People to Be Loved: Why Homosexuality Is Not Just an Issue

by Preston M. Sprinkle

If the gospel is not good news for gay people, then it’s not good news.

If the church is ever going to solve this issue, it needs to stop seeing it as an “issue.” Homosexuality is not an issue to be solved; it’s about people who need to love and be loved.

Three things seem to be necessary for marriage according to Genesis 2: (1) both partners need to be human, (2) both partners come from different families (2:24), and—if I’m right about kenegdo—(3) both partners display sexual difference.

According to the statistics, when young non-Christians were asked about the first thing that came to mind when they thought of evangelical Christianity, you know what they said? Ninety-one percent said that the first thing that comes to mind when they think of Christians is that Christians are “antihomosexual.”

It’s an offense both to Paul and to the cross of Christ to look down your spiritual nose at the homosexual acts in Romans 1 and ignore your own greed, slander, envy, covetousness, and judgmentalism, which are also mentioned in Romans 1.

When overfed and overpaid straight Christians condemn gay people while they neglect the poor, stockpile wealth, and indulge in luxurious living, they stand on the wrong side of Jesus’ debates with the Pharisees.

Paul’s main reason for prohibiting same-sex eroticism is that it goes against the Creator’s intention for male-female sexual relations.

But let me be clear: If God’s Word is inspired and authoritative, and if greed, reviling, drunkenness, and sexual immorality (including same-sex relations) are sin, and if someone is engaging in these behaviors and doesn’t have desire to repent, and if your church agrees with all of these things (it’s not just one person’s opinion but is shared by the leaders of the church), then yes, in the context of love and tears and truth: the perpetually unrepentant greedy, revilers, drunks, and sexually immoral who claim to be a Jesus-follower should be “put out of your fellowship” (1 Cor. 5:2).

There are many blessings I’ve experienced that flow from my marriage. But if you think that marriage is the only way to say yes to life, yes to love, and yes to happiness, then you’ll not only be disappointed if you get married, but you will also forgo the cruciform joy that is possible in your singleness.

Jesus does not have a prejudice against any human being. But if he did, it would be against judgmental, homophobic religious people.

We should not be surprised when a secular nation makes decisions that reflect secular thinking. We should not think the sky is falling when non-Christians embrace a non-Christian ethic. It’s Babylon, and we are not Babylonians.