Ed Vitagliano
AFA Journal news editor
September 2013 – On June 26, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against natural marriage in two blockbuster cases.
In U.S. v Windsor, the high court struck down a key portion of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), a federal law passed in 1996, and ruled that the federal government could not limit the definition of marriage to one man and one woman.
Windsor did not address important issues regarding what states can do. It did not require states to legalize gay marriage, nor did it require states that ban such unions to recognize them when performed in states where same sex marriage is legal.
In Hollingsworth v Perry, the Supreme Court dealt a fatal blow to Proposition 8, the voter initiative passed in California in 2008 that amended the state constitution to define marriage as being between one man and one woman. Same sex marriages are now legal in California – as well as 12 other states.
With those dual decisions, many analysts believe the high court has set the stage for legalizing same sex marriage across the nation in some future case. Such a ruling would be as explosive as the 1973 Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion in every state.
The success of the homosexual movement in achieving virtually everything on its agenda over the last 10 years has been impressive. The termination of sodomy laws. The support of major Christian denominations. The surrender of much of corporate America. The end of the military’s ban on homosexuality. An increasingly influential presence within the American public school system. The capitulation of the Boy Scouts of America.
Those accomplishments are on top of what had already transpired over previous decades, mainly the capture of Hollywood, the news media, the medical and mental health establishments, and most colleges and universities.
The standard gay argument
This juggernaut has found its success due to the clear and cogent argument it has employed: Homosexuality is natural, moral and healthy, and thus it should be accepted by all fair-minded people.
Activists argue that homosexuality is natural because it is a normal variation of the human sexual impulse – even though homosexuality characteristically represents only a small fraction of the general population in any given nation.
Two conclusions flow from that presupposition. First, activists insist that homosexuality is natural, and thus it is moral. So there is no legitimate reason on which to base an objection to homosexuality. It occurs in nature and therefore it is right (moral) for people to behave in a manner consistent with that nature.
Second, activists claim that because homosexuality is natural, it is also healthy for gays and lesbians to express their nature in committed, loving and romantic relationships, which normally include sexual intimacy. For homosexuals to do anything else is to repress their true nature and even cause them to internalize self-hatred of that nature. Activists argue that some homosexuals, especially gay men, are forced by this internalized homophobia into expressing their sexuality in unhealthy ways – through casual and risky sex, for example.
Typical Christian responses
Most Christians are completely unprepared to confront the logic of this paradigm, for at what point in this hypothesis do we find any sort of weakness?
If we say homosexuality is unnatural, we immediately find ourselves in the weeds arguing about normal variations in human sexuality, or genetics and biology. We are also confronted with the sympathetic faces of gay and lesbian friends who sadly say, “Do you think I would choose this lifestyle for myself – with all the mockery and suffering it has brought me?”
In the face of the potency of such arguments, many Christians are left lamely proclaiming that “God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.”
If the Christian asserts that homosexuality is immoral, we are immediately placed on the defensive because we appear to be condemning people for what they are in their very natures. We are seen arguing that heterosexuals are normal and our desires are natural – but those homosexuals, well, they’re simply a bunch of perverts.
If the Christian argues that homosexuality is unhealthy, we are confronted with this simple solution: “That’s why we need more federal funding for safe sex seminars and plenty of condoms.”
The core issue
The pro-family movement has found little success in countering this paradigm because the paradigm is rooted in an even deeper presupposition – and one that has, by and large, been accepted by many Americans: Human nature is seen from a humanist, Darwinian perspective. That is to say, if there is no God, then the homosexuals are right. Sex is fun and no one – especially since there is no God – has a right to tell you with whom you can have consensual sex.
But there is a God and He has spoken through the Scriptures and through His Son. And that means that the argument promulgated by homosexual activists and their allies is one that rests on a faulty presupposition.
Yes, homosexual feelings are natural for the homosexual, but so are fornication and adultery for all of us. So are anger, jealousy, abuse and violence. The impulse to conquer and enslave is natural, as is the desire to covet and take what belongs to another.
While some Christians bemoan the loss of the fear of God in America, what many Christians have lost is an awareness of their own human depravity – and the depravity of their neighbors – apart from the saving grace of God.
This clear Scriptural teaching drives a stake through the heart of the assertion that what is natural is therefore moral.
God reveals quite a different reality: All men and women – gay and straight – are born lost. Their true natures are twisted and broken, weak and enslaved, unable to rise above the powerful, unpitying grip of darkness.
The truth is that we all sin quite naturally. It is the simplest and most human thing to do. In this way, the homosexual is just like the heterosexual. There is no difference. Each is born equally broken, although that brokenness might find its expression in different ways.
The power of the gospel
There is nothing wrong with making the argument that homosexuality is unnatural, immoral and unhealthy. This writer has done so on countless occasions in this very magazine. But most people in our nation have now lost sight of the logical presuppositions upon which that argument was once based.
What is needed now is the Spirit-empowered preaching of the gospel to a culture that, if it even believes there is a God, thinks that what comes natural to us is just fine with Him.
Nothing could be further from the truth, and Christians should be bold enough to say so.
So, yes, homosexuals no doubt feel homosexual down to the very deepest part of themselves. But that’s because the very deepest part of themselves – and the heterosexual majority around them – is depraved.
As human beings, our love of lust and the embrace of a lifestyle that gives us permission to surrender to those appetites afflict us all. The fact of this brokenness doesn’t excuse us, it damns us.
But making this argument will never be successful without the help of the Holy Spirit. As Paul says in 1 Corinthians 2:14, a person who is not born again “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised” (NASB).
The foundations of a once Christian society have been successfully overthrown and replaced with secular Darwinism. Any attempt to return the favor must begin with what once supported our Republic: the gospel and the Christian truths implicit in it. 
It’s Not Gay
While it is over a decade old It’s Not Gay is still a potent primer on homosexuality. This controversial documentary was released by AFA in 2000 to present a compassionate and Christian look at the homosexual lifestyle, and relies heavily on the views of former gays and lesbians themselves. At only 28 minutes in length it is admittedly an overview of a complicated subject, but it touches on many of the important arguments surrounding this culture war battlefield. Available at afastore.afa.net.
