GAY TRUTH

Is “gender” a social construct? Should male or female be a matter of personal choice? Are there more than two “genders”? Ten years ago, these questions were unheard of apart from English and Women’s Studies departments at secular universities. But as peculiar and even sacrilegious as it may sound, many people today would say yes to all three. Maybe your kindergartener has a playmate being raised “gender neutral.” Or your coffee shop is starting to use name tags with “preferred pronouns.” Or a bit closer to home, you might have a family member who is “transitioning.” Although the modern West has lost its boundaries and celebrates a plethora of so-called gender options, how should Christians understand and critique today’s concepts of gender in light of Scripture? We begin with understanding, and not conflating, four categories: sex, gender, norms, and callings. Sex: Male and Female The term sex has a couple of definitions. It can refer to the act of sexual intercourse or the cate

In what has to be a new low for the  New York Times , the Gray Lady (or should we now say the Bearded Lady?) has published an op-ed piece titled “ Is God Transgender? ” by a New York rabbi named Mark Sameth. Cousin to a man who “transitioned to a woman” in the 1970s, Sameth contends that “the Hebrew Bible, when reading in its original language, offers a highly elastic view of gender.” He marshals many purported examples of gender fluidity in the Hebrew scriptures, in order to argue that religion should not be put in service of “social prejudices” against transgendering. But his treatment of the Bible amounts to propaganda, not scholarship. Proposing that the God of Israel was worshipped originally as “a dual-gendered deity,” the rabbi asserts, untenable, that the etymological derivation of Yahweh is “He/She” (HUHI). His argument requires that the Tetragrammaton be read, not from right to left (as Hebrew always is), but from left to right: The four-Hebrew-letter name of God, w

Here we are at the time of the San Francisco gay pride parade. LGBTQ+ people will be proudly demonstrating and asking society to celebrate their gay and transgendered lifestyles. I know that the church will have mixed reactions to this display of pride. Some will turn their noses up at the idea that anyone could possibly be proud of such an abhorrent lifestyle. Others will be glad that their homosexual friends are finally able to find some peace and acceptance.  They may even wonder if being gay isn’t as bad as the Bible seems to suggest. But as for me, I was that boy who grew up having only sexual desires for males and none for females, being made fun of and called “faggot” on the playground, going through life feeling there was something deeply wrong with me at my uttermost core.  If one day, I had decided I couldn’t take it anymore and I came out of the closet—the most vulnerable, dangerous, and potentially isolating thing I could possibly do—but was then welcomed with op

There’s a terrible problem with the Church when some of its leaders are pushing LGBT propaganda in conflict with Church teachings. God is holy and God is unable to make you sinful. We inherit a sinful nature because of Adam and we choose to sin. Homosexuality is a sin. You can't blame God for sinning. Host Raymond Arroyo asked about the significance of the Church working with the term “LGBT” as part of the Youth Synod. Despite not having surfaced in pre-Synod discussions the term LGBT did get inserted into the Synod’s working document – the first time for such ideologically-driven language to be included in a Vatican document.  “It is a terrible problem for the Church, precisely because some of the leadership is pushing the line that Father James Martin has been pushing in his books and speeches, which is that God made you this way,” Murray said. “And the assertions made: God made me a homosexual, God made me a bisexual, God made me a transgender person – and this is not

What do you do when the biblical text is against your position, explicitly so? What do you do when not one single verse supports your viewpoint? It’s simple. You create new verses out of thin air. You rewrite the Bible to your liking. That’s exactly what biblical scholar Idan Dershowitz has done. In his New York Times op-ed piece , Dr. Dershowitz summarizes his 2017 academic article published in the journal Hebrew Bible and Ancient Israel. (Is it any surprise that the Times decided to publish his piece?) Dr. Dershowitz claims that “Before Leviticus was composed, outright prohibitions against homosexual sex — whether between men or women — were practically unheard-of in the ancient world.” And he believes that Leviticus was “created gradually over a long period and includes the words of more than one writer.” He then argues that “an earlier edition of Leviticus … may have been silent on the matter of sex between men.” (Note carefully: He means a non-existent edition of Leviticus. A Lev

Author: Rachel Gilson. It’s easy for people to misunderstand why I left a life of romantic and sexual relationships with women. They string the list of renunciations together like a necklace — no to a former love, no to former sexual patterns, no to fulfilling unasked-for attractions, no to a way of life — and to some this looks like a type of adornment. To many more, a chafing collar. My life, however, is sustained by a resounding  yes , a yes that is only found in Jesus Christ . Like a diamond that weighs down your hand, that makes you avert your eyes for its rainbow brilliance, coming to know Jesus has continually revealed just how dingy, superficial, and man-made the things were I used to consider a treasure. But God has saved me and shown me that saying yes to Jesus is far better. A Better Authenticity Perhaps nothing carries more cultural cache today than the longing for the authentic, especially in the self. But how can we tell what our authentic self is? The a