Homosexuality:Is a ‘Gay Christian’ Consis¬tent with the Gospel of Christ?
Author: Heath Lambert
Is a “gay Christian” consistent with the gospel of Christ? Matthew Vines’s answer to this question is the exact opposite of the one provided by historic Christianity. Vines’s book, God and the Gay Christian, is an unfortunate reversal of thousands of years of moral clarity about homosexuality. He says,
[I]t isn’t gay Christians who are sinning against God by entering into monogamous, loving relationships. It is the church that is sinning against them by rejecting their intimate relationships (162).
Just 20 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to propose such a statement. In 2014, the core conviction of a significant book by a major publisher is that the nearly unanimous, historical understanding about the sinfulness of homosexuality is now the problem. It would take a massive amount of argumentation to justify such an extreme and innovative position. But one of the most significant problems in God and the Gay Christian is a faulty assumption that leads to an emotional appeal.
The assumption concerns homosexual orientation and is composed of two different elements. The first element of Vines’s assumption is that homosexual orientation, as we know it today, is an entirely new issue from homosexual acts committed in the ancient world — the same-sex acts discussed in Scripture. He states:
The bottom line is this: The Bible does not directly address the issue of same-sex orientation — or the expression of that orientation. While its six references to same-sex behavior are negative, the concept of same-sex behavior in the Bible is sexual excess, not sexual orientation (130, emphasis in original).
For Vines, the Bible condemns homosexual acts defined by unnatural and excessive lust, not people who have a fixed homosexual orientation. This new understanding of orientation, according to Vines, is simply not addressed in Scripture, and so the Bible’s condemnation of same-sex acts is not relevant for today.
The second element of Vines’s assumption about homosexual orientation is that, as an inherent part of a person, it is unchangeable. He says, “Gay people cannot choose to follow opposite-sex attractions, because they have no opposite-sex attractions to follow — nor can they manufacture them” (103). For Vines, homosexual orientation is innate and immutable.
Vines charges that Christians have misapplied the Bible’s teaching on homosexual acts to those with a homosexual orientation. In doing so they have created an expectation of change for them that is unattainable.
Vines’s two-fold assumption about homosexual orientation leads to a powerful emotional appeal. He believes that pain and trauma are the result of Christian calls to repent of homosexuality. When Christians ignorantly summon gay people to change, it leads to heartbreak and even death. Vines’s book is replete with painful and tragic accounts of gay men taking their life after trying in vain to change. These narratives motivate Vines’s assault on Scripture and are the hallmarks of his book.
Vines’s book makes it seem that the only way to show care for people struggling with homosexuality is to accept their sinfulness. Christians throughout the ages, however, have believed that love requires a tender call to repentance. A life devoid of repentance is a life devoid of Christ. If Christians follow Vines’s attempt to reverse the church’s moral position on homosexuality, their loving call to repent of sin will be silenced, and the grace of Jesus Christ to change people will be obscured.
What is at stake in this debate is nothing less than our love for troubled people and the very gospel of Jesus Christ.
I want to correct Vines’s false assumptions about homosexuality in three ways. First, I want to show that Vines’s statements in his book go far beyond the evidence that exists for homosexual orientation. Second, I want to object to the idea that a so-called orientation makes a behavior morally acceptable. Third, I want to challenge on empirical and biblical grounds the notion that it is impossible to change homosexual orientation. After all this, I want to show that the call to be a Christian who is an unrepentant homosexual is not only at odds with the gospel of Jesus, but is also unloving.
What We Know about Orientation
Vines is unable to prove many of the assertions he makes in his book. And psychologists actually know a great deal less about homosexual orientation than he claims. When the American Psychological Association (APA) weighed in on homosexuality in 1952 with the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) it declared homosexuality to be a mental illness. By 1974, it declared that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. By 2000, it declared that the people with mental illness were the ones who were troubled by their homosexuality.
This dramatic shift did not happen because of any new information about the nature of sexual orientation. No empirical data contributed to increased understanding about the influence of nature or nurture in determining orientation. The APA changed its position on homosexuality because of increasing cultural acceptance of homosexuality. The APA knows as much about sexual orientation today as it did in the 1950s.
Currently, the APA defines sexual orientation as “an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes.” When describing where this attraction comes from, the APA is honest that “although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors.”1 The facts presented by the APA about sexual orientation are much more modest than Vines’s assertions. When the APA describes orientation, it talks about patterns of desire.
Similarly, the Bible does not use the word “orientation.” It does, however, use a synonym: desire. Vines’s assertion that the Bible does not understand orientation is therefore untrue. His error is the common one of assuming that because the Bible uses different terminology than modern people it does not address the same concerns.
Desire, sexual or otherwise, is one of the more common topics in Scripture. 2 Peter 3:3 and Jude 16 each speak of those who “follow their sinful desire.” Romans 13:14 and Galatians 5:16 talk about not gratifying the desires of the flesh. Colossians 3:5 talks about evil desire. James 1:14 says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” These are just a few examples. The point is that the Bible understands the powerful and persistent issue that Vines calls orientation in its use of the language of desire.
‘Orientation’ Does Not Determine Morality
When we begin to speak biblically about the strong and consistent desires that drive homosexual behavior, it leads us to think differently about the many sad and tragic stories that fill Vines’s book. These stories are told to demonstrate the power of homosexual desire and the difficulty (Vines would say, the impossibility) of change. Such stories are meant to encourage Christians to accept homosexuality. I have many friends who struggle with homosexual desire, and, as a biblical counselor, I have some sense of how difficult the fight can be. Imagine the consequences, however, of allowing our sinful desires to mandate morality.
Vines’s emotional appeals allow those with deep-seated and long-standing desires to demand their acceptance regardless of any objective standard of morality. Many strong and awful desires that a person experiences as resistant to change could use the same argumentation that Vines employs in his book. This is exactly what will happen when we allow our desires to become normative, and when sexuality is defined outside the Bible’s clear and historical parameters.
Vines fails to understand that in a fallen world the strength of our sinful desires is a demonstration of our guilt, rather than our innocence. His book is based on the astounding moral claim that isolated desires for homosexual activity are condemned in Scripture, while a persistent pattern of desire (i.e., orientation) is acceptable. Vines does not see the truth that sinful patterns of desire are worse than the isolated acts. For example, serial killers are judged more harshly than those guilty of manslaughter. People who lie all the time are less trustworthy than those who commit an isolated act of deceit. It is an unbelievable act of moral confusion to claim that repeated patterns of sinfulness make an act righteous.
“Orientation,” far from making homosexual acts more acceptable, actually shows how deeply sin has infiltrated our lives. All of us who have experienced patterns of immoral desire need to be assured that such patterns do not constitute an ethical improvement on isolated acts. This claim is not hateful. The Bible’s clear moral standard is meant to point all of us to a savior who does not accommodate our sinful desires, but changes them. All of us who struggle with deeply engrained sinful desires should not rationalize our sins, but fly into the arms of a redeemer.
It Is Possible to Change Orientation
In his entire book, Vines never demonstrates that homosexual desire is unchangeable. The closest he comes to proof is his correct observation that an ex-gay ministry, Exodus International, closed down after acknowledging repeated failures in its ministry (18). He concludes from that fact that it is impossible for homosexuals to change.
Several reasons exist why such a ministry would fail. One reason is that it really is impossible for those with repeated homosexual desires to change. Other reasons are that change is possible, but the ministry was going about it the wrong way; increasing cultural acceptance of homosexuality discourages change; change is a long, hard road that takes a lot of time; or those seeking help were not fully committed to change. Those are five obvious reasons. Vines only considers one of them.
I don’t know why Exodus International failed. One thing that I do know is that, in Christ, change is possible for even the most entrenched desires.
In their book, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse engaged in an empirical study examining the possibility of change in homosexual desire. After a meticulous presentation of data, they state the findings of their study — which is exactly the opposite of Vines’s assertion that change is impossible.
The general picture that emerges from our analyses of these data is that, on average, this population has experienced significant change away from homo
sexual orientation and toward heterosexual orientation … The most surprising single finding, and one that is replicated over several different measures, is that the population most likely on average to manifest significant change is the “Truly Gay” population … Common sense and dominant clinical professional opinion would clearly predict that these would be the research subjects least likely to report fundamental change, and yet consistently it was this group that reported the greatest degree of change.2
As believers in Jesus Christ, those are exactly the results we would expect. They bear out the words of 2 Peter 1:3-4:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Peter says that the patterns of sinful desire lead to corruption. He also says that believers in Jesus Christ can escape that corruption by the power of Jesus Christ mediated through the promises in the Word of God. One of the most precious and powerful truths in the Bible is that believers are not locked into the corruption created by their strong, sinful desires. They can escape. They can be free.
A Story of Change
I once counseled a man named Tony who always knew he was different. As a child he preferred girl’s toys and girl’s clothes. As an adolescent he was only attracted to other boys. As an adult, his sexual relationships confirmed that he was gay. The day he revealed the truth to his parents they told him that they already knew. They made clear that they loved and accepted him for who he was. Shortly after this, he moved away to college, where friends who accepted his lifestyle surrounded him. Before long, Tony met Mike and the two began to live together. Tony was in love with Mike and had the support of his friends. Things were great.
Then one day, Tony met Jesus Christ. At a college event a student minister named Ethan shared the gospel with him. As Tony listened to the gospel, the words sunk down into his heart and he believed. Tony was born again. The Spirit who had come to dwell in Tony’s heart convicted him of sin and, without anyone encouraging him, he knew he needed to repent of his homosexuality. Tony shared this struggle with Ethan who connected him with a ministry that wanted to help him.
What followed was hard. Mike was hurt and angry when Tony broke up with him. He did not understand what happened to the man he loved. Tony’s parents had a similar response. They were concerned that their son had been brainwashed by “religious zealots.” Such negative responses were difficult for Tony, but he kept leaning into his new Christian community and trusting the Lord for strength to endure.
The next several years were difficult. Temptations were constant. Failure was common. Tony frequently felt wooed to return to his lifestyle, and sometimes he did. One night Mike came by to plead with him to return. Tony was overwhelmed with temptation and spent the night with Mike in a hotel room before making a final break with him. There were numerous times in those early years when Tony battled homosexual lust and indulged in pornography. Through it all, though, grace was growing in his heart.
I began counseling Tony five years into this struggle. I have had the honor of a front row seat as the Lord has changed him. Over the years, Tony’s patterns of desire and behavior have changed. About a year ago, he began to experience physical attraction to women. Tony was thankful for this, but it was never the main goal of our counseling together. Our goal was sexual purity. And that may or may not include sexual desire. Tony’s process of change would be just as legitimate without this experience since holiness is not tantamount to heterosexual desire.
Vines tells a few tragic stories of failure. I know those stories are out there. But it’s dishonest to ignore the other stories. What about the hundreds and thousands of Christians who are changing, like Tony? What about the many who pursue holiness in spite of their sinful desires? What about Wesley Hill?3 What about Sam Allberry?4 What about Christopher Yuan and Rosaria Butterfield?5 These Christians are, like all of us, trusting in Jesus on the road toward greater sexual purity.
A ‘Gay Christian’?
Vines assumes the existence of gay Christians because he is more familiar with homosexuality than he is with God’s powerful transforming grace. Vines wrote a book about homosexuality. How I wish he had written a book about the power of God to change people by his grace. If he had written a book about the power of Jesus to change people, he would know that there really is no such thing as a gay Christian.
The reason gay Christians do not exist is found in one of the passages that Vines attempted to revise, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. The apostle Paul says,
Or 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. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
After listing sins that keep people out of the kingdom of God, Paul says, and such were some of you. It is hard to imagine sweeter words. I have committed sins on that list. You have too. Paul says, however, that for those whom Jesus has washed, sanctified and justified, their sins no longer define them. Jesus does.
In Christ, believers have a new identity. That is why a “gay Christian” is not consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that change is easy. It is not. That doesn’t mean that people don’t struggle with homosexual desire. They do. That doesn’t mean that we know all the best ways to help people change. We need to grow in wisdom. It also doesn’t mean that people experience the fullness of change this side of heaven. Sin runs deep, and change is hard. But God takes all of us adulterers, murderers, drunks, swindlers — and homosexuals, too — and he changes who we are. He gives us a new identity. He no longer recognizes us by our sin, but by his own son.
All Christians are broken-hearted at the experience of pain by those who struggle with same-sex desires. Every believer in Jesus knows what it is to love things God hates. Every believer has experienced the large chasm between our life and the demands of the law.
Vines looks at that pain, however, and diagnoses the wrong problem. He sees the problem as the call to repentance, rather than the sinfulness of sin. He thinks that if he could just create a culture of acceptance then that will take away the pain.
But it won’t work. The reason: “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever” (Isa 40:8). Years after people forget Vines’s book, the Word of God will still say the same thing. Furthermore, the Spirit who inspired it will still be testifying in the hearts of our fellow Christians who struggle against same-sex desire. Faithfulness requires that the church know what to say to our brothers and sisters in Christ who come to us for help with this problem. If we listen to Vines, we will lose our voice and fail those seeking God’s grace to change.
In writing a book focused on homosexuality, Vines misses the gospel. Jesus Christ promises change and a new identity to anyone who would repent. Repentance is not the dirty word that God and the Gay Christian presents it to be. Repentance is life, hope and peace. The call to repent is built on the precious promise that there is grace for you to be different regardless of your sinful desires.
Vines’s project is a tragic one because, if successful, it will keep the sheep from hearing the voice of the shepherd and from life and peace and change.
That means all of us who know the truth must love our homosexual neighbors by letting them know that Jesus is still calling, softly and tenderly. He will draw near with powerful, transforming grace to anyone who repents. All of us who know that truth must renew our commitment to put a loving arm around our brothers who used to be defined by homosexuality, and let them know that they are now defined by Christ. We need to tell them that in Christ they are not gay. All that Christ is and all that he has is theirs by faith. We must remind one another that Christ will — sooner or later — use his magnificent power to reorient all of us to the freedom from sinful desire.
ENDNOTES
1 https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.pdf
Is a “gay Christian” consistent with the gospel of Christ? Matthew Vines’s answer to this question is the exact opposite of the one provided by historic Christianity. Vines’s book, God and the Gay Christian, is an unfortunate reversal of thousands of years of moral clarity about homosexuality. He says,
[I]t isn’t gay Christians who are sinning against God by entering into monogamous, loving relationships. It is the church that is sinning against them by rejecting their intimate relationships (162).
Just 20 years ago, it would have been unthinkable to propose such a statement. In 2014, the core conviction of a significant book by a major publisher is that the nearly unanimous, historical understanding about the sinfulness of homosexuality is now the problem. It would take a massive amount of argumentation to justify such an extreme and innovative position. But one of the most significant problems in God and the Gay Christian is a faulty assumption that leads to an emotional appeal.
The assumption concerns homosexual orientation and is composed of two different elements. The first element of Vines’s assumption is that homosexual orientation, as we know it today, is an entirely new issue from homosexual acts committed in the ancient world — the same-sex acts discussed in Scripture. He states:
The bottom line is this: The Bible does not directly address the issue of same-sex orientation — or the expression of that orientation. While its six references to same-sex behavior are negative, the concept of same-sex behavior in the Bible is sexual excess, not sexual orientation (130, emphasis in original).
For Vines, the Bible condemns homosexual acts defined by unnatural and excessive lust, not people who have a fixed homosexual orientation. This new understanding of orientation, according to Vines, is simply not addressed in Scripture, and so the Bible’s condemnation of same-sex acts is not relevant for today.
The second element of Vines’s assumption about homosexual orientation is that, as an inherent part of a person, it is unchangeable. He says, “Gay people cannot choose to follow opposite-sex attractions, because they have no opposite-sex attractions to follow — nor can they manufacture them” (103). For Vines, homosexual orientation is innate and immutable.
Vines charges that Christians have misapplied the Bible’s teaching on homosexual acts to those with a homosexual orientation. In doing so they have created an expectation of change for them that is unattainable.
Vines’s two-fold assumption about homosexual orientation leads to a powerful emotional appeal. He believes that pain and trauma are the result of Christian calls to repent of homosexuality. When Christians ignorantly summon gay people to change, it leads to heartbreak and even death. Vines’s book is replete with painful and tragic accounts of gay men taking their life after trying in vain to change. These narratives motivate Vines’s assault on Scripture and are the hallmarks of his book.
Vines’s book makes it seem that the only way to show care for people struggling with homosexuality is to accept their sinfulness. Christians throughout the ages, however, have believed that love requires a tender call to repentance. A life devoid of repentance is a life devoid of Christ. If Christians follow Vines’s attempt to reverse the church’s moral position on homosexuality, their loving call to repent of sin will be silenced, and the grace of Jesus Christ to change people will be obscured.
What is at stake in this debate is nothing less than our love for troubled people and the very gospel of Jesus Christ.
I want to correct Vines’s false assumptions about homosexuality in three ways. First, I want to show that Vines’s statements in his book go far beyond the evidence that exists for homosexual orientation. Second, I want to object to the idea that a so-called orientation makes a behavior morally acceptable. Third, I want to challenge on empirical and biblical grounds the notion that it is impossible to change homosexual orientation. After all this, I want to show that the call to be a Christian who is an unrepentant homosexual is not only at odds with the gospel of Jesus, but is also unloving.
What We Know about Orientation
Vines is unable to prove many of the assertions he makes in his book. And psychologists actually know a great deal less about homosexual orientation than he claims. When the American Psychological Association (APA) weighed in on homosexuality in 1952 with the first edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) it declared homosexuality to be a mental illness. By 1974, it declared that homosexuality was no longer a mental illness. By 2000, it declared that the people with mental illness were the ones who were troubled by their homosexuality.
This dramatic shift did not happen because of any new information about the nature of sexual orientation. No empirical data contributed to increased understanding about the influence of nature or nurture in determining orientation. The APA changed its position on homosexuality because of increasing cultural acceptance of homosexuality. The APA knows as much about sexual orientation today as it did in the 1950s.
Currently, the APA defines sexual orientation as “an enduring pattern of emotional, romantic, and/or sexual attractions to men, women, or both sexes.” When describing where this attraction comes from, the APA is honest that “although much research has examined the possible genetic, hormonal, developmental, social, and cultural influences on sexual orientation, no findings have emerged that permit scientists to conclude that sexual orientation is determined by any particular factor or factors.”1 The facts presented by the APA about sexual orientation are much more modest than Vines’s assertions. When the APA describes orientation, it talks about patterns of desire.
Similarly, the Bible does not use the word “orientation.” It does, however, use a synonym: desire. Vines’s assertion that the Bible does not understand orientation is therefore untrue. His error is the common one of assuming that because the Bible uses different terminology than modern people it does not address the same concerns.
Desire, sexual or otherwise, is one of the more common topics in Scripture. 2 Peter 3:3 and Jude 16 each speak of those who “follow their sinful desire.” Romans 13:14 and Galatians 5:16 talk about not gratifying the desires of the flesh. Colossians 3:5 talks about evil desire. James 1:14 says, “Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire.” These are just a few examples. The point is that the Bible understands the powerful and persistent issue that Vines calls orientation in its use of the language of desire.
‘Orientation’ Does Not Determine Morality
When we begin to speak biblically about the strong and consistent desires that drive homosexual behavior, it leads us to think differently about the many sad and tragic stories that fill Vines’s book. These stories are told to demonstrate the power of homosexual desire and the difficulty (Vines would say, the impossibility) of change. Such stories are meant to encourage Christians to accept homosexuality. I have many friends who struggle with homosexual desire, and, as a biblical counselor, I have some sense of how difficult the fight can be. Imagine the consequences, however, of allowing our sinful desires to mandate morality.
Vines’s emotional appeals allow those with deep-seated and long-standing desires to demand their acceptance regardless of any objective standard of morality. Many strong and awful desires that a person experiences as resistant to change could use the same argumentation that Vines employs in his book. This is exactly what will happen when we allow our desires to become normative, and when sexuality is defined outside the Bible’s clear and historical parameters.
Vines fails to understand that in a fallen world the strength of our sinful desires is a demonstration of our guilt, rather than our innocence. His book is based on the astounding moral claim that isolated desires for homosexual activity are condemned in Scripture, while a persistent pattern of desire (i.e., orientation) is acceptable. Vines does not see the truth that sinful patterns of desire are worse than the isolated acts. For example, serial killers are judged more harshly than those guilty of manslaughter. People who lie all the time are less trustworthy than those who commit an isolated act of deceit. It is an unbelievable act of moral confusion to claim that repeated patterns of sinfulness make an act righteous.
“Orientation,” far from making homosexual acts more acceptable, actually shows how deeply sin has infiltrated our lives. All of us who have experienced patterns of immoral desire need to be assured that such patterns do not constitute an ethical improvement on isolated acts. This claim is not hateful. The Bible’s clear moral standard is meant to point all of us to a savior who does not accommodate our sinful desires, but changes them. All of us who struggle with deeply engrained sinful desires should not rationalize our sins, but fly into the arms of a redeemer.
It Is Possible to Change Orientation
In his entire book, Vines never demonstrates that homosexual desire is unchangeable. The closest he comes to proof is his correct observation that an ex-gay ministry, Exodus International, closed down after acknowledging repeated failures in its ministry (18). He concludes from that fact that it is impossible for homosexuals to change.
Several reasons exist why such a ministry would fail. One reason is that it really is impossible for those with repeated homosexual desires to change. Other reasons are that change is possible, but the ministry was going about it the wrong way; increasing cultural acceptance of homosexuality discourages change; change is a long, hard road that takes a lot of time; or those seeking help were not fully committed to change. Those are five obvious reasons. Vines only considers one of them.
I don’t know why Exodus International failed. One thing that I do know is that, in Christ, change is possible for even the most entrenched desires.
In their book, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation, Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse engaged in an empirical study examining the possibility of change in homosexual desire. After a meticulous presentation of data, they state the findings of their study — which is exactly the opposite of Vines’s assertion that change is impossible.
The general picture that emerges from our analyses of these data is that, on average, this population has experienced significant change away from homo
sexual orientation and toward heterosexual orientation … The most surprising single finding, and one that is replicated over several different measures, is that the population most likely on average to manifest significant change is the “Truly Gay” population … Common sense and dominant clinical professional opinion would clearly predict that these would be the research subjects least likely to report fundamental change, and yet consistently it was this group that reported the greatest degree of change.2
As believers in Jesus Christ, those are exactly the results we would expect. They bear out the words of 2 Peter 1:3-4:
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
Peter says that the patterns of sinful desire lead to corruption. He also says that believers in Jesus Christ can escape that corruption by the power of Jesus Christ mediated through the promises in the Word of God. One of the most precious and powerful truths in the Bible is that believers are not locked into the corruption created by their strong, sinful desires. They can escape. They can be free.
A Story of Change
I once counseled a man named Tony who always knew he was different. As a child he preferred girl’s toys and girl’s clothes. As an adolescent he was only attracted to other boys. As an adult, his sexual relationships confirmed that he was gay. The day he revealed the truth to his parents they told him that they already knew. They made clear that they loved and accepted him for who he was. Shortly after this, he moved away to college, where friends who accepted his lifestyle surrounded him. Before long, Tony met Mike and the two began to live together. Tony was in love with Mike and had the support of his friends. Things were great.
Then one day, Tony met Jesus Christ. At a college event a student minister named Ethan shared the gospel with him. As Tony listened to the gospel, the words sunk down into his heart and he believed. Tony was born again. The Spirit who had come to dwell in Tony’s heart convicted him of sin and, without anyone encouraging him, he knew he needed to repent of his homosexuality. Tony shared this struggle with Ethan who connected him with a ministry that wanted to help him.
What followed was hard. Mike was hurt and angry when Tony broke up with him. He did not understand what happened to the man he loved. Tony’s parents had a similar response. They were concerned that their son had been brainwashed by “religious zealots.” Such negative responses were difficult for Tony, but he kept leaning into his new Christian community and trusting the Lord for strength to endure.
The next several years were difficult. Temptations were constant. Failure was common. Tony frequently felt wooed to return to his lifestyle, and sometimes he did. One night Mike came by to plead with him to return. Tony was overwhelmed with temptation and spent the night with Mike in a hotel room before making a final break with him. There were numerous times in those early years when Tony battled homosexual lust and indulged in pornography. Through it all, though, grace was growing in his heart.
I began counseling Tony five years into this struggle. I have had the honor of a front row seat as the Lord has changed him. Over the years, Tony’s patterns of desire and behavior have changed. About a year ago, he began to experience physical attraction to women. Tony was thankful for this, but it was never the main goal of our counseling together. Our goal was sexual purity. And that may or may not include sexual desire. Tony’s process of change would be just as legitimate without this experience since holiness is not tantamount to heterosexual desire.
Vines tells a few tragic stories of failure. I know those stories are out there. But it’s dishonest to ignore the other stories. What about the hundreds and thousands of Christians who are changing, like Tony? What about the many who pursue holiness in spite of their sinful desires? What about Wesley Hill?3 What about Sam Allberry?4 What about Christopher Yuan and Rosaria Butterfield?5 These Christians are, like all of us, trusting in Jesus on the road toward greater sexual purity.
A ‘Gay Christian’?
Vines assumes the existence of gay Christians because he is more familiar with homosexuality than he is with God’s powerful transforming grace. Vines wrote a book about homosexuality. How I wish he had written a book about the power of God to change people by his grace. If he had written a book about the power of Jesus to change people, he would know that there really is no such thing as a gay Christian.
The reason gay Christians do not exist is found in one of the passages that Vines attempted to revise, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. The apostle Paul says,
Or 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. And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
After listing sins that keep people out of the kingdom of God, Paul says, and such were some of you. It is hard to imagine sweeter words. I have committed sins on that list. You have too. Paul says, however, that for those whom Jesus has washed, sanctified and justified, their sins no longer define them. Jesus does.
In Christ, believers have a new identity. That is why a “gay Christian” is not consistent with the gospel of Jesus Christ. That doesn’t mean that change is easy. It is not. That doesn’t mean that people don’t struggle with homosexual desire. They do. That doesn’t mean that we know all the best ways to help people change. We need to grow in wisdom. It also doesn’t mean that people experience the fullness of change this side of heaven. Sin runs deep, and change is hard. But God takes all of us adulterers, murderers, drunks, swindlers — and homosexuals, too — and he changes who we are. He gives us a new identity. He no longer recognizes us by our sin, but by his own son.
All Christians are broken-hearted at the experience of pain by those who struggle with same-sex desires. Every believer in Jesus knows what it is to love things God hates. Every believer has experienced the large chasm between our life and the demands of the law.
Vines looks at that pain, however, and diagnoses the wrong problem. He sees the problem as the call to repentance, rather than the sinfulness of sin. He thinks that if he could just create a culture of acceptance then that will take away the pain.
But it won’t work. The reason: “the grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God will stand forever” (Isa 40:8). Years after people forget Vines’s book, the Word of God will still say the same thing. Furthermore, the Spirit who inspired it will still be testifying in the hearts of our fellow Christians who struggle against same-sex desire. Faithfulness requires that the church know what to say to our brothers and sisters in Christ who come to us for help with this problem. If we listen to Vines, we will lose our voice and fail those seeking God’s grace to change.
In writing a book focused on homosexuality, Vines misses the gospel. Jesus Christ promises change and a new identity to anyone who would repent. Repentance is not the dirty word that God and the Gay Christian presents it to be. Repentance is life, hope and peace. The call to repent is built on the precious promise that there is grace for you to be different regardless of your sinful desires.
Vines’s project is a tragic one because, if successful, it will keep the sheep from hearing the voice of the shepherd and from life and peace and change.
That means all of us who know the truth must love our homosexual neighbors by letting them know that Jesus is still calling, softly and tenderly. He will draw near with powerful, transforming grace to anyone who repents. All of us who know that truth must renew our commitment to put a loving arm around our brothers who used to be defined by homosexuality, and let them know that they are now defined by Christ. We need to tell them that in Christ they are not gay. All that Christ is and all that he has is theirs by faith. We must remind one another that Christ will — sooner or later — use his magnificent power to reorient all of us to the freedom from sinful desire.
ENDNOTES
1 https://www.apa.org/topics/lgbt/orientation.pdf
2 Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse, Ex-Gays? A Longitudinal Study of Religiously Mediated Change in Sexual Orientation (Downer’s Grove: IVP Academic) 2007, 275-76.
3 Wesley Hill, Washed and Waiting: Reflections on Christian Faithfulness and Homosexuality (Grand Rapids: Zondervan: 2010) Hill uses the language of “gay Christian” but in a very different way than Matthew Vines.
4 Sam Allberry, Is God Anti-Gay? And Other Questions about Homosexuality, the Bible, and Same-Sex Attraction (UK: The Good Book Co., 2013)
5 Christopher Yuan, Out of a Far Country: A Gay Son’s Journey to God. A Broken Mother’s Search for Hope (Colorado Springs: Waterbrook, 2011). Rosaria Butterfield, Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: An English Professor’s Journey into Christian Faith (Pittsburg: Crown and Covenant, 2012).
