Not to be confused with Times New Roman, let’s get into the New Testament!
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Romans 1:26-27 New International Version (NIV)
Here is another one as obvious to me as Sodom and Gomorrah – this is not about two men or two women being in a consensual relationship. It’s very clearly about lust.
The men and women in the passage are being lustful with all those around them, and this is very clearly stated to be a sin. They’re putting their lust above their love for God, which is something Christians should strive not to do. Lust is a sin. But the mere fact that they’re also having homosexual lustful exchanges really says nothing about homosexuality itself being the sin.
The passages leading up to this one I feel are very important for setting the scene:
21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.
24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Romans 1:21-25 New International Version (NIV)
These people are literally worshiping and serving things created on Earth over God. They are not glorifying or thanking God. They are worshiping shrines instead of God, idolatry. These are things the Bible repeats over and over as bad things. Aka sin.
Lust is focusing on your own desires over worshiping God. It is something we all have experienced, and we all have had to deal and work through, since we’re all humans.
Lust is such a prime example of what actual sin is in the Bible and it makes it incredibly clear that homosexuality is not something that should be in the same category. Lust is something that feels good. Lust is something that our bodies crave in a way that takes us further from God. Lust is exactly what the Bible warns about time and time again.
How is being in a consensual relationship with another human being, who happens to be the same gender, have anything to do with lust? Yes, a lot of gay culture revolves around lust, but how can you blame them when they have been told their sole being is a sin? How can you hold it against anyone for falling farther into this sin when they’ve been told that just by existing, that alone is a sin?
I think this is a key point when people think they’re being loving and Jesus-like when they say “Homosexuality is a sin, but we’re all sinners”. Yes, we all experience lust. And yes, we all experience other forms of sin. But no, your being is not a sin. Saying homosexuality is a sin is akin to telling someone that their left handedness makes them a sinner. The color of their skin makes them a sinner. The way they walk makes them a sinner. These are all ridiculous claims that (most) people can see right through. How then is homosexuality any different?
This reminds me of the issue with the Kinsey scale, and those who are stanch homophobes being in the middle of it (literally). In their mind, they are experiencing homosexual thoughts in a way that feels like lust to them. They can oppress it; they can turn their attention away from those desires. And to them, that feels like they are being good Christians. What they don’t understand is that not everyone is at the same place on the Kinsey scale. Not everyone is experiencing their sexuality in the same way. And by oppressing and calling other’s existence “a sin”, they are hurting an entire demographic of individuals who could easily be loved and welcomed into the church.
We’re all sinners, yes. But no, no one’s existence is a sin. And if you believe that homosexuality and lust are similar things, check where you are on the sexuality spectrum. You will likely be surprised at where you find yourself.
