Homosexuality in Perspective

I ran across this post on a blog tonight and I thought it was very interesting and made me take a step back and re-evaluate my approach on this topic. Read and ponder


I believe same-sex orientation to be part of our “cracked Eikon” condition, just like many other orientations and inclinations. I have a tendency to overeat while at the same time preferring sedentary occupations. That is also part of our “cracked Eikon” condition. Others have othere tendencies and inclinations which are not compatible with the way of life for which God has created us.

The problem begins not just where we give in to these inclinations — many of us do, and we regret it in many ways, and if we are Christians, we strive to bring these issues to Christ who can help us overcome our “cracks” and restore to be the perfect Eikon which God intends us to be.

The real problem begins when people deny that a certain inclination or orientation is part of the “cracked Eikon” condition, and insist that is o.k. to give in to it, to “act it out”, and that doing so should not only be tolerated but accepted and affirmed in the church. Homosexuality is not the only orientation or inclination in this category: in many parts of the church divorce and re-marriage have become commonplace; extra-marital sex is no longer something to get very upset about; greed and materialism are very common and rarely made an issue.

In all of these cases we need to recognize that they are manifestations of our “cracked Eikon” state, and that in this way, the people who manifest these things are not really different from all of us — we are all cracked Eikons. Thus anything which fosters hatred and ostracism of those affected is inappropriate and wrong. On the other hand, we cannot simply pretend that these attempts to get such “cracked” behaviors accepted and affirmed are o.k. and compatible with the Gospel and the biblical witness.

It gets very problematic, however, when we focus on only one of these cracked behaviors and mount a crusade against it. While it is not necessary, when speaking out against a problematic situation, to enumerate all of the other things we oppose lest we be accused of single-issue crusading, we lose all credibility when we are seen to put up with and tolerate one form of cracked Eikon behavior while forcefully opposing another form. Thus a church which accepts divorce as a normal aspect of the Christian life, or gossip, or greed, will not be taken very seriously but rather accused of hypocrisy when it speaks out against homosexuality. A church which ignores the poverty of those living in its neighborhood will rightly be charged with hypocrisy when it speaks out against any sexual sin.

And we should be wary of any conflation of Christian covenant morality with the legal system of our secular society. The world will always dance to a different tune than the church; we should not act as if it were impending doom when secular law follows a different agenda from the church. We should simply live by our standards and thus be a light on the hill.



http://doulos.wordpress.com/2006/01/26/homosexuality-in-perspective/