Too many in the non-affirming church say this type of thing… Gays are just born ‘broken’, a result of sin, family curse, tendencies that are not ‘God’s ideal.’ Gays can’t help it – but they need to be ‘fixed.’
People have no idea how deeply offensive this is and how contrary to the truth and teachings of Jesus, and the heart of God.
Many believe those things because it is how they have been taught, it is what they have heard on Sunday mornings for decades. They are just running a program in their heads. But maybe it’s time to spread the truth so these kinds of beliefs, these kinds of comments are no longer acceptable or excusable.
One of my readers has heard all these things too. It’s a common question, and I look forward to answering it today.
I write Dear Susan posts every Friday. Sometimes they will be poignant, sometimes thought-provoking, sometimes tender, sometimes funny… but hopefully always worth the read. 🙂
Dear Susan:
I have been asked this question about my gay son, which I find offensive, but I don’t know what to say. Help me!
I’m told that being born gay is a bit like being born with a disability like Down Syndrome. It’s part of the ‘condition of sin’ and isn’t God’s ideal, but we accept people with disabilities and so we should accept gay people too. (Not sure if I worded it correctly but that’s what I heard.)
Does this mean that gays are somehow God’s second-best?
In my heart I feel that can’t be right but I don’t know how to counter it. Any ideas?
Faithful Reader
Dear Faithful Reader:
I think this is a great question, which I had to work through when my daughter first came out.
To see Down Syndrome as a result of the fall, however gingerly we say it, is patronizing! It is judging something as being deficient instead of just being.
The closest I find is when Jesus is presented with the blind man, and is asked if that was his own sin or his parents’ sin. Jesus said it was no one’s sin, but to reveal God more clearly.
Of course being blind or having Down Syndrome has more challenges than we can imagine, no doubt about it. But if we take Jesus as his word, it is not the result of sin or a fallen world as we have been taught.
And what good does it do us to even go there anyway?
All I see is it allowing us to sit a little more above others as we have determined that their particular issue is not really God’s best… I see no beauty there but only an excuse to eat from the Tree of Knowledge as WE determine what is God’s best.
As I wrote about my brother Paul, his physical and mental challenges served our family in amazing ways, as he kept us grounded on the basic important things in life. Joy. Laughter. Love. I imagine parents of those with Down Syndrome feel the same way about them.
I firmly believe that LGBTQ people bring a profound blessing as we who follow Jesus are challenged to love as Jesus loves – to put up or shut up… (to be perfectly blunt!).
We say we love. We were told to love. We were shown how to love. And yet we don’t love.
That’s the bigger issue than parsing up what is sin and what’s not. That’s what Jesus told us and modeled.
The truth is that no one is “God’s Second Best” because no one is “God’s Best” – we are who we are, we are how we were created, we are a child of God, perfect in our imperfection, and we have God’s spirit inside us.
Maybe instead of “no one is God’s best” – a better thing to say would be “We are ALL God’s best!”
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