Is There A Gay Christian?

There is a growing movement within Christendom to have an acceptance of homosexuality while still holding to historical Christian sexual ethics. The Revoice Conference in 2018 was a significant step in advancing what are being called Side B Christians. Side A Christians fully embrace all tenets of LGBTQ practices, while Side B Christians see marriage as only between a man and a woman, and therefore anyone proclaiming themselves to be a Christian and gay must remain celibate in their sexual practice. Side B Christians are said to be gay Christians who give thanks to God for same-sex desires because it opens up deeper spiritual friendships and makes avenues into aesthetics, culture and worldview that are missed when only affirming straight sexuality.

Is this a position that the Bible allows? Can a person be a gay Christian if they maintain celibacy?

First, let’s address the issue of desires that are not acted upon. While this seems to be holding the line of biblical sexuality, it is actually far from it. When God designed the creation, the design went all the way through creation, nothing excluded. We can see it physically in the order and design of the smallest structure of atoms and molecules, all the way up to largest far-flung galaxies; and this also applies to the design in the immaterial. God’s design for sexuality within a husband/wife marriage is to extend from our physical organs, all the way down to our inner immaterial desires. It is all a unified whole. This is why lust is a sin and Jesus said it must be dealt with as such. In the garden, every desire aligned with every design God made. But the fall broke that alignment, and human desires departed from God’s design. It didn’t matter if those desires were acted upon, there was still sin in the inward parts. This is why Paul as a pre-converted Pharisee was haunted by the 10th commandment against coveting. In Romans 7:7, Paul spoke of how his heart rebelled against the law of coveting and his heart coveted all the more. He didn’t excuse it because it wasn’t acted upon. On the contrary, coveting is still sin because it is a desire that doesn’t align with God’s desires. So in the issue we are speaking about, celibacy is not the complete path of pleasing God. God desires truth in the inward parts (Ps. 51:6) and anything less should be acknowledged as outside God’s will.

So should we call someone a gay Christian? I think a helpful way to track this down is to replace the issue in question for another. Can we call someone a Christian thief? Instantly you see the problem. But it still needs some probing. Let’s ask it another way. Can a Christian commit thievery? Now we are getting closer to the true nature of what we are dealing with. It certainly is possible for a true born again Christian to commit an act of thievery or adultery or any number of sins, including those that are real doozies. Real Christians can sin in really bad ways. The issue isn’t can it be done, the issue is can it be practiced. Can a Christian live a life of thievery or adultery? Can a Christian make stealing a practice that he doesn’t repent of but defends, advocates, promotes, and rejoices in? The answer is an emphatic NO. The apostolic word is “May it never be! How can we who died to sin still live in it?” (Romans 6:2)

This answers our question of the label: gay Christian. Labels tell us what something is. They are supposed to help us know what defines a person. To label a person a gay Christian is to say that this particular sin defines them. But that cannot be the case for any Christian. If they are practicing those sins in an ongoing unrepentant way then they are not a Christian. But if they are repenting and fighting and taking steps to put those desires and actions to death, then they are not defined by those sins, they are defined by the grace of God saving them from those sins. A Christian might be someone who struggles with same-sex desires, just as another Christian might struggle with heterosexual sinful desires or temptations to steal. They are not defined by the sin, but by the Spirit-empowered struggle against it. They are just Christians; ones who have been saved from the penalty of sin by justification, are being saved from the power of sin in sanctification, and will be saved from the presence of sin in glorification finally and completely. This person is defined by the gospel: saved through faith alone, by grace alone, in Christ alone.

We must not give sin any place in our lives. It must not be tolerated within or without, in desires or in actions. God’s design is lifelong marriage between a biological man and biological woman, and that design has its roots in the gospel and bears is fruits in all of society. We do not surrender over one inch of it to any perversion, no matter how that perversion is sanitized, socialized or baptized.