…I Desire Mercy Not Sacrifice…On Christian Leadership And Homosexuality
I have never written an op-ed or been interested in posting any commentary on any social issue, however, the recent spate of fear and hate messages being ginned up by supposed religious leaders in our midst cannot be looked over by any well-meaning and true Christian. This is not about holding brief for gays and lesbians and neither should this be taken as an implied acceptance of homosexual behavior. I am a well-adjusted heterosexual with two daughters of whom I am very proud as a father. I am also a very orthodox Christian who approaches my religion with all the intellectual honesty I do for every aspect of my professional life because it is the consistency of what we profess that gives meaning and credibility and meaning to the beautiful message of Jesus Christ, especially if we are to win over the unbelieving world. After all God is secure and supremely confident enough in His wisdom that He doesn’t need mere mortals approaching His message with the critical scrutiny any proposed truth is looked at. Perhaps it would be appropriate to prefix my commentary with this quote by Jacques Maritain, and I paraphrase his words: People believe in God and yet do not know God. The idea of God is affirmed and at the same time disfigured and perverted. In order words people always seek to make God’s will conform to their wretched prejudices! And that is what the noise about homosexuality being made by both religious and political leaders is ultimately about: These people are expressing prejudices borne out of their cultural experiences but using the guise of religious purity to validate it. It is ok for people to express opinions based on their normative societal experience but to use the Bible and God to justify them is what sets my teeth on edge and I will explain why. Like I mentioned earlier I consider homosexuality as a deviant human behavior I abhor particularly from the standpoint of a Christian. The Bible’s position on the subject is consistent from the Old Testament to the New Testament. However, homosexuality is not the only sexually deviant behavior that the Bible speaks so clearly against; adultery, bestiality, incest, prostitution, fornication and in many implied ways polygamy are all spoken against in very strong terms. I have read many pastors and laymen quote scripture to justify the positions against homosexuality but I can challenge any of these people that wherever that scripture is picked from the Bible also speaks against the above mentioned sexually promiscuous behavior. In fact in most cases they are spoken against in the same breath. The question then is why this selective use of scripture to gin up hatred towards homosexuals? Isn’t adultery and various forms of sexual fornication equally pervasive in the Ghanaian society if not more so? How many of these same advocates of hatred have ever stood up to promote the weeding out of adulterers and functional pedophiles from our society? Isn’t it because culturally we find them acceptable and normative? How many male domestic abusers of their wives and children have received similar calls for mass protest and marginalization for their barbaric and cruel acts even though the Bible clearly admonishes spouses to treat their partners with kindness, respect and love? I suppose it is because in our society it isn’t such a big deal to beat up wives and children so our cultural disposition allows us to set Biblical rules aside. How hypocritical and shameful!
Plus ca change, plus ca meme chose. The more things change the more they remain the same. It was the same during the time of the accused adulterer when the supposed leaders of religion clamored for the condemnation of their fellow sinner. And so it is with us today. Our religious leaders are re-enacting this Biblical truth all over in our very backyards forgetting that in many of their homes or homes of relatives there may be loved ones who are living scared in the closet. Who knows, some of them might be closet gays because we have seen this story played out over and over again.
Anne Rice is a famous writer and author. She has a son who is gay and she loves him very much but Ms. Rice quit the Christian Church and this was what she had to say about that: “I refuse to be anti-gay, anti-feminist, anti-Semitic and anti-democratic. For those whoa care, and I understand if you don't. Today I quit being a Christian...it's simply impossible to belong to this quarrelsome, hostile, disputatious and deservedly infamous group. For ten years I've tried. I've failed. I'm an outsider. My conscience will allow nothing else.” She went on to say, “My faith in Christ is central to my life. My conversion from a pessimistic atheist lost in a world I didn't understand to an optimistic believer in a universe created and sustained by a loving God is crucial to me, but following Christ does not mean following His followers. Christ is infinitely more important than Christianity and always will be, no matter what Christianity is or has become.”
Why and how did a God who preached love, compassion and tolerance have His message so disfigured into this caricature that the wicked prejudices of men have made it? The Church of Christ no longer is a safe refuge for sinners when the very gatekeepers were once sinners themselves? I weep for that child who is confused by His sexuality and cannot approach anyone with it because of all the hate messages being spewed out by supposed men of compassion. I am sad for that man or woman who is struggling to openly confess so he or she could be helped. Where is the love? Where is the compassion in all this?
Some have said that evil prevails when good people keep silent. So true but what are the good people saying here? I am yet to hear one constructive input from all these people shouting themselves shrill with this slash and burn message. Perhaps, in my very limited understanding I would like to do something different rather than offer hate and destruction as my elders have done; and I speak as a professional with some medical insight but even more as a keen social observer and an unflinching Christian:
In my opinion homosexuality could be attributed to three (3) broad categories of sources.
The first is basically a defective biomedical composition in brain development resulting in an altered genetic make up predisposing an individual to that tendency. In a broken world marred by sin the ultimate reason from a spiritual point of view is the curse of sin. Such individuals need supernatural intervention from God because there is very little that counseling or behavior remodeling can do to help. We only can tolerate and pray for them especially if they are openly repentant.
The second category which I believe is responsible for a large number of cases is bad learned behavior and maladjustment. During pubescent and adolescent years, children naturally become curious about sexuality and how to handle it. This happens in the secondary or middle school years of kids and many of us who had high school education can testify to the countless number of liaisons between girls and boys in boarding houses. Unfortunately the absence of guidance and counseling in our environment to help shape the direction of these young mind allow perverted senior colleagues to introduce these kids to homosexuality and in most cases sexual abuses are heavily attendant as a consequence. What happens to these children when they enter the world as adults is open to speculation but I couldn't be faulted if I say most graduate into gay and lesbian relationships or even bisexual ones too. And like most behaviors homosexuality as a learned behavior is addictive and require concerted and compassionate intervention to help victims out of it like we do for alcoholics and drugs addicts.
The last category is heavily spiritual and demonic. This is when a normal heterosexual adult for no apparent reason starts entertaining homosexual ideation and acts on it. This perplexing change in sexual orientation ruins normal and happy families and it is one way the devil uses to attack the family. Knowing all this what are to do about it? Well we as a society can easily develop policies that address the second category of learned behavior and maladjustment through the concerted efforts of behavior therapists, educationists, politicians and yes, religious leaders because there is no escaping the fact that the battle is not against flesh and blood. It is weak and soft thinking to simply say God will destroy communities that harbor homosexuals like He did Sodom and Gomorrah because we all know that majority of gays and lesbians are found in western societies and they are doing very well; at least much more so than Ghana. I suppose this is when the atheist would sarcastically, and justifiably in my opinion, say if the current economic and development circumstances of western societies is a reflection of God's wrath on them (those societies) for having lots of gays and lesbians in their midst then they would rather have more of God's wrath.
This is my final retort to those who make the Sodom and Gomorrah declarations: God will never destroy the righteous with the wicked and if He had found 10 justified men in those towns He would not have destroyed them. Perhaps, these western societies still prosper in spite of the hordes of homosexual practicing people in their midst because God can find more than 10 justified people who keep praying and asking for mercy for their countries and the poor souls of homosexuals. And so to declare that Ghana risks being destroyed by God's wrath with what we are seeing of this behavior is an indictment on our own lack of righteousness as a people and gospel professing believers who distort God's message to suit our personal and cultural prejudices.
