Jesus on gays
Does Jesus Ever Chat About Homosexuality?
I was in my mid-20s living in San Diego. I connected some people from a nearby church and went to a Pride pride to pass out water, give hugs, and hold signs saying “We are sorry the church hasn’t loved you the way Jesus would” (or something along those lines). All of a sudden, I was descended upon by a film crew with a microphone asking me what Jesus had to say about homosexuality. I was not expecting this, but I was giddy to share the love of Christ and talk about how we are all sinners saved by grace and how Jesus never singled out homosexuality as worse than any other type of sexual immorality. In the middle of my sentence (which I had been certain would be received with amazement, tears, and more questions about how to understand this Jesus guy), the film crew interrupted me and said, “NOTHING. He said nothing about homosexuality.” And then they walked away without a synonyms, off to discover their next “interview.”
I sat there dumbfounded. What had just happened? And was it true that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality? And if not, why not?
Spoiler alert: Jesus really doesn’t ever address homosexuality specifically, and in our cu
If homosexuality is a sin, why didn’t Jesus ever talk about it?
Answer
Many who help same-sex marriage and gay rights contend that, since Jesus never mentioned homosexuality, He did not consider it to be sinful. After all, the argument goes, if homosexuality is bad, why did Jesus cure it as a non-issue?
It is technically true that Jesus did not specifically address homosexuality in the Gospel accounts; however, He did speak clearly about sexuality in general. Concerning marriage, Jesus stated, “At the beginning the Originator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a human will leave his father and mother and be combined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh[.]’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has connected together, let no one separate” (Matthew 19:4–6). Here Jesus clearly referred to Adam and Eve and affirmed God’s intended design for marriage and sexuality.
For those who pursue Jesus, sexual practices are limited. Rather than take a permissive view of sexual immorality and divorce, Jesus affirmed that people are either to be single and celibate or married and faithful to one spouse of the opposite gender. Jesus considere
The Gospel for a Gay Friend
Josh had always known he was different. From his earliest memories, he looked at some boys as more than just peers. His parents knew he was “special,” but they loved him for it. He learned to wear a mask and compete the part of a “normal” kid until he graduated from high school.
In college, Josh decided it was time to be who he really was. He made friends with other lgbtq+ people and set out on sexual explorations. Josh found a refuge in his gay people and developed bonds that ran much deeper than sexual flings. Though his parents distanced themselves and old friends turned a cold shoulder, Josh felt that he was finally free in his new identity as a gay man.
Josh is no caricature. His experiences and story are true, and they are common.
What if Josh were your neighbor or your co-worker or your son? How would you provide the gospel to him? How would you tell him about the forgiveness of sins, the community of believers, and genuine identity in Jesus?
In one meaning, there is no difference in the way we’d share the good news with Josh compared to any other person. Just because Josh is sexually attracted to people of the alike gender doesn’t make him foundation
This article is part of the What Did Jesus Teach? series.
Silence Equals Support?
In a 2012 article for Slate online, Will Oremus asked a provocative question: Was Jesus a homophobe?1
The article was occasioned by a story about a gay teenager in Ohio who was suing his high school after institution officials prohibited him from wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is Not a Homophobe.”
Oremus was less concerned about the legal issues of the story than he was about the accuracy of the statement on the shirt. Oremus suggests that Jesus’s views on homosexuality were more inclusive than Paul’s. He writes,
While it’s justified to assume that Jesus and his fellow Jews in first-century Palestine would have disapproved of same-sex attracted sex, there is no record of his ever having mentioned homosexuality, permit alone expressed particular revulsion about it. . . . Never in the Bible does Jesus himself offer an explicit prohibition of homosexuality.
Oremus seems to suggest that since Jesus never explicitly mentioned homosexuality, he must not own been very concerned about it.
There are at least two reasons that we should be skeptical of this view.