Gay Rights: A Christian Response

The issue of homosexuality has been one of the thorny issues that the Christian church has to contend with these days. Sadly for the church, we have articulated our opinions in flimsy tones - that only reveal our inability to comprehend the complexity of the argument.

Below is a response from a fellow Christian blogger who is part of the e-community that I am in. While one may not agree with everything he says, at least it represents a honest answer from a Christian that knows the nature of the topic that is talked about.

For publishing purposes, I have made some changes to the names of certain groups, nationalities mentioned in the original letter (changes made are in bold).

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First, let me say that I hold no grudges against homosexuals. Not only that, I fully support your timely call to treat our fellow friends who are homosexuals with respect, understanding and compassion.

The authorities must be vigilant to bring swift justice upon those immoral individuals who verbally or physically abused them.

Now, I accept my homosexual friends as dignified human beings. And they understand that I do so without condoning their behavior. In my humble opinion, homosexuality is immoral just as heterosexual adultery is immoral.

However, if you say that in a public forum nowadays, you are immediately called derogatory names like “homophobic”, “heterosexist”, intolerant or hate-monger.

I don’t use bad labels to publicly stigmatize people who I disagree with. But name-calling is often used to condemn people who disagree with the 'morality' of homosexual behaviour.

This is a convenient but unhelpful way of muddying the waters. Now I may be wrong but at least my views are based on principles, not prejudice or prudery.

So what’s the big deal about homosexual behavior?

You seem to argue that homosexuality is ‘normal’ or morally benign because “being gay is their choice, they have the right to choose their preferences”. That’s the “freedom of choice” argument.

But let’s think about this: Can people choose whatever sexual preferences they fancy?

Apparently not. We are not morally entitled to choose preferences like pedophilia, necrophilia or extramarital affairs, for that matter.

Why not? Because it’s wrong, even if it’s done in private.

Now, it may be objected that we are comparing apples and oranges. Unlike pedophilia, homosexual behavior may be consensual.

What’s wrong with gay lifestyle as long as “the couple truly love and accept each other”?

But again, the argument does not hold water after a moment’s reflection.

Are people allowed to commit adultery or incest “as long as they love and accept each other”?

Even a heterosexual man who falls in love with his own sister or daughter (yucks!) can’t simply marry anyone he wants. So mutual consent simply does not justify immoral behaviours.

Now, I do agree with your description of homosexual practice becoming more “normal” or publicly visible as seen in instances of gay clerics, Ang Lee movies and celebrity tabloids.

But we should not conclude that therefore homosexuality ought to be considered “normative”.

Simply put, what is “normal” (as-is) may not be “normative” (ought-to-be).
Heavy drinkers often get liver cancer (what is). Does that mean everyone ought to get drunk?

Yes, homosexuals are among us. But it doesn't follow that their behavior is a moral norm just as having Mat Rempits (illegal motorcycle racers) around us does not mean that we ought to encourage illegal races.

There is also another sense of the word “normal”, meaning “things are functioning in the way it was meant to be”. When things work “normally”, they are fulfilling what they are designed to do.

In this sense, homosexual practice is “abnormal”.Sexual organs were obviously not meant to fit in bodies the way homosexuals use them.

So we should not confuse the call to accept the reality of homosexuals among us in a spirit of tolerance with advocacy of homosexual behavior as morally acceptable.

We are quite willing to tolerate homosexuality, for the simple fact that tolerance is reserved for behavior one thinks is inappropriate or immoral.

Now don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of confusion when it comes to making such distinctions.

I am not asking people to be bigoted gay-bashers, spread hate or boycott Elton John’s music just because there are moral objections against their lifestyles. This kind of thinking would blame PEMADAM everytime a drug addict gets beat up behind a Chow Kit Road alley.

Whether Michael Jackson molested kids or not is irrelevant to the oustanding quality of his songs and dance moves, right? So what?

And whether he did it or not does not make pedophilia morally ‘acceptable’ too, does it?

Lastly, I share your hope for a period of social reform in our nation that makes for a more equitable, just and caring society for all citizens regardless of creed, skin color or economic status.

Ethnicity has nothing to do with morality. With homosexuality we're talking about something different – a particular behavior that most people find odd, unnatural and deeply immoral.

As yet, there is no confirmed biological cause for homosexuality. Even if a biological factor may contribute to a homosexual tendency, it does not determine our choices. Human beings are not programmed robots whose destiny is determined by nature.

Some heterosexuals may ‘naturally’ feel a biological urge to grope female pedestrians because they are ‘born that way”. But they are not entitled with ‘equal rights’ to follow those hormone-induced inclinations.

Why not? Not because of blind prejudice, prudery or lack of understanding.
Simply because it’s unethical.

They should still have the freedom to vote, find security and equal employment opportunity as any other citizen in our country. But no one – heterosexual or homosexual – has the right to unethical behavior.

Chang Wei Hao, a heterosexual sinner being rescued by Grace, is also an avid blogger at The Agora.

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Used with permission.

Right Wing Morality and the Christian Mind

Another issue I have been thinking for a while - something that we have all took for granted most of the time - is the issue of Christian morality.

The problem of morality is something that involves us all, yet it remains one of the least understood (much less articulated) areas in contemporary Christianity. What do I mean?

Firstly, churches have largely forgotten what it means to be a church - that is, a community of God's people set apart in this world and called to be holy and blameless. Of course, the history of the Christian church is a tainted one (sometimes by the shedding of innocent blood), but then again, Christians (including myself) have always been less than saintly on this side of heaven (this is no excuse though for the need for repentance).

Now, what erks me is not so much that we have been less-than-perfect (sometimes even wilfully), but that the church - under the throes of modernity - have capitulated without even knowing so. In the process, we have exchanged the essence of true Christian morality for a counterfeit version, one that is shallow at best and hypocritically despicable at worst. This I will term as the Right-wing morality.

For instance, someone who does not drink, dance or smoke and attends church regularly is generally seen as a model Christian of sorts. On the other hand, a tattoo-toting, cigarette-wielding alcoholic is almost immediately discriminated against - sometimes even without knowing his name. Lest anyone thinks I am a sword-flashing angry young man of the hippie generation, let me assure you I am not. In addition, I am not against folks who do not drink, dance or smoke (and certainly not against regular church-worship) nor for those who dress and act simply because of some latest fashion fad.

However, the error of the church lies in her tendency to polarize according to cultural, socio-political trends and agendas rather than in faithful obedience to the Word of God. So instead of standing up for holiness, righteousness and truth - as opposed to profanity, falsehood and sin - we drum up categories like Conservative vs. Liberals, Communists vs. Capitalists, Right vs. left, Science vs. religion, the list goes on...

Now, I am not advocating that we cannot have categories with which to think and articulate our ideas within - except that these categories cannot sufficiently take into account the totality and reality of the Christian faith. Unfortunately, many Christians fall into the trap of aligning themselves with the dominant ideology of their times without realising that such ideologies - while containing valid moral aphorisms - actually do more harm than good as they create a false sense of self-righteousness. No wonder then, the harshest words of Christ and John the Baptist were not directed at the tax-collectors nor prostitutes, but against the Pharisees and the Sadducees.

Unless the Church of God can recover its true missiology, we'll be forever conducting our operations in the wrong battlefields...leaving the real work undone.

Spiritual Musings: Reforming a perishing church

Haven't been blogging for awhile, reason being I simply just can't find the time to do so. But this is one post I must get off my chest - it is something that has bothered me for sometime this year (and perhaps the past few years).

Now those who know me will know that I come from a traditional evangelical church and that I currently serve as a Sunday school teacher in the Chinese ministry. I have been attending the Mandarin congregation since young and have found good friends in the course of the years (interestingly though, most of my best pals have left church, for various reasons I will not elaborate).

I have been teaching Sunday school in church for about four years (and in the process challenged myself to improve my Mandarin). During those years, it has become increasingly evident that the Sunday school education ministry has to reform herself or die a natural (or rather, unnatural) death. The reason being that we are unable to penetrate the hearts and minds of our Christian children, thus leaving them virtually a non-existent foundation of Christian truths upon which they are able to stand upon.

During these years, it has been my great privilege and blessing to have encountered many good Christian brothers and sisters outside of the four walls of my church - many of whom have shared similar sentiments and the burden of preaching and living out the Christian faith in a hostile world.

Nevertheless, the challenges of trying to enact changes within the Sunday school ministry go on. Over the years, I have attempted to stretch the contents of the current curricular, in the belief and conviction that my students are intelligent and are capable of comprehending deep and profound truths. Sometimes, it is agonizing to see well-meant folks speaking to these youths (some of them straight As students) in a manner that make a mockery of their abilities. Somehow, I cannot imagine the early church fathers - from Paul to Augustine - to folks like Luther, Calvin, Spurgeon, Whitfield, Jon Edwards, Kuyyper, Schaeffer etc... ever doing this. Whatever happened to evangelical theology???

Right now, our congregation is going through a difficult period due to tensions with the English-speaking congregation (for reasons I will not go into). All I can and will say is that these reasons - valid or otherwise - say more about the attitudes of the people in church towards their faith than the rightness or wrongness of the explanations themselves.

Whatever the outcome may be (of which I am probably in no position to decide on), I will continue to strive for the excellence of the Sunday school system. Already the Word of God is bearing fruit - slowly but surely. Next year, I intend to embark on a year-long (if not longer) course with some of the university folks in church where I hope to explore with them the Word of God - and its relevancy upon the world we live in. There are tough - but exciting - times ahead... there is much that is yet to be done.