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Homosexuality and the Bible
205
mannerisms while in college, was once flawed. I have had to confess
my own falling short when it comes to the call to treat homosexuals
with respect and love.
I have had to revisit the painful reality that one of my close friends
in college, with whom I joked about homosexuals, struggled with his
own homosexual tendencies. I even once sent him a letter of rebuke
for activities which I interpreted as his indulging his sexual passions
but which I now realize were his attempts
to project a heterosexual identity. I have
had to painfully ask myself whether my in
sensitivity had played a role in sending my
friend into “hell” (as he describes it) with
countless homosexual encounters before
he began recovery.
My friend recently shared with me his
testimony—and his forgiveness. I wept to
learn how he had desperately sought help for his brokenness as a
teenager but was repeatedly rebuffed or even taken advantage of by
those he thought he could trust. But I also rejoiced as he described
his recovery, healing, and blessing—how God has freed him from
the devil’s counterfeit sexuality and how returning to God’s plan
has not been easy, but worth it.
What is ultimately at stake in this debate? The lives of men and
women like my friend. May God help us to be a community of believ
ers who welcome them into our midst and who minister God’s grace
and healing in their lives, while allowing that same grace to heal our
own brokenness and insensitivity.
ENDNOTES
1.
For further discussion and biblical grounding of this and other foundational
hermeneutical principles discussed in this first section, see Richard M. Davidson,
“Biblical Interpretation,” in
Handbook o f Seventb-day Adventist Theology
,
Commentary Rcfcrcncc Series, vol. 12, ed. Raoul Dederen (Hagerstown, MD: Review
and Herald, 2000), 6(MSN,
The
homosexuality
debate is part
and parcel
o f
the great
controversy
worldview.