The Plague of Perversion
One of the most potentially devastating movements to evolve from the environment of human degeneracy in recent decades is the so-called “Gay Movement.” The homosexual “lifestyle,” with considerable support from the entertainment industry, and significant publicity from the news media, is a growing phenomenon.
No longer content to practice their perversion behind closed doors, homosexuals have moved into the mainstream of society and are flaunting their immorality in the most extravagant ways imaginable. Marching in “Gay Pride” parades, they thrust lewdness in the faces of men, women, and children alike. Their agenda has no limits.
They are demanding their full “human rights” which, according to them, include the right to hold influential governmental positions, the right to teach in schools, the right to “marry,” and the right not to be “discriminated against” in any job. Huge corporations have capitulated to the powerful gay-rights lobby, and even cities (such as San Francisco) have caved in to this movement so that private businesses have been forced to acknowledge “civil unions.”Now, “gay marriage” is in their nation-wide agenda as they await the snail-paced process of legal review on a state-by-state basis.
The very fact that so many within our country have taken a tolerant—even sympathetic—view of this perverted movement, ought to be a danger signal to every moral-minded person in the United States.
The Cause of Homosexuality
Exactly what is responsible for homosexual orientation? Some medical authorities assert that homosexuality is either the result of genetic problems (abnormal chromosome variations) or psychological aberrations. It is now known that in most instances of homosexuality this is not the case.
Forty-five years ago, Pritchard’s study of male homosexuals found a normal complement of XY chromosomes in every case (1962, 108). In 1974 the American Psychiatric Association voted to remove homosexuality from its list of mental illnesses. In the spring of 1979, after a decade-long study, sex researchers Masters and Johnson concluded that homosexuality for most persons is neither a physical or emotional illness, nor is it a genetic disorder; rather, it is a learned behavior. Study of this subject led Dr. Jerry Bergman to state: “It is not understood exactly what learning produces a gay sexual orientation, but because this behavior is learned, quite possibly it could be learned from other homosexuals” (1981; cf also 1995). (For more information, see the article on the so-called Gay Gene by Harrub and Miller.)
The Biblical View
In the sacred Scriptures, homosexuality is not viewed as a medical issue; rather, it is a moral problem. The name of Sodom lives in the infamy of history. So well known is the biblical narrative concerning the perversions of Sodom and Gomorrah, that the term “Sodomite,” across the centuries, became synonymous with “homosexual.” Recent allegations by modernistic theologians who suggest that the sin of Sodom was mere “inhospitality,” or an intended “gang rape,” contains not a shred of evidence.
When Jehovah’s messengers came to Lot’s house in Sodom, certain base men surrounded the dwelling and urged Abraham’s nephew to send out the visitors “that we may know them” (Genesis 19:5). The word “know” (Hebrew yada; Greek ginosko) is sometimes employed in the Bible as a euphemism for “to have sexual relations with” (cf. Genesis 4:1; Matthew 1:25). The men of Sodom clearly wanted to engage in sexual activity with Lot’s guests.
These perverts are characterized as “wicked” and their sin is said to be “very grievous” (Gensis 18:20ff). In the New Testament, the inspired Peter affirmed that God turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes and “condemned them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those that should live ungodly.” Yet righteous Lot, who was “sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked” and daily vexed with their “lawless deeds,” was delivered (2 Peter 2:6-8). Later, the law of Moses declared: “And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind both of them have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall surely be upon them” (Leviticus 20:13).
Some claim, however, that since many Old Testament regulations are obsolete today (e.g., the wearing of a garment of mingled fabric—Deuteronomy 22:11), so also injunctions against sodomy may be similarly ignored. This is a woeful blunder. Some Old Testament regulations were strictly ceremonial in nature and thus solely a part of that temporary system. Homosexuality is a moral evil that assaults the home, the very foundation of human society; it has never been tolerated by God.
The Teaching of Jesus Christ
Some religionists (homosexuals and their sympathizers), while admitting that certain New Testament passages appear to condemn homosexual conduct, nonetheless deny that Jesus personally censured such acts. This is totally inaccurate.
First, Christ clearly taught that the doctrine of his inspired spokesmen ultimately was from him. To the seventy disciples under his commission, he said, “He who hears you hears me; and he who rejects you rejects me” (Luke 10:16). Paul, who was very outspoken about sodomy, affirmed that the things he wrote were “the commandment of the Lord” (1 Corinthians 14:37).
Second, when Jesus spoke of marriage as that which was ordained of God, he stated it was for male and female (Matthew 19:4-6).
Third, the Lord’s concession, that fornication against an innocent spouse is grounds for divorce by the victim, condemns sodomy since this vile practice is but a form of fornication. This point needs some elaboration. Unless there are contextual indications (either immediate or remote) which suggest that biblical terms have been given special meanings, the words of the sacred text are to be understood as they were commonly employed by the writers of that era. The word “fornication” (Greek porneia) was used in antiquity in a generic sense "of various kinds of "
- Bergman, Jerry. 1981. http://www.asa3.org/aSA/PSCF/1981/JASA9-81Bergman.html
- Bergman, Jerry. 1995. http://www.answersingenesis.org/tj/v9/i1/homosexual.asp
- Danker, F. W. et al. 2000. A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Christian Literature. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago.
- Harrub, Brand and Dave Miller. 2004. http://www.apologeticspress.org/articles/2553.
- Pritchard, M. 1962. Homosexuality and Genetic Sex. Journal of Mental Science, 108:616-623.
- Reisser, H. 1975. The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology. Vol. 1. Colin Brown, ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.
- Stockton Record. 1979, April 7.