Beyond assumptions

Posted October 9th, 2009 by Nathan Brown

Editor's note: This was first published a year ago as an editorial in the South Pacific Division’s Record. We invited Nathan to share it with Adventist Today readers at that time but, for a variety of reasons, he asked that we wait before re-publishing it.

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I am tempted to think it is not a major issue. Most of the time I am not directly affected--and we all tend to think with less urgency about issues that don't bother us directly.

From a Christian perspective, the Bible says little about the issue of homosexuality--no more than five references, depending how you count them. At least superficially, a couple of these verses seem straightforward but they are only a couple. And there is such a variety of explanations of these verses--urging what they "really" say--covering many shades of meaning. Belying the political noise of various Christian activists, it is difficult to argue homosexuality as a specifically important moral issue from a biblical perspective.

It's little wonder we would prefer to avoid the difficult questions, whether by our silence in refusing to talk or think about it at all, or by our dogmatic and perhaps unfeeling adherence to a seemingly simple, black-and-white attitude.

But then I come across the personal stories of those who have been hurt, confused and excluded by the church. Recognizing the personal trauma, loss and heartache of openly acknowledging one's homosexuality in a conservative Christian community, it seems obvious most of those who have endured such an ordeal are not homosexual by choice. If they could choose otherwise, their lives and faith would be so much simpler.

Our silence is part of the problem. When the issue is not faithfully, carefully and sensitively addressed, the unspoken pressure to conform to "normality" gives rise to deep-seated personal tension, double lives and dishonest relationships. Or we simply say, by our silence and our assumptions, "You don't belong. Become like us or you can never fit in. The church has nothing and no place for you."

And then there is the perception of Christianity in the wider community. The research behind David Kinnaman's book UnChristian sought outsider's views on Christianity and the church. Of all the possible descriptors, the single most common perception is that Christianity is anti-homosexual: "our hostility toward gays-not just opposition to gay politics and behaviours but disdain for gay individuals-have become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith." While we probably would not describe our faith in this way, this perception held by many in our community creates a significant barrier to their further interest in anything Christian.

In their preface to Christianity and Homosexuality: Some Seventh-day Adventist Perspectives, the editors acknowledge the difficulties faced by a community of faith that seeks to remain true to the Bible as the word of God, at the same time as living, worshipping and reaching out in a diverse and complex society in which tolerance is a highly-valued virtue. On one hand, we recognize that "the Bible nowhere has anything good to say about same-sex relationships" but then we know people who are both-as these editors put it-"incurably Adventist and incurably gay."

This is the first step: recognizing that homosexual people are people, human beings with loves, hopes, faiths, fears and failings--like us. They need a Saviour to the same degree as we do, and they need places to belong and communities in which they can share and grow in faith.

With this realization comes the difficult task of finding a balanced biblical faithfulness, ensuring we are not merely caving in to the amorality of society around us. We talk as a community of faith, wrestling with the texts that seem hard, not to water them down but to understand them as best we can and seek the best in them for what it means to be human. And of course we need to read these verses in company with such broad and compelling commands such as to "do for others what you would like them to do for you" (Matthew 7:12) and "I command you to love each other" (John 15:17).

Jesus seemed to preach and practice a scandalous inclusivity, in ways many of us would be less than comfortable with today. As "God among us," Jesus stepped into a worst-case scenario:

"Tax collectors and other notorious sinners often came to listen to Jesus teach. This made the Pharisees and teachers of religious law complain that he was associating with such despicable people-even eating with them!" (Luke 15:1, 2).

With Jesus' example of unconditional embrace, can we justify anything less in our churches and communities?

But what that means, what it looks like in practice and how we maintain our honesty and adherence to the Bible are questions that require our continued and communal work, thinking and prayer.

Beyond assumptions

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