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Many gay men
and lesbians claim that the Christian faith is the guiding rule of their
lives. Some of them hold that their sexual orientation is given by God,
that it is good, and that there is nothing wrong or sinful with their
homosexual activities. These persons say that the Bible and Church Tradition
do not condemn homosexual behaviour, but have been misinterpreted and
misused, sometimes unknowingly and other times quite willfully, by prejudiced
and hostile people who hate homosexuals. Those who believe in this way
obviously want others to agree with them, and many are now working hard
to have their views accepted, particularly by fellow Christians and Church
leaders.
Other homosexual Christians hold that their sexual orientation is not
from God - except providentially, since the Lord's plan inevitably involves
human freedom and sin but derives from human fault. While some of these
people are not willing or able to identify the specific reasons for their
sexual feelings, though still affirming that they are not good and are
not to be indulged; others with the help of what they believe to be sound
biblical interpretation and accurate psychological analysis, identify
the source of their sexual orientation in faults and failures in their
family experiences, particularly in early childhood, and perhaps even
before that, which contribute to their sexual makeup. These people hold
that they are called by God to struggle against their homosexual tendencies
as all people are called to struggle against the sinful passions which
they find within themselves, while they work to heal the causes of their
disorientation and disease. Those who hold this position look to their
fellow Christians, especially their Church leaders, for support and assistance
in their spiritual struggle.
The Orthodox Position
Given the traditional Orthodox understanding of the Old and New Testament
scriptures as expressed in the Church's liturgical worship, sacramental
rites, canonical regulations and lives and teachings of the saints, it
is clear that the Orthodox Church identifies solidly with those Christians,
homosexual and heterosexual, who consider homosexual orientation as a
disorder and disease, and who therefore consider homosexual actions as
sinful and destructive.
According to Orthodox Christian witness over the centuries, Biblical passages
such as the following do not permit any other interpretation but that
which is obvious.
If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed
an abomination . . . (Leviticus 20:13)
For this reason (i.e. their refusal to acknowledge, thank and glorify
God) God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged
natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural
relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men
committing shameful acts with men and receiving in their own persons the
due penalty for their error. (Romans 1:26-27)
Do not be deceived; neither the sexually immoral (or fornicators), nor
idolators, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals (or sodomites; literally those
who have coitus, or who sleep, with men), nor thieves, nor the greedy,
nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you
were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit
of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)
Unwilled Sins
According to the Orthodox Church not all sins are willful and voluntary,
and not all acts of sin are the conscious fault of those who do them;
at least not at first. In a word, sin is not always something for which
the sinner himself or herself is necessarily culpable in a complete and
conscious way. There are sins of ignorance and passion, sins which "work
in our members," as St. Paul says, even against our rational and
conscious wills. (See Romans 6-8) These are the sins referred to in the
Church's prayers when the faithful beg God for forgiveness and pardon
of sins which are not only conscious, but unconscious; not only
voluntary, but involuntary.
There are sins which are involuntary, unwilled, unchosen; sins which overcome
people and force them by irrational impulses and compulsions, by weaknesses
of the flesh, emotional drives and misguided desires into actions which
they themselves do not want, and often despise and abhor - even when they
are engaging in them. These are known traditionally as the sins of passion.
The fact that these sins are not freely chosen do not make them any less
sinful. To sin means to miss the mark, to be off the track, to deviate,
to defile, to transgress . . . whether or not the act is consciously willed
and purposefully enacted; and whether or not the offender personally is
freely and fully at fault.
Redeemed Sinners
According to Orthodox Church Tradition, Christians are redeemed sinners.
They are human beings who have been saved from sickness and sin, delivered
from the devil and death by God's grace through faith in Jesus by the
Holy Spirit's power: "and such were some of you." (1 Cor. 6:10)
They are baptized into Christ and sealed with the Spirit in order to live
God's life in the Church. They witness to their faith by regular participation
in liturgical worship and eucharistic communion, accompanied by continual
confession, repentance and the steadfast struggle against every form of
sin, voluntary and involuntary, which attempts to destroy their lives
in this world and in the age to come.
The homosexual Christian is called to a particularly rigorous battle.
His or her struggle is an especially ferocious one. It is not made any
easier by the mindless, truly demonic hatred of those who despise and
ridicule those who carry this painful and burdensome cross; nor by the
mindless, equally demonic affirmation of homosexual activity by its misguided
advocates and enablers.
Like all temptations, passions and sins, including those deeply, and oftentimes
seemingly indelibly embedded in our nature by our sorrowful inheritance,
homosexual orientation can be cured and homosexual actions can cease.
With God all things are possible. When homosexual Christians are willing
to struggle, and when they receive patient, compassionate and authentically
loving assistance from their families and friends - each of whom is struggling
with his or her own temptations and sins; for no one is without this struggle
in one form or another, and no one is without sin but God - the Lord guarantees
victory in ways known to Himself. The victory, however, belongs only to
the courageous souls who acknowledge their condition, face their resentments,
express their angers, confess their sins, forgive their offenders (who
always include their parents and members of their households), and reach
out for help with the genuine desire to be healed. Jesus himself promises
that the saintly heroes who "persevere to the end" along this
"hard way which leads to life" will surely "be saved."
(Matt. 7:13; 24:13)
" . . . the Lord guarantees victory in ways known to Himself"
Bibliography on Sexuality
Barnhouse, Ruth Tiffany, HOMOSEXUALITY: A SYMBOLIC CONFUSION. The Seabury
Press, New York, 1977.
Clark, Stephen B., MEN AND WOMEN IN CHRIST, AN EXAMINATION OF THE ROLES
OF MEN AND WOMEN IN LIGHT OF SCRIPTURE AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES, Servant
Books, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1980, 753 pp.
Gelpi, Donald J., S.J., THE DIVINE MOTHER, A TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF THE
HOLY SPIRIT, University Press of America, New York, 1984, 245 pp.
Groeschel, Benedict J. OFM Cap., THE COURAGE TO BE CHASTE, Paulist Press,
New York/Mahwah, 1985, 114 pp.
Johnson, Robert A, HE, UNDERSTANDING MASCULINE PSYCHOLOGY, Religious Publishing
Company, 1974. Harper& Row, New York, 1977,89 pp.
Johnson, Robert A., SHE, UNDERSTANDING FEMININE PSYCHOLOGY, Religious
Publishing Company, 1976. Harper& Row, New York, 1977, 77 pp.
Moberly, Elizabeth R., PSYCHOGENESIS, THE EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF GENDER
IDENTITY, Routledge & Kegan Paul Limited, London, Boston Melbourne
and Henley, 1983, 111 pp.
Oddie, William, WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO GOD? FEMINISM AND THE RECONSTRUCTION
OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF, SPCK, London, 1984, 159 pp.
Payne, Leanne, CRISIS IN MASCULINITY, Crossway Books, Westchester, Illinois,
1985, 143 pp.
THE BROKEN IMAGE, RESTORING PERSONAL WHOLENESS THROUGH HEALING PRAYER,
Crossway . . . 1981, 187 pp.
THE HEALING OF THE HOMOSEXUAL, Crossway. . . 1985, 48 pp.
Quay, Paul J., S.J., Ph.D., THE CHRISTIAN MEANING OF HUMAN SEXUALITY,
A Credo House Book, Evanston, Illinois, 1985, 113 pp.
Stern, Karl, THE FLIGHT FROM WOMAN, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York,
1965.
Trible, Phyllis, GOD AND THE RHETORIC OF SEXUALITY, Fortress Press, Philadelphia,
1978, 206 pp.
Vanier, Jean, MAN AND WOMAN HE MADE THEM, Foreword by Henri J. Nouwen,
Paulist Press, Mahwah/New York, 1985, 177 pp.
Father
Hopko is Associate Professor of Dogmatic Theology at St. Vladimir Seminary.
We sincerely thank him for his contribution on this difficult subject.
From Word
Magazine
Publication of the Antiochian Orthodox
Christian Archdiocese of North America
January 1987
pp. 7-8
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