One pastor's thoughts on the Christian and human sexuality.

This is a brief piece I wrote to help people on both sides of this discussion understand the position that many Christian's take on human sexuality. It is designed to be a few, brief, "user friendly" talking points and not a comprehensive treatment of the subject. I hope, no matter how you view this subject, you find it helpful.

The Christian and Human Sexuality.

by Sean Azzaro

When it comes to the current conversation about marriage and human sexuality, we find ourselves, as Christians, in a particularly challenging place. We experience a heartbreaking pull between our desire to love, respect, and give dignity to every human being and our belief in the Holy Scriptures as the life-giving, authoritative word of God. In an effort to capsulize the view of many Christians, this is a brief description of how we see human sexuality.

Sexual Orientation – We believe that sexual orientation is best indicated by sexual physiology and anatomy. We believe that the sexual physiology of men and women are distinct and complimentary and are the basic indicator of sexual orientation.

Sexual Attraction – We believe that sexual attraction is a much more complex matter and can be impacted by a number of factors and influences. We also recognize that sexual attraction can change over the lifetime of an individual. We find that most people on all sides of this issue would agree that some sexual attractions are healthy and appropriate while others are not, because they deviate from healthy, moral sexual expression. A more difficult question is “where is the line between healthy, appropriate sexual expression and unhealthy or deviant sexual behavior?” Everyone has a line; we just draw it in different places when it comes to sexual attraction. We believe that people can choose not to act on unhealthy sexual urges or attractions and that they are better off for making that choice.

Christian Sexual Ethics - We believe that there is a God who created the world, including mankind. We believe that the Bible is a one-of-a-kind collection of inspired writings that God gave to reveal His nature and His ways. The Bible has been a light to the people of God for thousands of years.

The Bible teaches that God created mankind as a sexual being and gave the gift of sexuality to be enjoyed between a man and a woman in a committed relationship called marriage. The Bible describes sex outside of this ideal as contrary to God’s design and sin. Not only was the sexual relationship designed to be enjoyable, but also to result in procreation, which would perpetuate our species. As the Bible teaches that marriage is to be a lifetime commitment, the children resulting from the marriage union would ideally be born into stable families with automatic role models of healthy male and female maturity called parents.

The Bible is quite clear that mankind is sinful and has deviated from God’s original design. However that sinful departure in no way minimizes God’s commitment to His ideal. The entire point of God’s plan of forgiveness and redemption, through Jesus Christ, is to restore us to right relationship with God and empower us to live the life He created us for.

Consequently, when you ask Christians to support or endorse sexual expressions or behaviors that the Bible teaches against, you are asking them to violate their religious conviction, denounce their ancient Holy Scriptures, and contribute to something that they believe ultimately hurts the people involved.

As Christians we are called to be loving, kind, and compassionate to all people regardless of whether or not they are engaging in sinful behavior. But to endorse or encourage that sinful behavior is to contribute to their destruction and is wrong.

Marriage – We believe that marriage, as the scripture defines, was God’s creation and predates any government on earth. Therefore, we don’t believe that it is a Government’s right to redefine marriage. A government has the right, with the consent of the people, to establish different types of civil unions and even give them equal legal status with marriage. But we do not believe that government has the right to redefine what God instituted long before that government existed.

The Nature of Disagreement - We believe that kind and sincere people can disagree on these points. And to disagree on these issues is in no way an indication of hate or malice. Labeling someone’s position as hateful, because they disagree with you, is generally an insincere tactic to avoid the complexities surrounding the issue.