexual practices,' wrote Sherwin Bailey, 'inevitably begins with the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.'21 But this beginning is not at all 'inevitable'. In fact, it is positively mistaken. For the negative prohibitions of homosexual practices in Scripture make sense only in the light of its positive teaching in Genesis 1 and 2 about human sexuality and heterosexual marriage. Yet Sherwin Bailey's book contains no allusion to these chapters at all. And even Peter Coleman, whose Christian Attitudes to Homosexuality is surely the most comprehensive biblical, historical and moral survey which has yet been published, mentions them only in a passing reference to 1 Corinthians 6 where Paul quotes Genesis 2.24. Yet without the wholesome positive teaching of the Bible on sex and marriage, our perspective on the homosexual question is bound to be skewed.
Sex and Marriage in the Bible
The essential place to begin our investigation, it seems to me, is the institution of marriage in Genesis 2, although we have already looked at it in chapters 13 and 14. Since members of the Gay Christian Movement deliberately draw a parallel between heterosexual marriages and homosexual partnerships, it is necessary to ask whether this parallel can be justified.
We have seen that in his providence God has given us two distinct accounts of creation. The first (Genesis 1) is general, and affirms the equality of the sexes, since both share in the image of God and the stewardship of the earth. The second (Genesis 2) is particular, and affirms the complementarity of the sexes, which constitutes the basis for heterosexual marriage. In this second account of creation three fundamental truths emerge.
First, the human need for companionship. 'It is not good for the man to be alone' (verse 18). True, this assertion was later qualified when the apostle Paul (surely echoing Genesis) wrote: 'It is good for a man not to marry' (1 Cor. 7.1). That is to say, although marriage is the good institution of God, the call to singleness is also the good vocation of some. Nevertheless, as a general rule, 'It is not good for the man to be alone.' For God has created us social beings. Since he is love, and has made us in his own likeness, he has given us a capacity to love and to be loved. He intends us to live in community, not in solitude. In particular, God continued, 'I will make a helper suitable for him.' Moreover, this 'helper' or companion, whom God pronounced 'suitable for him', was also to be his sexual partner, with whom he was to become 'one flesh', so that they might thereby both consummate their love and procreate their children.
Secondly, Genesis 2 reveals the divine provision to meet this human need. Having affirmed Adam's need for a partner, the search for a suitable one began. God first paraded the birds and beasts before him, and Adam proceeded to 'name' them, to symbolize his taking them into his service. But (verse 20) 'for Adam no suitable helper was found', who could live 'alongside' or 'opposite' him, who could be his complement, his counterpart, his companion, let alone his mate. So a special creation was necessary.
The debate about how literally we are intended to understand what follows (the divine surgery under a divine anaesthetic) must not prevent us from grasping the point. Something happened during Adam's deep sleep. A special work of divine creation took place. The sexes became differentiated. Out of the undifferentiated humanity of Adam, male and female emerged. And Adam awoke from his deep sleep to behold before him a reflection of himself, a complement to himself, indeed a very part of himself. Next, having created the woman out of the man, God himself brought her to him, much as today the bride's father gives the bride away. And Adam broke spontaneously into history's first love poem:
'Now at last (in contrast to the birds and beasts) This is now bone of my bones
and
flesh of my flesh; She shall be called "woman",
for she was taken out of man'.
There can be no doubting the emphasis of this story. According to Genesis 1 Eve like Adam was created in the image of God. But as to the manner of her creation, according to Genesis 2, she was made neither out of nothing (like the universe), nor out of 'the dust of the ground' (like Adam, verse 7), but out of Adam.
The third great truth of Genesis 2 concerns the resulting institution of marriage. Adam's love poem is recorded in verse 23. The 'therefore' or 'for this reason' of verse 24 is the narrator's deduction:
'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh.'
Even the inattentive reader will be struck by the three references to 'flesh': 'this is ... flesh of my flesh . . . they will become one flesh'. We may be certain that this is deliberate, not accidental. It teaches that heterosexual intercourse in marriage is more than a union; it is a kind of reunion. It is not a union of alien persons who do not belong to one another and cannot appropriately become one flesh. On the contrary, it is the union of two persons who originally were one, were then separated from each other, and now in the sexual encounter of marriage come together again.
It is surely this which explains the profound mystery of heterosexual intimacy, which poets and philosophers have celebrated in every culture. Heterosexual intercourse is much more than a union of bodies; it is a blending of complementary personalities through which, in the midst of prevailing alienation, the rich created oneness of human being is experienced again. And the complementarity of male and female sexual organs is only a symbol at the physical level of a much deeper spiritual complementarity.
In order to become one flesh, however, and experience this sacred mystery, certain preliminaries are necessary, which are constituent parts of marriage. 'Therefore' (verse 24)
'a man' (the singular indicates that marriage is an exclusive union between two individuals)
'shall leave his father and mother' (a public social occasion is in view)
'and cleave
to his wife' (marriage is a loving, cleaving commitment or covenant, which is heterosexual
and permanent)
'and they will become one flesh' (for marriage must be consummated
in sexual intercourse, which is a sign and seal of the marriage covenant, and over
which no shadow of shame or embarassment had yet been cast, verse 25)
Jesus himself later endorsed this teaching. He quoted Genesis 2.24, declared that
such a lifelong union between a man and his wife was God's intention from the beginning,
and added 'what God has joined together, let man not separate' (Mk. 10.4-
Thus Scripture defines the marriage God instituted in terms of heterosexual monogamy. It is the union of one man with one woman, which must be publicly acknowledged (the leaving of parents), permanently sealed (he will 'cleave to his wife') and physically consummated ('one flesh'). And Scripture envisages no other kind of marriage or sexual intercourse, for God provided no alternative.
Christians should not therefore single out homosexual intercourse for special condemnation.
The fact is that every sexual relationship or act which deviates from God's revealed
intention is ipso facto displeasing to him and under his judgment. This includes
polygamy and polyandry (which infringe the 'one man -
In sum, the only 'one flesh' experience which God intends and Scripture contemplates is the sexual union of a man with his wife, whom he recognises as 'flesh of his flesh'.
Contemporary Arguments Considered
Homosexual Christians are not, however, satisfied with this biblical teaching about human sexuality and the institution of heterosexual marriage. They bring forward a number of objections to it, in order to defend the legitimacy of homosexual partnerships.
(1) The argument about Scripture and culture. Traditionally, it has been assumed that the Bible condemns all homosexual acts. But are the biblical writers reliable guides in this matter? Were their horizons not bounded by their own experience and culture? The cultural argument usually takes one of two forms.
First, the biblical authors were addressing themselves to questions relevant to their own circumstances, and these were very different from ours. In the Sodom and Gibeah stories they were preoccupied either with conventions of hospitality in the Ancient Near East which are now obsolete or (if the sin was sexual at all) with the extremely unusual phenomenon of homosexual gang rape. In the Levitical laws the concern was with antiquated fertility rituals, while Paul was addressing himself to the particular sexual preferences of Greek paederasts. It is all so antiquarian. The biblical authors' imprisonment in their own cultures renders their teaching on this topic irrelevant.
The second and complementary culture problem is that the biblical writers were not
addressing themselves to our questions. Thus the problem of Scripture is not only
with its teaching but also with its silence. Paul (let alone the Old Testament authors)
knew nothing of post-
If the only biblical teaching on this topic were to be found in the prohibition texts,
it might be difficult to answer these objections. But once those texts are seen in
relation to the divine institution of marriage, we are in possession of a principle
of divine revelation which is universally applicable. It was applicable to the cultural
situations of both the Ancient Near East and the first-
(2) The argument about creation and nature. I have sometimes read or heard this kind of statement: 'I'm gay because God made me that way. So gay must be good. I intend to accept, and indeed celebrate, what I am by creation.' Or again, 'You may say that homosexual practice is against nature and normality; but it's not against my nature, nor is it in the slightest degree abnormal for me'. Norman Pittenger was quite outspoken in his use of this argument a couple of decades ago. A homosexual person, he wrote, is 'not an "abnormal" person with "unnatural" desires and habits'. On the contrary, 'a heterosexually oriented person acts "naturally" when he acts heterosexually, while a homosexually oriented person acts equally "naturally" when he acts in accordance with his basic, inbuilt homosexual desire and drive'.22
Others argue that homosexual behaviour is 'natural' (a) because in many primitive societies it is fairly acceptable, (b) because in some advanced civilizations (ancient Greece, for example) it was even idealized, and (c) because it is quite widespread in animals. Dr D. J. West, who reports this, goes on to quote Dr F. A. Beach, an expert on animal sexuality, who because of animal homosexual behaviour says that to describe human homosexual behaviour as "unnatural" is to 'depart from strict accuracy'.23
But these arguments express an extremely subjective view of what is 'natural' and 'normal'. We should not accept Norman Pittenger's statement that there are 'no eternal standards of normality or naturalness'.24 Nor can we agree that animal behaviour sets standards for human behaviour! For God has established a norm for sex and marriage by creation. This was already recognised in the Old Testament era. Thus, sexual relations with an animal were forbidden, because 'that is a perversion' (Lev. 18.23), in other words a violation or confusion of nature, which indicates an 'embryonic sense of natural law'.25 The same verdict is passed on Sodom by the second century BC Testament of Naphtali: 'As the sun and the stars do not change their order, so the tribe of Naphtali are to obey God rather than the disorderliness of idolatry. Recognizing in all created things the Lord who made them, they are not to become as Sodom which changed the order of nature. ...'26
The same concept was clearly in Paul's mind in Romans 1. When he wrote of women who had 'exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones'; and of men who had 'abandoned natural relations', he meant by 'nature' (phusis) the natural order of things which God has established (as in 2.14, 27 and 11.24). What Paul was condemning, therefore, was not the perverted behaviour of heterosexual people who were acting against their nature, but any human behaviour which is against 'Nature', that is, against God's created order. As C. K. Barrett puts it: 'In the obscene pleasures to which he (sc. Paul) refers is to be seen precisely that perversion of the created order which may be expected when men put the creation in place of the Creator'.27
(3) The argument about quality of relationships. The Gay Christian Movement borrows from Scripture the truth that love is the greatest thing in the world (which it is) and from the 'new morality' or 'situation ethics' of the 1960s the notion that love is an adequate criterion by which to judge every relationship (which it is not). Yet this view is gaining ground today. The Friends' Report Towards a Quaker View of Sex (1963), for example, included the statements 'one should no more deplore "homosexuality" than lefthandedness'28 and 'surely it is the nature and quality of a relationship that matters'.29 Similarly in 1979, the Methodist Church's 'Division of Social Responsibility', in its report A Christian Understanding of Human Sexuality, argued that 'homosexual activities' are 'not intrinsically wrong', since 'the quality of any homosexual relationship is ... to be assessed by the same basic criteria which have been applied to heterosexual relationships. For homosexual men and women, permanent relationships characterized by love can be an appropriate and Christian way of expressing their sexuality'.30 The same year (1979) an Anglican working party issued the report Homosexual Relationships: a contribution to discussion. It was more cautious, judicious and ambivalent than the Quaker and Methodist reports. Its authors did not feel able to repudiate centuries of Christian tradition, yet they 'did not think it possible to deny' that in some circumstances individuals may 'justifiably choose' a homosexual relationship in their search for companionship and sexual love 'similar' to those found in marriage.31
In his Time for Consent, Norman Pittenger lists six characteristics of a truly loving
relationship. They are (1) commitment (the free self-
If then a homosexual relationship, whether between two men or two women, is characterized by these qualities of love, surely (the argument runs) it must be affirmed as good and not rejected as evil? It rescues people from loneliness, selfishness and promiscuity. It can be just as rich and responsible, as liberating and fulfilling, as a heterosexual marriage.
But the biblical Christian cannot accept the basic premise on which this case rests, namely that love is the only absolute, that besides it all moral law has been abolished, and that whatever seems to be compatible with love is ipso facto good, irrespective of all other considerations. This cannot be so. For love needs law to guide it. In emphasizing love for God and neighbour as the two great commandments, Jesus and his apostles did not discard all other commandments. On the contrary, Jesus said 'if you love me you will keep my commandments', and Paul wrote 'love is the fulfilling (not the abrogating) of the law'.33
So then the loving quality of a relationship is an essential, though by itself insufficient, criterion to authenticate it. For example, if love were the only test of authenticity, there would be nothing against polygamy, for a polygamist could certainly enjoy a relationship with several wives which reflects all Dr Pittenger's six characteristics. Here, however, is a better illustration, drawn from my own pastoral experience. On several different occasions a married man has told me that he has fallen in love with another woman. When I have gently remonstrated with him, he has responded in words like these: 'Yes, I agree, I already have a wife and family. But this new relationship is the real thing. We were made for each other. Our love for each other has a quality and depth we have never known before. It must be right'. But no, I have had to say, it is not right. No man is justified in breaking his marriage covenant with his wife on the ground of the quality of his love for another woman. Quality of love is not the only yardstick by which to measure what is good or right.
Similarly, I do not deny the claim that homosexual relationships can be loving (although
a priori I do not see how they can attain the same richness as the heterosexual mutuality
God has ordained.) But their love-
Some leaders of the Gay Christian Movement appear to be following the logic of their
own position, for they are saying that even monogamy could be abandoned in the interests
of 'love'. Malcolm Macourt, for example, has written that the Gay Liberationist's
vision is of 'a wide variety of life patterns', each of which is 'held in equal esteem
in society'. Among them he lists the following alternatives: monogamy and multiple-
(4) The argument about acceptance and the gospel. 'Surely,' some people are saying,
'it is the duty of heterosexual Christians to accept homosexual Christians. Paul
told us to accept -
This is a very confused statement of the gospel, however. God does indeed accept
us 'just as we are', and we do not have to make ourselves good first, indeed we cannot.
But his 'acceptance' means that he fully and freely forgives all who repent and believe,
not that he condones our continuance in sin. Again, it is true that we must accept
one another, but only as fellow-
Faith, Hope and Love
If homosexual practice must be regarded, in the light of the whole biblical revelation, not as a variant within the wide range of accepted normality, but as a deviation from God's norm; and if we should therefore call homosexually oriented people to abstain from homosexual practices and partnerships, what advice and help can we give to encourage them to respond to this call? I would like to take Paul's triad of faith, hope and love, and apply it to homosexually oriented people.
(1) The Christian call to faith. Faith is the human response to divine revelation; it is believing God's Word. First, faith accepts God's standards. The only alternative to heterosexual marriage is sexual abstinence. I think I know the implications of this. Nothing has helped me to understand the pain of homosexual celibacy more than Alex Davidson's moving book The Returns of Love. He writes of 'this incessant tension between law and lust', 'this monster that lurks in the depths', this 'burning torment'.37
The secular world says: 'Sex is essential to human fulfilment. To expect homosexual people to abstain from homosexual practice is to condemn them to frustration and to drive them to neurosis, despair and even suicide. It's outrageous to ask anybody to deny himself what to him is a normal and natural mode of sexual expression. It's "inhuman and inhumane".38 Indeed, it's positively cruel'.
But no, the teaching of the Word of God is different. Sexual experience is not essential to human fulfilment. To be sure, it is a good gift of God. But it is not given to all, and it is not indispensable to humanness. People were saying in Paul's day that it was. Their slogan was 'Food for the stomach and the stomach for food; sex for the body and the body for sex' (1 Cor. 6.13). But this is a lie of the devil. Jesus Christ was single, yet perfect in his humanity. Besides, God's commands are good and not grievous. The yoke of Christ brings rest not turmoil; conflict comes only to those who resist it.
So ultimately it is a crisis of faith: whom shall we believe? God or the world? Shall we submit to the lordship of Jesus, or succumb to the pressures of prevailing culture? The true 'orientation' of Christians is not what we are by constitution (hormones), but what we are by choice (heart, mind and will).
Secondly, faith accepts God's grace. Abstinence is not only good, if God calls us to celibacy; it is also possible. Many deny it, however. 'You know the imperious strength of our sex drive,' they say. 'To ask us to control ourselves is just not on'. It is 'so near to an impossibility,' writes Norman Pittenger, 'that it's hardly worth talking about'.39
Really? What then are we to make of Paul's statement following his warning to the
Corinthians that male prostitutes and homosexual offenders will not inherit God's
Kingdom? 'And that is what some of you were,' he cries. 'But you were washed, you
were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the
Spirit of our God' (1 Cor. 6.11). And what shall we say to the millions of heterosexual
people who are single? To be sure, all unmarried people experience the pain of struggle
and loneliness. But how can we call ourselves Christians and declare that chastity
is impossible? It is made harder by the sexual obsession of contemporary society.
And we make it harder for ourselves if we listen to the world's plausible arguments,
or lapse into self-
(2) The Christian call to hope. I have said nothing so far about 'healing' for homosexual
people, understood not now as self-
Most agree that, lacking heterosexual outlets, and under cultural pressures, a large percentage of people would (or at least could) behave homosexually. Indeed, although there may be a genetic factor or component, the condition is more 'learned' than 'inherited'. Some attribute it to traumatic childhood experiences, such as the withdrawal of the mother's love, inhibiting sexual growth.42 So, if it is learned, can it not be unlearned?
The possibility of change by the grace and power of God depends also on the strength of the person's resolve, which itself depends on other factors. Those whose sexuality is indeterminate may well change under strong influence and with strong motivation. But many researchers conclude that constitutional homosexuality is irreversible. 'No known method of treatment or punishment,' writes D. J. West, 'offers hope of making any substantial reduction in the vast army of adults practising homosexuality'; it would be 'more realistic to find room for them in society'. He pleads for 'tolerance', though not for 'encouragement', of homosexual behaviour.43 Other psychologists go further and declare that homosexuality is no longer to be regarded as a pathological condition; it is therefore to be accepted not cured. In 1973 the trustees of the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from the category of mental illness.
Are not these views, however, the despairing opinions of the secular mind? Christians know that the homosexual condition, being a deviation from God's norm, is not a sign of created order but of fallen disorder. How, then, can we acquiesce in it or declare it incurable? We cannot. The only question is when and how we are to expect the divine deliverance and restoration to take place. The fact is that, though Christian claims of homosexual 'healings' are made, either through regeneration or through a subsequent work of the Holy Spirit, it is not easy to substantiate them. Martin Hallett, who before his conversion was active in the gay scene, has subsequently founded the 'True Freedom Trust', an interdenominational teaching and counselling ministry on homosexuality and related problems.44 They have published a pamphlet entitled Testimonies. In it homosexual Christian men and women bear witness to what Christ has done for them. They have found a new identity in him, and a new sense of personal fulfilment as children of God. They have been delivered from guilt, shame and fear by God's forgiving acceptance, and set free from thraldom to their former homosexual activity by the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit. But they have not been delivered from their homosexual orientation, and therefore some inner pain continues alongside their new joy and peace. Here are two examples: 'My prayers were not answered in the way I had hoped for, but the Lord greatly blessed me in giving me two Christian friends who lovingly accepted me for what I was'. 'After I was prayed over with the laying on of hands a spirit of perversion left me. I praise God for the deliverance I found that afternoon. ... I can testify to over three years of freedom from homosexual activity. But I have not changed into a heterosexual in that time'.
Is there really, then, no hope of a substantial change of orientation? Dr Elizabeth
Moberly believes there is. She has been led by her researches to the view that 'a
homosexual orientation does not depend on a genetic pre-
Even then, however, complete healing of body, mind and spirit will not take place in this life. Some degree of deficit or disorder remains in each of us. But not for ever! For the Christian's horizons are not bounded by this world. Jesus is coming again; our bodies are going to be redeemed; sin, pain and death are going to be abolished; and both we and the universe are going to be transformed. Then we shall be finally liberated from everything which defiles or distorts our personality. And this Christian assurance helps us to bear whatever our present pain may be. For pain there is, in the midst of peace. 'We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies' (Rom. 8.22f). Thus our groans express the birthpangs of the new age. We are convinced that 'our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us' (Rom. 8.18). This confident hope sustains us.
Alex Davidson derives comfort in the midst of his homosexuality from his Christian hope. 'Isn't it one of the most wretched things about this condition,' he writes, 'that when you look ahead, the same impossible road seems to continue indefinitely? You're driven to rebellion when you think of there being no point in it and to despair when you think of there being no limit to it. That's why I find a comfort, when I feel desperate, or rebellious, or both, to remind myself of God's promise that one day it will be finished...'50
(3) The Christian call to love. At present we are living 'in between times', between the grace which we grasp by faith and the glory which we anticipate in hope. Between them lies love.
Yet love is just what the church has generally failed to show to homosexual people. Jim Cotter complains bitterly about being treated as 'objects of scorn and insult, of fear, prejudice and oppression'.51 Norman Pittenger describes the 'vituperative' correspondence he has received, in which homosexuals are dismissed even by professing Christians as 'filthy creatures', 'disgusting perverts', 'damnable sinners' and the like.52 Pierre Berton, a social commentator, writes that 'a very good case can be made out that the homosexual is the modern equivalent of the leper'.53 Rictor Norton is yet more shrill: 'The church's record regarding homosexuals is an atrocity from beginning to end: it is not for us to seek forgiveness, but for the church to make atonement'.54
The attitude of personal hostility towards homosexuals is nowadays termed 'homophobia'.55
It is a mixture of irrational fear, hatred and even revulsion. It overlooks the fact
that the great majority of homosexual people are not responsible for their condition
(though they are, of course, for their conduct). Since they are not deliberate perverts,
they deserve our understanding and compassion (though many find this patronizing),
not our rejection. No wonder Richard Lovelace calls for 'a double repentance', namely
'that gay Christians renounce the active lifestyle' and that 'straight Christians
renounce homophobia'.56 Dr David Atkinson is right to add: 'We are not at liberty
to urge the Christian homosexual to celibacy and to a spreading of his relationships,
unless support for the former and opportunities for the latter are available in genuine
love'.57 I rather think that the very existence of the Gay Christian Movement, not
to mention the so-
At the heart of the homosexual condition is a deep loneliness, the natural human
hunger for mutual love, a search for identity, and a longing for completeness. If
homosexual people cannot find these things in the local 'church family', we have
no business to go on using that expression. The alternative is not between the warm
physical relationship of homosexual intercourse and the pain of isolation in the
cold. There is a third option, namely a Christian environment of love, understanding,
acceptance and support. I do not think there is any need to encourage homosexual
people to disclose their sexual orientation to everybody; this is neither necessary
nor helpful. But they do need at least one confidante to whom they can unburden themselves,
who will not despise or reject them, but will support them with friendship and prayer;
probably some professional, private and confidential pastoral counsel; possibly in
addition the support of a professionally supervised therapy group; and many warm
and affectionate friendships with people of both sexes. Same-
These relationships, both same-
Perplexing and painful as the homosexual Christian's dilemma is, Jesus Christ offers
him or her (indeed, all of us) faith, hope and love -
Notes
1 See A. C. Kinsey's Sexual Behaviour in the Human Male (1948) and Sexual Behaviour in the Human Female (1953). His research methods and findings have been criticized, however, the former for being selective and the latter in consequence for showing a misleadingly high percentage of abnormality.
2 Donald J. West, Homosexuality (1955; 2nd ed. Pelican, 1960; 3rd ed. Duckworth, 1968), p. 12.
3 From an article entitled 'God, Sex and You' in Eternity magazine, August 1972.
4 J. N. D. Anderson, Morality, Law and Grace (Tyndale Press, 1972), p. 73.
5 Malcolm Macourt ed., Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation (SCM Press, 1977), p. 3. The quotation comes from Mr Macourt's own Introduction to the book.
6 Derrick Sherwin Bailey, Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition (Longmans, Green, 1955), p. 4.
7 Isa. 1.10ff; Jer. 23.14; Ezek. 16.49ff. Cf. the references to pride in Ecclus. 16.8 and to inhospitableness in Wisd. 19.8.
8 Matt. 10.15; 11.24; Lk. 10.12.
9 Sherwin Bailey gives references in the Book of Jubilees and the Testaments of the
Twelve Patriarchs (op. cit. pp. 11-
10 Sherwin Bailey, op. cit. p. 27.
11 So James D. Martin in Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation, ed. Malcolm Macourt (SCM, 1977), p. 53.
12 Sherwin Bailey, op. cit. p. 30.
13 Peter Coleman op. cit. p. 49.
14 See, for example, 1 Kings 14.22ff; 15.12; 22.46 and 2 Kings 23.7.
15 Sherwin Bailey, op. cit. p. 39.
16 Peter Coleman, op. cit. pp. 95-
17 Peter Coleman, op. cit. p. 277.
18 Peter Coleman, op. cit. p. 101.
19 Rictor Norton in Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation, q.v., p. 58.
20 Letha Scanzoni and Virginia R. Mollenkott, Is The Homosexual My Neighbour? (Harper & Row, and SCM, 1978), p. 111.
21 Sherwin Bailey, op. cit. p.l.
22 Norman Pittenger, Time for Consent (3rd ed. SCM, 1976), pp. 7 and 73.
23 Donald J. West, op. cit. pp. 17-
24 Norman Pittenger, op. cit. p. 7.
25 So Peter Coleman, op. cit. p. 50.
26 Chapter 3.3-
27 C. K. Barrett, Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans (A. & C. Black, 1962), p. 39.
28 p. 21.
29 p. 36.
30 Chapter 9.
31 Chapter 5.
32 Norman Pittenger, op. cit. pp. 31-
33 John 14.15; Rom. 13.8-
34 Malcolm Macourt, op. cit. p. 25.
35 Norman Pittenger, op. cit. p. 2.
36 ibid. p. 94,
37 Alex Davidson, The Returns of Love (IVP, 1970) pp. 12, 16, 49.
38 Norman Pittenger in Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation, q.v., p. 87.
39 Time for Consent, q.v., p. 7.
40 Donald J. West, op. cit. p. 261.
41 ibid. p. 15.
42 Professor R. J. Berry provides a useful summary of current opinion on aetiology
in his contribution to the 1982 London Lectures Free To Be Different (Marshall, Morgan
& Scott, 1984), pp. 108-
43 D. J. West, op. cit. pp. 266 and 273.
44 The address of the True Freedom Trust is PO Box 3, Upton, Wirrall, Merseyside L49 6NY.
45 Elizabeth R. Moberly, Homosexuality: A New Christian Ethic (James Clarke, 1983), p. 2.
46 ibid. p. 28.
47 ibid. pp. 18-
48 ibid. pp. 35-
49 ibid. p. 52.
50 Alex Davidson, op. cit. p. 51.
51 Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation, q.v., p. 63.
52 Time For Consent, q.v., p. 2.
53 Quoted from The Comfortable Pew (1965) by Letha Scanzoni and Virginia Mollenkott.
54 Towards a Theology of Gay Liberation, q.v., p. 45.
55 The word seems to have been used first by George Weinberg in Society and the Healthy Homosexual (Doubleday, 1973).
56 Richard F. Lovelace, Homosexuality and the Church (Revell, 1978) p. 129 and cf. p. 125.
57 David J. Atkinson, Homosexuals in the Christian Fellowship (Latimer House, 1979), p. 118. Dr Roger Moss concentrates on pastoral questions in his Christians and Homosexuality (Paternoster, 1977).
58 e.g. 1 Sam. 20.41 and 2 Sam. 1.26.