Why would god make gay people
ALEXANDRIA, Tenn. (BP) &#; &#;Why doesn&#;t God love gays?&#; a teenager asked during our youth ministry time the other night.
It was sort of out of the blue since the discussion was on the send back of Jesus, but clearly it was on the heart of at least one, if not many, of the teens there that night. I value this teen&#;s boldness to ask!
It&#;s a question this generation has had to wrestle with that previous generations did not. In reality, the speed with which the topic of homosexuality has come to control the social and political conversation is staggering, aided by what pastor Voddie Baucham described as &#;a coordinated, well-funded, well-connected propaganda strategy&#; in a article at The Gospel Coalition.
The movement has become like a snowflake that turns into an avalanche, demolishing any contradiction in the common arena, and it&#;s still growing.
Without a doubt, many fresh people are bewildered. They&#;re hearing in pop culture and maybe even in their schools that homosexuality is a perfectly legitimate lifestyle that not only should be tolerated but celebrated and
How Should Christians Respond to Gay Friends or Family Members?
Caleb Kaltenbach (M.A. ’07) is an alumnus of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, lead pastor of a large church in Simi Valley, Calif., and a married father of two. He’s also an emerging voice in the discussion of how Christians should engage the LGBT community. That’s because Kaltenbach has an insider perspective, having been raised by a dad and mom who divorced and independently came out of the closet as a homosexual man and a female homosexual. Raised in the midst of LGBT parties and pride parades, Kaltenbach became a Christian and a pastor as a fresh adult. Today, he manages the tension of holding to the traditional biblical teaching on sexuality while loving his gay parents.
Kaltenbach’s unique story is detailed in his new publication Messy Grace: How a Pastor with Gay Parents Learned to Love Others Without Sacrificing Conviction and landed him on the front page of the New York Times in June. Biola Magazine reached out to him to talk about his guide and his perspective on how Christians can excel navigate the complexities of this
&#;God Made Me Gay&#;
Some Christians respond to this argument with what seems to be the only alternative: by saying that those who identify as male lover choose to be homosexual. This response is usually met with so much derision—“With all the homophobia in the world, who would choose to be gay??”. . . “Did you choose to be straight??&#;—that it’s seldom helpful.
In one sense, of course, it’s true. If by gay you mean “a person who engages in homosexual behavior,” then God doesn’t make someone homosexual any more than he makes someone an adulterer, a fornicator, or a man who has relations with just his wife. God doesn’t make people engage in any sexual behaviors. We freely select all our moral actions—that’s why we can be held accountable for them.
But when most people express, “God made me gay,” they’re talking about attractions (which they consider part of a God-given identity) rather than behaviors. Although, this implies that they’re also talking about whether it’s okay to act upon those desires, since it seems self-evident to most people that we can act according to how we’re made.
This article is part of the Tough Passages series.
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24Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
26For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with love for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
28And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done.29They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips,30slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of sinister, dis