Can you be gay & a Christian?
Image via WikipediaCan You Be Gay & Christian?
by David Kyle Foster
For months now, people have been asking me to comment on various "Christian" books and articles that seem to suggest that you can be actively gay and Christian.
It is important that we think clearly about this matter, because those of us who are emotionally tied to gay loved ones really want it to be true and those who don't sin in those ways and who are proud of it (-i.e., self-righteous) really want God to send fire on them all.
Truth, as usual, is far more nuanced than either position. It is clear from Scripture that when someone truly gives their life to Jesus Christ, they are made a new creation and now have a natural love of holiness and aversion to sin.
The Holy Spirit begins to nurture that new-born love of righteousness in them, and over a period of time, will challenge them (issue by issue) to choose to love Jesus more than the things (and ways) of the world. So a new desire for and progression toward holiness is the fruit of genuine salvation.
Some people take longer than others to realize the sinfulness of one sin or another, but they eventually do. The Holy Spirit sees to that. Also, if there are a great many serious issues that need convicting, healing and transforming in someone's life, and since God doesn't make us face them all at once, it will take longer for a person to get to the lesser issues.
(Smokers suffer greatly in this regard.) So, the transformation is not instant nor is it total this side of heaven. However, homosexual behavior is one of the more serious issues, as evidenced by how it is spoken of in both Old and New Testaments and will be addressed by the Holy Spirit very early in a person's Christian life.
All that said, there should be a transformation in an active homosexual who is newly born again that begins with a recognition of the behavior as sin, a renouncing of the behavior, and a commitment to the healing process that in many cases and over time can result in the emergence of the heterosexual affections that had always been there, but that had been suppressed or damaged in the face of trauma and/or neglect.
That means that a person who claims to be born again but who continues to live an unrepentant, active homosexual life for the rest of their life, is a self-deceived person who has never really been saved.
Yes - God alone is Judge, and He has made His judgment in this matter crystal clear to us all not only in nature, but in passages like Romans 1:18-32 and 1 Cor 6:9-11.
In most cases, conviction of the sin of homosexual practice comes at the moment of being saved. They repent of and renounce the practice and God comes in with His power to help keep them from falling. In other cases, it may take a few weeks or months before they finally see the truth of God's will in the matter and finally renounce it.
In such cases, the person is genuinely saved from their first profession of faith, even though he or she has not yet gained the necessary wisdom or the facility of utilizing the power of the Holy Spirit to overcome compulsions that may have been deeply entrenched demonically and/or emotionally.
There may even be fits and starts along the way of commitment to holiness, as the person learns how to appropriate the power of God to quench temptation rather than fighting it on their own, but there still is the conviction and persistent progress toward removing homosexual behavior completely and permanently from their life.
One recent article by Andy Comiskey that I recommend can be found at:
I also recommend watching our interviews with Dr. Robert Gagnon and Dr. Michael Brown, which can be viewed at:
