From a biblical perspective, sexual immorality is an expansive concept. We tend to cluster it in small groups for convenience/preference sake (fornication, adultery, homosexuality, incest, bestiality, pornography, etc.) but it is collectively a pervasive sin among humanity. I believe the simplest definition of sexual immorality is any kind of sexual thought or activity outside the realm of what Scripture identifies as marriage. Period.
As the editor of The Stand I see a lot of comments from the homosexual community and its supporters (many who identify themselves as Christians) about the lack of calling out all the other practitioners of sexual immorality like we call out homosexuals (our blog authors don’t call out homosexuals. They simply reveal the inherent physical, societal, and spiritual dangers associated with it and identify it as a sin). One commenter wrote “Homosexuality is actually perhaps one of the least committed sexual sins, as compared to adultery.” That is representative of many of the complaints I see in our comments section following blogs whose themes gravitate to the sinfulness of homosexuality.
There are a couple of things I would like to point out about that kind of thinking. First, isn’t that an admission that homosexuals are indeed a very small minority of people in society who are attempting to drive the whole culture? Yet the way this is being played out in media outlets you would think half the population of the world is homosexual. I agree that homosexuality is a sin less practiced than adultery. Only because homosexuals are a relatively small proportion of the human race. Thus, we’re talking more about an agenda than propositional reality. Of course homosexuality is less prevalent than adultery because homosexuals comprise less than 2% of the population!
Second, to point out that it is somehow unfair to complain about homosexuality more than adultery since adultery is so much more prevalent is to be willfully blind about reality. How many adulterers do you know who are doing their dead level best to legitimize adultery in society? Oh, they may be trying to legitimize their particular adulterous situation (“my husband drove me to it”, “my wife didn’t meet my needs”, “our marriage was a mistake anyway”) but who do you know that has been involved in adultery who is trying to convince everyone that adultery is a virtue? Every practitioner of sexual immorality may indeed want their particular brand of it to be legal but only the gay community is demanding that it be legal and liked!
Homosexuality may have gone from being considered deviant sexual behavior to an acceptable expression of human sexuality by culture, society, and even large segments of the American church. Homosexual marriage may be on the pathway to legality in the near future. But one thing homosexuality will never and can never be is sexually moral behavior. The Bible is unequivocal about it in both testaments. It is a sin. One of many but a sin nonetheless.
The gay rights movement will never be on the same high moral plane as the civil rights movement because it is not undergirded by righteousness. Even a simpleton can see that demanding recognition on the basis of sexual identity is nowhere near demanding equality on the basis of race. The Civil Rights movement had the force and weight of righteousness on its side. The gay rights movement does not. Black Americans were not wanting special recognitions and rights. They were wanting equal rights. As has been pointed out over and over, everyone has the right to marry a person of the opposite sex in this country. Consequently, homosexuals are seeking special rights. And take a look at the pictures below. One is a recent gay rights parade and the other is a moment captured from a Birmingham, AL civil rights march in (I think) 1963. It is ludicrous and patently offensive to suggest that those on the left are suffering the injustices of those on the right.
The tone of a majority of the gay rights movement is one of “you better learn to like it because we’re winning the war.” But it’s not a battle for equality as it was with the civil rights movement. It’s a demand for acceptance. Acceptance of unrighteousness. And even if the unrighteous pass laws in this country that recognize homosexual unions as legitimate marriages it will never ever be accepted by those who believe in the holiness of God. And more importantly, because homosexuality is the fruit of sin, it will never be legitimate before God.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. got in the driver’s seat and drove this nation to a place God wanted him to take it. While there is clearly still trouble concerning race relations, no one is seriously arguing that the civil rights movement of the 50’ – 60’s was wrong, morally corrupt, or unnecessary. We needed to acknowledge equality among the races. The gay movement is entirely different.
No one at the American Family Association is suggesting that homosexuals aren’t worthy of love, dignity, or fellowship. All of us are in daily need of mercy, grace, and forgiveness from God and each other. But when I sin, the last thing on earth that I need is for those who care for me to convince me that maybe once upon a time that was a sin against God but now, being that times have changed, I shouldn’t even consider it a sin. Even worse would be their admonition that by engaging in my particular sin I have somehow become virtuous. What a pathway toward sorrow and pain I would be on.
Proverbs 14:34 says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people.” Our hope and prayer is that we can join hands with all who are guilty of sexual immorality and every other sin, bow our heads and say with heartfelt authenticity, “God, be merciful to me a sinner” (Luke 18:13).
