12 Points

IC XC
✙
NI KA

In conversation a friend challenged me yesterday to be clear on my position in regard to sexual orientation. No one (I imagine) has been following the ruminations on this topic which have have popped up in these pages for all of the last 25 years. Even though they are gathered into one place on the Backstory page in the top menu, they are in no way condensed into one, easy to read list of assertions and explanations. So, ok. Here’s a post of assertions. Each one will need to be broken out into a longer or shorter discussion. But, to be clear:

1. God does not “make” anyone gay.
   • No one is born with same sex attraction.
   • A person may, though life experiences, psychological makeup, or hormonal imbalances, be more or less susceptible to one or another sexual temptation.
     • The Evil One knows this and can act on it as he does on other persons susceptible to their own specific temptations.
2. We know this from secular science as well.
   • Evolutionary genetics give all animals two functions:
     • to reproduce
     • to eat in order to survive
   • To say that it is possible for a genetic “condition” to override either of these functions is to say an animal is broken. Those genes are not doing what they are supposed to be doing.
     • Were we all entirely atheist evolutionists, it would be desirable to find this genetic condition and destroy – or cure – those persons.
     • This condition does not exist.
       • The condition is psychological
         • which is to say, in a Christian Context, Spiritual.
3. Our world – especially in the West, but not only – defines us by our desires.
   • This has been a gradual development, parallel to the evolution of Capitalism.
   • In the first world – and from there spreading out – definition by desire (and consumption of desire) has become the defining moment of our culture.
     • We are what we consume.
4. This is not the Christian Anthropology.
   • The Human Person is created at the moment of conception, whole and entire: a body and soul hylomorph.
     • DNA is from Mom and Dad, the Soul is from God.
       • The Human Person is 50% Mom’s, 50% Dad’s, and 100% God’s.
       • All of these parts are required to be “in play” in order to understand the Human Person.
   • God creates each Human Person in his image and likeness, whole, and called to communion with Him and with other Persons – also in the image and likeness of God.
   • To exist in this communion is the only way to exist in the way God planned.
5. God created us for self-gift.
   • This is, if you will, the sacramentalization of the evolutionary drive to reproduce.
     • It is the manifestation in the physical world of the Trinitarian Kenosis.
6. All Human Persons are drawn towards self-gift in a sexual way.
   • This is Kenosis in our bodies.
     • the body God created for us makes it clear how this works.
   • Some Human Persons may elect to give up this gift in order to make a different self-offering to God’s greater glory and the furtherance of the salvation of humanity. This is also self gift.
   • Expression contrary to this gift is exactly like Eve taking the apple:
     • a desire to do something out of order in God’s creation, to assert that I am God.
     • It is intrinsically disordered – that is, sinful – to do so.
7. To exist as if in any other way, to engage the sexual drive in any way that is not directed towards God’s plan, is to consume the gifts of God in a way contrary to his will. That is, it is sin.
   • The human person who consumes others is, in fact, sinning.
   • It is possible to consume in a sexual way, a financial or social way, an emotional way, and probably in many other ways.
     • all of these are intrinsically disordered.
     • wage slavery, abortion, birth control, greed, sexual misuse of persons… these are all examples consumptive sin.
8. There is no such thing as a “gay person”.
   • There are only those who experience, to one degree or another, same sex attraction.
     • This does not define their personhood anymore than a sweet-tooth or a desire of alcohol.
   • Why they experience it can be a very interesting discussion.
     • It can involve brains, hormones, parental relationships, trauma, need, mental health, etc.
   • That they experience it cannot be denied.
   • The need to express it can be strong or weak.
   • The temptation to express it can be strong or weak depending on the reasons.
9. The Evil One knows this and can act on it as he does on other persons susceptible to their own specific temptations (from point 1).
10. Once we begin to express it, it can become more difficult to step away because our culture defines us by our desires and we easily buy into that process – it’s literally what our world is set up to do.
11. Our Creator constantly calls us back to live in the plan he set up.
    • This plan is not discovered in our desires.
    • This plan is not discovered in our emotions or our psychological failures or strengths.
    • This plan may be more or less difficult for each person.
12. Living in this plan is the Cross we each have. It is the specific cure we each need.