I am accepting of people of all sexual orientations,\u00a0but the following point was made to me recently: “Gay people cannot be normal. If everyone were gay starting tomorrow, the human race would die out, so being gay cannot be nature’s intended way.” I’m having trouble finding a logical counter-argument. Do you know one?<\/p>\n
–Gordon, Herndon, Va.<\/p>\n
Marilyn’s answer: Yes. The original argument is defective.\u00a0Substitute the word “male” for “gay,” and\u00a0you’ll see the flaw: “Male people cannot be normal, if everyone were male starting tomorrow, the human race would die out, so being male cannot be nature’s intended way” Or you could substitute the word “female.” In either case, the argument makes no sense: Being male or female is perfectly normal. [Parade Magazine<\/em>, April 7, 2002]<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The reason the argument makes no sense is that the reasoning is flawed. “Gay” does not refer to gender, as such, but to a kind of sexual activity (homosexual: same-sex with same-sex). Homosexuals are both male and female. They could reproduce should their preference be in that direction. However, if all were males (or females) then it would not be possible to bear offspring. Hence, that which describes activity is made equal to that which refers to gender. If all were males it would be impossible to reproduce. If all were “gay” it would still be possible to have children. She compares apples with oranges.<\/p>\n
The real problem is that homosexuality is a sin. “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet<\/em>” (Romans 1:27). We need to be “accepting” of them in that we need to love them and reach out to them with the gospel. We do not, however, need to love the garment stained by sin. “And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh<\/em>” (Jude 23).<\/p>\n
A further problem is that Marilyn has joined that large unwashed crowd that wants us to overlook sin in the name of tolerance. I, for one, might be more inclined to be tolerant if the “tolerance advocates” were more tolerant to views that do not coincide with theirs.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Floyd Chappelear Sentry Magazine, June 2002 I am accepting of people of all sexual orientations,\u00a0but the following point was made to me recently: “Gay people cannot be normal. If everyone were gay starting tomorrow, the human race would die out, so being gay cannot be nature’s intended way.” I’m having trouble finding a logical…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[35],"class_list":["post-31755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-homosexuality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15192,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/telling-people-that-homosexuals-can-change-is-doing-them-harm\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":0},"title":"Telling people that homosexuals can change is doing them harm","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm sorry, but in saying that people can change and pointing them to Exodus International, you're doing a terrible amount of harm. If you're going to say homosexuality is some sort of terrible life-altering, life-absorbing sin, it should be comparable to alcoholism, right? That would be good news, since\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":55331,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/a-biblical-view-of-marriage-and-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":1},"title":"A Biblical View of Marriage and Homosexuality","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"by Doy Moyer Christians should be able to define clearly what the Bible teaches are marriage and sexuality, particularly in a cultural climate that increasingly defends homosexuality. This is really about what the Bible teaches, so let's walk through this a little. Before looking at the biblical case, we need\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":51947,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-galatians-328-support-gender-diversity\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":2},"title":"Does Galatians 3:28 support gender diversity?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 19, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi Mr. Hamilton, I've found out that a large number (possibly a majority) of my friends are LGBTQQIAA+. Some are genderqueer, transgender, gay, lesbian, pansexual, and asexual. A very large percentage of my year group is not straight or cisgender. I know that having homosexual sex is wrong. Should\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4974,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/no-evidence-people-are-born-gay-or-transgender\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":3},"title":"No Evidence People Are Born Gay or Transgender","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 9, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Source: Tyler O'Neil, \"Johns Hopkins Research: No Evidence People Are Born Gay or Transgender\", PJ Media, 23 Aug 2016. Source: Dr. Lawrence S. Mayer and Dr. Paul R. McHugh, \"Sexuality and Gender,\" The New Atlantis, No. 50, Fall 2016. \"The understanding of sexual orientation as an innate, biologically fixed property\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8607,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/genetic-links-to-homosexuality\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":4},"title":"Genetic Links to Homosexuality?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 30, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Source:\u00a0Andrea Ganna, \"Large-scale GWAS reveals insights into the genetic architecture of same-sex sexual behavior,\" Science Magazine, 30 August 2019 The claim is that they found five possible influences toward homosexual behavior in DNA, but at the same time the report is full of qualifiers. \"In aggregate, all tested genetic variants\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Issues"","block_context":{"text":"Issues","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/issues\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":59530,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/seeking-to-establish-their-own-righteousness\/","url_meta":{"origin":31755,"position":5},"title":"Seeking to Establish Their Own Righteousness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 24, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton A series of articles came across my desk that caused me to realize that our society is not just abandoning the teachings of Christ. People realize that society needs moral standards in order to function, but without the standards of God to guide them, society is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31755\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}