This post, more so than many of my others, is for the benefit of myself; I am attempting to organise and summarise my own thoughts on the issue so far. I do not intend or expect that I will bring anything new to the debate.
I am heterosexual, but I have known friends and colleagues who are gay. If you are a Christian living in this culture you are going to be questioned about your views on this eventually. It is a question of when, not if, that question will arrive. So it is worth calmly thinking about it beforehand.
In any debate that has continued for so long between so many people, any contribution that begins with the words "It is simple..." can probably be ignored. This issue is not simple.
Some Christians are well known for believing that "All gays are evil" and cannot be saved. Others take a more liberal view and see no difference, when it comes to salvation, between gays and everyone else.
The first set point claim authority from the Bible, which does contain many negative references about homosexuals. They are frequently included in lists of sinful types (thieves, murderers, etc.) However there are two points that contend this view; whether the Biblical mention of gays is their nature or action, and the salvation of sinners.
When the Bible includes homosexuals in lists, there is the question of exactly what it means. Does it mean people who have a homosexual nature, or does it mean people who practice gay relationships and sex? If the latter, then it can be argued that a person who is born with gay tendencies and decides to remain single is not committing any sin or doing anything evil.
The other contending point is that even if homosexuals are included in lists of sinners, that doesn't put them in a different category to heterosexuals because we are all born sinners. One of the first points of salvation is that we need it because we are all born with a selfish nature. We are all in the same boat. Therefore someone who is gay (and not a Christian) isn't ultimately different to a person who is straight (and not a Christian).
Both of these contentions would seem to indicate so far in this post that I am swaying towards the more liberal set of Christians who see no difference between gays and everyone else. However, I am not able to say the case is closed because so far in this reasoning I have made an assumption which, if wrong, would undo both of the contending arguments.
The assumption made in passing above is that gay people are born with gay tendencies and have no choice about their sexuality. But what if there was actually an element of choice that people made? Is being gay due to genetics or choice? Everything hinges on this, but unfortunately it is (and I believe will remain) impossible for us to know which is the reality. Personal testimonies from people who are (or were previously) gay will not provide evidence that can be applied to everyone, and science is not equipped to study spiritual things such as the human soul, where the deepest choices are made.
If all people that are gay are orientated this way because of free will, then the Biblical texts indicate that this will be judged as sinful by God. In this case it would be no different to theft or adultery. But if this was the case, we should not react by hating gay people. We should strive to tell them about Jesus' love in the same way we would for anyone. There is no hierarchy of sin in God's eyes. If a person is gay by choice, it is not a "worse" sin than any other. Every human is born equally separated from their creator, and Christ died to save all of them.
On the other hand, if nature dictates that some people are born homosexual then it can be said that God would not judge someone for this any more than He would judge someone because of the colour of their skin. C. S. Lewis describes clearly in his book "Mere Christianity" how God can only be a fair God if he judges the choices that we make with our soul. The country, family, and physical body that we are born into are out of our control, so God would not judge us for these things.
One alternative to this is the predestination view that God allows people He knows won't be saved to be born with 'evil' inclinations like homosexuality, so that gay people are born that way to show that God has judged them before they were even born. I won't hesitate to say that I currently reject this view.
So I have now got to a point where I must say that as I do not know the cause (genetic or choice) of someone being a homosexual, I do not know whether God judges it as a sin or not. The issue will remain a mystery to me.
This is OK, because my faith does not require that I understand everything in this world. In the issue of Christians and homosexuality, I have not been able to make any solid conclusion, so I have no need to change my behaviour in any way. I will continue to trust God and obey His commands; to love Him and love others as myself, and to share the good news of how Jesus sacrificed Himself so that we could have eternal life with the God who loves us.
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