Converting Homosexuals

I bet the title caught your eye, didn't it? Some are groaning, "Here's another rightwinger trying to make gay people straight" and others are cheering about how we ought to offer means and methods to help people out of the homosexual lifestyle (which, in some states, is actually illegal, believe it or not). Well, relax. I'm not going there.

In the ongoing back-and-forth between "gay rights" advocates versus biblical Christianity, it is my suspicion that Christians might be losing their perspective. It's easy for believers who recognize the very clear biblical statements that homosexual behavior is a sin to get caught up in trying to get homosexual practitioners to stop that particular sin. And since that particular sin is generally deeply rooted and even poorly understood, that can become a full-time occupation.

A friend once told me his own little parable. A group of mountain climbers set out to conquer a previously unconquered peak. On their trek, they came across an apparently impassable gorge. Pooling their skills and ideas, they came up with an innovative way to bridge the gorge and, after some time, continued on their way. They came across a second such obstacle and set about building another crossing. About the time they were finishing, a group of hikers came up. They were impressed with the first bridge and wondered how it was done. The climbers finished their second bridge and set up a shop on the other side of the gorge, selling plans and procedures for building bridges over gorges. It was lucrative ... but not the point of the trek. They had forgotten that.

So, it seems, we tend to go. We set out to assure our society, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." (1 Cor 6:9-10) Then we forget immediately that "inherit the kingdom of God" is the point, not the particular sins at hand. We appear to think, somehow, that if we can provide a remedy to adulterers or homosexuals or drunkards, we can get them into the kingdom. And when I say it, every Christian can see it just isn't so.

Our job it not to convert the sexually immoral to the sexually pure or the homosexual to the heterosexual. Our job is to preach the gospel, to make disciples, and to teach them to observe what Christ commands (Matt 28:19-20). The basis of Christian behavior isn't obedience, but gratitude. Working to coerce the unsaved into Christian behavior is working against the unsaved nature. So we work at showing people how to cross gorges, forgetting that the goal was salvation by faith in Christ, not overcoming obstacles.

This doesn't mean we stop pointing out that Scripture considers homosexual behavior to be worthy of hell, but everyone knows that an alcoholic or a drug addict won't change until he or she recognizes the problem and wants to change. For them and for the sexually immoral, the adulterer, the homosexual, and the rest, the solution isn't a 12-step program, but a change of heart. And that is not within our power to supply. We need to remember that our aim is not converting homosexuals to the good news of heterosexuality, but to the good news of Christ. After that, we won't be working alone on the obstacles. After that it's a changed heart and the power of God at work. We shouldn't lose sight of the goal of preaching Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor 2:2) and lose it in some ordinary morality plan. The homosexual--we all--needs Christ. Let's offer Him.