Is there a “gay gene?” Reflections on Ray Boltz, pt. 2

In my last message in this series, I tried to simply communicate that the Bible never speaks in affirming terms about the sin of homosexuality.  It is a choice and a practice that is contrary to God’s created order, contrary to God’s law, and contrary to God’s will. 

God never condones homosexuality, and God never makes anyone Gay.

Many homosexuals will respond passionately and negatively to this Biblical position, and say…

But I’ve always felt this way!  I was “born gay.”

Ray Boltz echoes the often-repeated response to the challenge that the Bible calls homosexuality a sin.  He says that he has had same-sex feelings, attraction, and even behavior since his was a small child.  He decided when he was fifty years old to give himself over to these feelings for once and for all.  

Many gay people say that since they were born gay, homosexuality cannot be a sin.  Therefore, if they were born Gay, it is not their fault… It’s God’s!  After all, He made them gay.  How can He then judge them for being gay?  Such a God would be seen as a sadistic and cruel psycho.

In the article about his homosexual orientation in the Washington Blade, Ray Boltz characterizes those who affirm the Bible’s teaching on homosexuality as essentially backwards, behind with the times,  and ignorant, when he says that he:

“…hopes for a day when Christians will see homosexuality as no more a perceived sin than it used to be for women to be ministers or for divorced Christians to hold leadership positions in churches.”

According to Boltz, the perception that homosexuality is a sin is just that – a perception.  It is not really a sin, otherwise why would people be born Gay? 

Why would God “make people Gay,” then punish them for being the way He made them?  This question assumes that people are born gay, and that God makes people gay.

Is there a “gay” gene?  If so, where can we get tested?

Some falsely claim that homosexuality is genetic.  If that were true, then we should be able to observe this genetic condition scientifically.  In other words, if homosexuality has been proven to be a genetic pre-disposition, then biogeneticists should be able to perform a genetic test on people to confirm this condition.  But no such medical or genetic tests exist. 

If a test did exist to prove a “gay gene,” those who had the gene and had confirmed tests would be on television, in magazines, and on billboards all over the countryside encouraging everyone to get tested. 

No proof exists that homosexuality is anything other than a choice and a life-style that one engages in as an act of their will. 

But that does not mean that the claim “I’ve always felt this way” should be ignored by those (like me) who see homosexuality as a choice.  I think it is very important to realize that many men and women grow up feeling sexually and emotionally attracted to the same gender. 

Some even feel so strongly about this that they attempt to surgically re-structure their physical bodies in order to become the person they feel they were born to be.  Does this mean that they are born gay?

There have been a few times in my history as a Christian and as a pastor that men have told me, “I was born gay.  It’s genetic.  I have no choice.” 

My response has always been the same…

“How old were you when you first tested positive for this genetic condition?” 

The question is always met with a blank stare. 

I press, “When did you have the genetic testing done to prove that you’re gay?” 

They always respond with, “I never had a test.  I didn’t know there was one?”

My response: “Well I thought you said it was genetic.  How can you know that it is genetic if there is not a means to test your DNA for a gay gene?  Don’t you really mean that you have been conscious of an attraction to the same sex for a long time?”

Most of them say, “Yes that’s it.  I’ve felt this way since childhood.”  I remind them that this is very different from claiming that something is genetic. Every gay person that I have ever talked to has conceded this point.  A person may feel that he or she has always been gay.  But that is not the same thing as having a “gay gene.”

Then why have I always felt this way?

Once you take the genetic argument off the table, you are still left with a person who is trying desperately to account for driving forces and urges and attractions within their sexual identity which drive them toward the same sex.  No amount of argument about science will take these urges away.  There is another source that must be considered.

The Bible accounts for every type of marring within the human identity (physical, emotional, spiritual, sexual, relational, etc.) within the framework of its teaching on the fallen nature of man.

According to the Bible, Boltz did not “finally come to grips with the way God made him.”  No.  He gave himself over to forces, passions, desires, and urges that were powerfully present within him – but which were NOT natural (i.e., from God). 

The Bible describes what Boltz has done as apostasy.  He has not, according to the Bible, finally “embraced his real self.”  No. He has “exchanged the truth of God (about his sexual orientation) for a lie. 

Instead of giving himself over to what God says about His created order for human sexuality, he has thrown himself head-first into a journey into complete reprobation, which is actually described in graphic detail in Romans 1:26-32.

According the Biblical teaching on the fallen nature of men, every human being is conceived in and born in sin (Psalm 51:5).  Each person’s sin nature alienates him or her from God, but that does not mean that everyone is tempted by, affected by, or attracted to the same types of particular sins. 

The list of sinful behaviors in Roman 1:29-32 is broad.  Some are tempted to be sexually immoral with the opposite sex.  Some are tempted by an attraction to the same sex.  Others become murderous or hateful.  Others become deceptive.  Still others become envious, proud, destructive, unloving, and unforgiving. 

Each person’s sin-nature manifests itself in various ways, including a temptation in the lives of some people to be attracted to the same sex.

So yes, some people are strongly attracted to the same sex even from a young age. But…

When we consider what the Bible says about the sinful nature, it is easier to see why some people feel attracted to the same sex.  For whatever reason – perhaps related to life experiences, early sexual experiences, parental abandonment, molestation, or even sexual abuse by an adult of either sex, some young children develop an attraction (even an early attraction) to the same sex.  To them, it feels natural.  They feel that they were “born that way.” 

It is true that we are born in sin, and that each person’s sin nature is expressed in varied ways.  But that is not the same thing as being “born gay.”  The Bible teaches that we are “born sinners.”  And homosexuality is one of the sins that magnetizes itself to the fallen part of human sexuality. 

Other abberations of God’s design for human sexuality are adultery, bestiality, fornication, polygamy, prostitution, masturbation (solo-sex), incest, rape, and molestation.  Peeling homosexuality out of this list of abberrant sexual behavior, and trying to make it “normal” and “the way God made people” can never mesh with what the Bible teaches.

We may have people in our church who, like Ray Boltz, are married, have children, and seem to be living normal lives – but, who struggle with a powerful temptation and attraction to the same sex.  But there is a strong warning in the negative example we see in Boltz’s life when we give ourselves to our sin nature, instead of affirming God’s order in our own sexual behavior.

Please stay in prayer with me as we learn together.  My ultimate aim is that God can use us as agents of light in a world of darkness.

Until next time…

Pastor Kenny