The divine elephant in the room

Consider:

 

 

 

 

How morally righteous would all these tweets seem if they were aimed at a policy regarding pedophilia instead of homosexuality? The substitution makes them quite ludicrous, no? And why? Because most of us recognize that pedophilia is child abuse and child abuse is objectively wrong.

But what if homosexual behavior is objectively wrong as well? “Now wait a minute,” some may interject, “are you saying that two men who love each other as a married couple are as evil as a man who seduces young children for sex?” No. Here’s what I am saying:

  1. The orthodox Christian position is, and always has been, that homosexual behavior is prohibited by God and therefore a sin. When a Christian group or school establishes and enforces a policy excluding active homosexuals as employees it is because they are trying to live out their faith in obedience to him. They exist to glorify God and draw others into a relationship with him, so naturally they will be concerned with the beliefs and character of those who agree to be part of their mission.
  2. It is therefore grossly unfair to condemn as “hateful” Christians who take such a stand on homosexuality, as Ellen Page did in her celebrated spiel on Stephen Colbert’s show, and as many on the left routinely do. True Christians living out their faith do not hate gays but instead love them by wanting their good, which is ultimately knowing and obeying God. How we best demonstrate that love is a topic for debate, but to assume a motivation of hatred based solely on a policy that requires conformity to Christian principles is unjust, not to mention intolerant.
  3. The irrationality of concluding hatred from opposition is demonstrated by hypothetically replacing homosexuality with a different sexual proclivity still considered prohibited. Switch out five letters…LGBTQ…for one…a perverted P.
  4. So because we, for the time being anyway, consider pedophilia to be a perversion, we would fully support a school’s policy against it. And there’d be no talk of “pedophobia” and bigoted hatred.
  5. The issue then is the moral status of homosexual behavior, about which there is much disagreement.

The funny thing is, many if not most of those who advocate for the legitimacy, normalcy, and morality of homosexuality also reject God as a moral lawgiver. So they have no objective standard by which to judge its moral status. And without an objective, transcendent standard, they likewise cannot judge the morality of opposing homosexuality.

Theism and Christianity in particular, on the other hand, do have a foundation upon which to stake our claim that homosexual behavior is morally wrong…along with greed, lust, adultery, lying, arrogance, etc. etc. The foundation is God himself…his character and his commands. God has the lead role in the drama being played out every day over homosexuality, but half the cast ignores him. He’s the divine elephant in the room.

If those condemning, chastising, and ridiculing Christians for our stand on homosexuality would at least acknowledge that our sincere faith in God demands that we take such a stand, even if they believe our faith is unwarranted, maybe they’d be a little less quick to judge us hateful, homophobic bigots. But I suspect that most will continue to walk around the divine elephant, even as they deny that he’s there, so that they can continue in their smug self-righteousness.