The issue of homosexuality is a dicey one, especially because it touches on one’s sexual orientation and identity as a whole. The one thing that is clear is that we cannot ‘pray the issue away’ but we must truly search the scriptures, understand, and speak truth to this matter.
Many young people, and some old have found themselves in the mix of this popular culture of living in ‘freedom of self’ where the culture of the day allows for an individual to do whatever feels right to them. However, if we look at the basis of what being a Christian is all about, we realize that we are following selfishness other than the core of what it is to be a child of God and one who is created by Him.
Mike Winger, a renowned American bible teacher and Christian YouTube Influencer says, “The idea that ‘I was born this way, or this is who I am’ that’s just an unbiblical concept, and it doesn’t belong. Regardless of however you feel you were born, the ‘cliché’ and the answer is to be born again and come into the newness of life.”
Identity is something that many search for including Christians, we tend to veer off the road when we look to cultural trends to dictate our identity, and to tell us who a man or woman is, other than looking to the one who made us himself. Jacky Hill Perry a well-known Christian Minister, formerly homosexual gives testimony of this saying “I did not fit the mold of what they said a girl was, and because I did not fit the mold that naturally I am going to think that I am something other than that. There is this confusion that I have that was brought about by people teaching me womanhood that did not come from the creator of women but from culture.”
Upon the realization that we already have a purpose including the purpose of our unique sexuality, we need to set our eyes on the fact that Christianity is not freedom to do what we feel, it is freedom in living out our eternal purpose, in obedience to Christ, where the knowledge of who we really are in God’s eyes sets us free from anything else that is contrary.
Mike Winger adds “The thing about these questions is, they’re about liberating a person to relax and be who you are, be who you want to be, they see Christianity as oppressive to the person, but in reality Christianity is oppressive to the flesh, it’s very oppressive to my sinful desires and my sin nature, there is no freedom or liberty to my sinful desires, it’s death to self, and that’s what we are called to.”
We need to be clear that anyone seeking freedom is really deeply seeking clarity. The clarity the bible offers is not for to sooth our feelings, it is to sharpen our souls, where we can become more like Christ.
Winger explains, “If you are tempted with homosexual desires and any other sexually sinful desire, your temptation is not a sin. Giving in, yielding your heart to it, fantasizing, or if you yield your life and body and you do it in action then it is a sin. The goal biblically is die to self, resist temptation and honor Christ with your life.”
He adds, “The bible is really clear on it, it’s not the only issue that matters but it is an issue that matters.”
This discussion should not be a war between types of people but a discussion that sheds clarity on who we really are, irrespective of what we are feeling, we need to know that truth bears no confusion, and this is what we seek.