He is Gay!

Check out the link to the clip before you read the commentary. It will help give some perspective.

http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/#clip17078

I have to say, that that senior analyst sure has a solid argument I think that this little clip really points to a key problem around the homosexual debate, especially in the church. However for the church he is the one saying “He is committing a SIN!” It seems like Christians are speaking out of two different understandings of what it is to be gay. For some it is a sin pure and simple and because of that there is no way to reconcile the harm that it does to our relationship with God. To accept homosexual behaviour is to accept sin and gives no space for the law to reveal their sinful actions which would help them see the gospel and Christ’s forgiveness and love for them. This partially comes out of the belief that homosexuality is not genetic like heterosexuality. Therefor naming homosexuality as a sin will protect those who have fallen into its clutches, much like the alcoholic, by revealing the sin they are participating in and helping them see God’s forgiveness (second use of the law).

Now in contrast to the argument of homosexuality as sin is the fallen/broken nature of all relationships (original sin), both hetero and homosexual. This puts a different skew on things by taking the light off homosexual activity and focusing on the sinfulness of all sexual activity. It highlights that no actions on our behalf will ever re create the perfect relationship we had with God and the other in the garden of Eden. However I don’t think this point argues against homosexuality as sin. It simply tries to make us all see that we are sinners and are in need of God’s forgiveness (Please correct me if I am wrong)

But if we say that homosexuality is not a sin, and the bible says it is, how does that play out. If, as Lutherans, our hermeneutic is Christ as he reveals himself in the scriptures through the Holy Spirit, then we must test our experiences in the world (context) and the scriptures by looking through this heurmaneutic. After much deliberation, which most of us have probably done, I have no reason to believe that passages condemning homosexuality reveal Christ in as far as they speak against committed homosexual relationships. In fact I believe they may even oppose Christ because of the harm that they cause in peoples lives. There is no gospel for the homosexual when an action that is intricately a part of their relationship with another human is condemned as sin. Therefore if we believe homosexuality is a sin we are better of taking the side of Phil and friends (http://www.confessionalministerium.ca/), otherwise we make the gospel a sham because the gospel is not transformative. Homosexuals are in a perpetual cycle of guilt for living with the sin they know they will commit in order to live in relationship with someone they love. They are never comforted.

However this is not to say that homosexuality is not sinful, it should simply not be defined as a sin in and of itself. It needs to be tested. Like heterosexual relationships, homosexuality can easily be perverted into lust, that is the separation of the person from the function they provide, the objectification of another person. However the litmus test is not its potential for perversion, for all things have that potential, but whether homosexuality, within what we would define as a committed and loving relationship (as far as that is possible), produces the fruits of the spirit, that is love, joy, compassion etc. In my experience these committed homosexual relationships do in fact produce these fruits, which is a part of testing the Spirit through the hermeneutic of Christ, and so it is hard for me to see that such a relationship needs to be killed over and over again by the law, with no hope of being raised into new life in Christ.