Celibacy
refers to abstaining from sexual relations. Celibate gay refers to a person who
is attracted towards same sex people but does not indulge in same sex sexual
intercourse. When Christianity, which deems homosexuality as a sin, is brought
into this context, a pertinent question is whether a Christian with homosexual
orientation, but not practicing homosexuality, claim to be a genuine Christian?
Critical Definitions
Homosexual Orientation: A person who is
attracted to members of his own sex.
Homosexual Behavior / Practice: A
person who practices sex with members
of his own sex.
Homosexual: (A homosexual could address
himself / herself so by virtue of his / her sexual orientation or by virtue of
his / her sexual behavior.) From a Christian standpoint, a person is a
homosexual when he engages in homosexual behavior (practices homosexual acts).
A person with heterosexual tendencies could also be a homosexual. In other
words, a heterosexual person could have homosexual orientation to practice homosexuality.
A person desiring to rob another person is not a
thief. A person who physically robs
another person is a thief. A person who desires to rob merely has the potency
or the capacity to become a thief. Until he / she physically robs another
person, this person cannot be termed as a thief. Just as how a thief is a thief
only when he physically robs his victim, a homosexual is a homosexual only when
he engages in homosexual behavior.
Why Can A Practicing
Homosexual NOT Be A Christian?
The Bible
deems homosexuality as a sin. Hence Christians cannot practice homosexuality. A
practicing gay person cannot be a Christian, for the simple reason that sins
cannot be legitimized and a Christian cannot volitionally live a sinful life.
The Bible
does not condemn homosexual orientation. But the Bible categorizes certain
actions as sins. So they remain to be sins irrespective of any compulsions – sociological
or biological or whatever. When Christians endorse homosexuality, they declassify
homosexuality as a sin. This is a problem. Why?
Certain actions
(and thoughts too) have been classified as sins by God. Sins such as
homosexuality or child sex cannot be declassified as sins by man. Fundamentally,
sins are an assault on God (i.e. HIS commands). Hence God alone has the
authority to declassify a sin. Since the Bible, which is the Word of God, does
not declassify homosexuality as a sin, homosexual practice is a sin.
If a gay
person claims to be a Christian, he or she has taken the prerogative of
declassifying homosexuality as a sin (by twisting the relevant verses in the
Bible). Since man has no authority to declassify a sin; man’s declassification
of homosexuality as a sin is moot. Therefore, Christians cannot practice
homosexuality.
Can A Celibate Gay Be
A Christian?
A genuine Christian recognizes sins
and keeps them in their proper place. Sins are a part and parcel of a Christian
life in the sense that the Christian could be a victim of sporadic or constant
temptation.
From the
perspective of temptation, a Christian is oriented to sin when he is tempted.
But when a Christian is tempted, he may or may not sin. (When the Christian
sins, he confesses his sins to God and repents.) If a Christian does not sin,
he is not a sinner per se. Hence, even if a Christian is oriented to sin, he is
not a sinner unless he performs that sinful deed.
A married woman
may be sexually attracted to a man, who is not her husband. But if she controls
her sexual attraction, by the grace of God, she remains sinless in this
context. Similarly, Christians with homosexual orientation would remain sinless,
if they control their sinful urge, by the grace of God, and do not indulge in
sinful sexual practice with members of their own sex. So a person with
homosexual orientation but not practicing homosexuality can surely be a
Christian.
Orientation Need Not
Translate Into Sins
If a person was brutally deceived by
his friend, he could be oriented to attack the deceiver (the attack need not necessarily
be a physical attack). But the Bible mandates us to love our enemies. So even
if we are oriented to deceive or injure the person who betrayed us, we are
called to suppress that orientation by the grace of God so to not indulge in
sin. Similarly homosexual orientation or the sexual attraction to members of
same sex could be suppressed by the grace of God.
Could Christians
Embrace Celibacy?
Celibacy
certainly has its place among Christians, “…Bible defines marriage as between
one man and one woman, rather than two persons of the same sex. In Matthew
19:4–5, Jesus connects the phenomenon of marriage with the fact of our having
been created male and female. Marriage is predicated on gender difference; it’s
because we’re male and female that we have this thing called marriage. Jesus
then goes on to show that the only godly alternative to marriage is singleness.
When the disciples balk at the intended lifelong implications of marriage (v.
10), Jesus points them to the example of the eunuchs—the long-term singles of
his day (vv. 11–12). If marriage is too much commitment, there’s the option of
celibacy. Jesus gives no third alternative, whether cohabitation or some
alternative construal of marriage.
For
marriage to be a parable of Christ and the church, it must be between like and
unlike, male and female. Change this arrangement, and you end up distorting the
spiritual reality to which it points. Alter marriage, and you end up distorting
a picture of the gospel itself…So if this is the ultimate purpose of marriage,
where does that leave singleness? Are those of us who are celibate wasting our
sexuality by not giving expression to our sexual desires?
It means singleness,
like marriage, has a unique way of testifying to the gospel of grace. Jesus
said there will be no marriage in the new creation. In that respect we’ll be
like the angels, neither marrying nor being given in marriage (Matt. 22:30). We
will have the reality; we will no longer need the signpost.
By
foregoing marriage now, singleness is a way of both anticipating this reality
and testifying to its goodness. It’s a way of saying this future reality is so
certain that we can live according to it now. If marriage shows us the shape of
the gospel, singleness shows us its sufficiency. It’s a way of declaring to a
world obsessed with sexual and romantic intimacy that these things are not
ultimate, and that in Christ we possess what is.
This
doesn’t mean our sexual feelings are redundant, dangling unfulfilled like the
equivalent of an appendix. The consummation our sexual feelings long for can
(if we let them) point us to a greater consummation to come. They remind us
that what we forego on a temporal plane now, we will enjoy in fullness in the
new creation for eternity. Sexual unfulfillment itself becomes a means of
deepening our sense of the fuller, deeper satisfaction we await in Jesus. It
helps us to hunger more for him. We skip the appetizer, but we await the
entrée.
Celibacy
isn’t a waste of our sexuality; it’s a wonderful way of fulfilling it. It’s
allowing our sexual feelings to point us to the reality of the gospel. We will
never ultimately make sense of what our sexuality is unless we know what it is
for—to point us to God’s love for us in Christ.”1
Dangers in Celibate
Gay Christian Movement
Celibate
gay Christian movement, as the name suggests, is a growing movement of celibate
gay and lesbian Christians, who teach gay people to use their same sex
attraction to serve God. Hence, on this view, the celibate gay Christian
movement purports the sinlessness of same sex attraction because of their
celibacy.
There are
two innate dangers in the conceptualization of this movement:
(1) Flawed Identity: The members of this
group need not be identified as celibate gay Christians. Instead, they could
identify themselves as celibate Christians, who struggle(d) with gay
attraction.
Christians are identified as the
disciples of the Lord Jesus and the children of the living God. Identifying
ourselves based on our sinful proclivities is unnecessary, for we are redeemed
people.
(2) Flawed Thought Process: If a Christian
wife is sexually attracted to a man, who is not her husband, and if she does
not control her sexual urge, she has sinned in her thoughts. The engagement of
this sexual attraction, even in thought, is sinful. Hence, this sinful thought
ought to be confessed to God and repented to gain HIS forgiveness and
liberation from this sinful thought process.
Similarly,
Professor Denny Burk posits the sinfulness of same sex attraction (SSA), “The
defining element of same-sex attraction is desire for a sexual relationship with
someone of the same sex. Once that desire is removed, it is no longer SSA. It
is just friendship. In that sense, same-sex attraction is not a means to
better, more holy friendships. It is an impediment to them. When one feels
himself desiring a sexual relationship with a person of the same-sex, the only
appropriate response is repentance from sin (2 Tim. 2:22). It is not right or
helpful to think of that sinful attraction as the foundation for building holy
friendships. It is not.”2
Just as how
the Christian wife struggling with her sinful sexual attraction cannot
legitimize her sin by claiming that she is hardwired to be sexually attracted
to men, Christians struggling with same sex attraction cannot legitimize their
sinful same sex attraction. Just as how a Christian with sinful thought process
ought to repent and claim forgiveness, the celibate Christians struggling with
same sex attraction ought to repent and claim forgiveness, so to continue
living as normal people and not as gay people.
Endnotes:
1https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/how-celibacy-can-fulfill-your-sexuality
2http://www.christianity.com/christian-life/political-and-social-issues/celibate-gay-christians-is-that-biblical.html
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