Sigh...
I shouldn't have to make this post. But as it seems how EVERYTHING today is supposed to be qualified, quantified, factionalized and most especially sexualized...
Contrary to what some have claimed, I do not now nor have I ever harbored any kind of hatred toward those who have chosen the homosexual lifestyle. Or who are bisexual. Or transsexual. Or whatever.
As a Christian, I am called to not hate anybody. I am in fact commanded to hate my own sin and my own fallen carnal nature, before I dare levy hatred toward another. It is part and parcel to the "dying unto self" that those who follow Christ are told that they must do on a daily basis.
That does not mean however that I can or must acquiesce to any activity that is self-destructive.
I've seen the damage and disease and ultimately death that is wrought by homosexuality. Have looked at the photos of lacerated anal tissue. Viewed images of penises wracked with things that no healthy male should have. I have read the journal articles, about gay men and lesbians being far more prone to cancer than those who are not. Human papillomavirus is a really nasty thing to subject one's genitalia to. I have looked into the faces of people who have contracted full-blown AIDS, and those are eyes that I pray I never have to look into ever again.
Homosexuals have, on average, a lifespan twenty years shorter than that of heterosexuals.
Let that sink in. A gay or lesbian person is likely to have two full decades shaven off their life expectancy, because of the all too physical consequences of homosexual behavior.
These are not things that can be "wished away" for sake of sexual license. These are stone cold hard facts. This is reality, that can NOT be escaped from because of one's "feelings" about the matter.
LGBTwhatever is incompatible with human design. Its myriad of associated diseases and disorders attest to this.
How do I, as a person called by God Himself to love others, reconcile that love with the expectation that I am to celebrate a "lifestyle" that leads so very often to death?
I can not. I can no more endorse the LGBT community than I can endorse cigarette smoking, or abusing crystal meth. Because those are self-destructive behaviors also.
I can love homosexuals. I can love lesbians. I can love bisexual individuals. I can love transsexuals, though what they do to themselves is especially haunting.
But as a Christian (who fails and falls more often than not), as an objectivist who understands the concreteness of reality, as merely a human being trying to be decent... for those reasons and more, I can not love their kind of behavior. Because when you scrape away everything else that's Chris Knight, you're left with someone who simply does not want to see anyone die.
No, "love is love" is not true. There are many kinds of love. There is philios: love of brothers and sisters. There is the love of parents to children. There is logos: the love of God. And, yes, there is eros: love expressed sexually between man and woman.
What the LGBT community and its supporters demand we accept is not love at all. It is lust. And they want said lust to be without the burden of personal responsibility. And THAT again is a denial of reality.
If you love a person... and I mean really love someone, you will NOT selfishly lead that person to demean themselves for your own desires, at risk of their health and even very life.
I love my friends. There are men who are as close and dear to me as real brothers. I love them and I would die for any of them. But not for an instant have I been tempted to take it to an entirely different and inappropriate level.
Once upon a time, not very long ago, most men and women were capable of accepting that. That love is a many dimension-ed notion and that each kind had its own unique place in the scheme of things.
We were a better people, then. Not a perfect people. But we were at least striving against the baser instincts of carnal nature. And we accomplished great things because of it.
As a historian, I know also where unrestrained sexual pleasure leads a society to. And that as much as anything else persuades me about the truly insidious nature of the LGBT lifestyle.
I could easily sit here all night, and rattle off a dozen reasons and more why I can not celebrate homosexuality and transgenderism. Just as easily as I could tick off all the reasons why I must condemn it.
And I hope that my many friends who are LGBT will at last understand where I'm coming from.
Finally, know this: sex is a sacred, holy thing. It is something that I believe should be celebrated within the boundaries of husband and wife. In my sincere philosophy ALL sexual sin is equally abhorrent. I can not disapprove of LGBT behavior any more than I can of sex outside of marriage. That makes me come across as a prude, I know. But there it is. I have plenty of friends who do not agree with this. And that is fine. But so far as I know none of them have called me "hate-filled" or "polygamaphobe" because of it.
Sex is not a toy. It's not something to be engaged in frivolously. It is meant to be a sanctified act. "The marriage bed is to be honored by all," scripture tells us. If that was done more often, maybe we wouldn't have things like children without fathers, venereal disease and shortened lifespans.
That is all.
11 comments:
Very authoritative and concise. You explained what is wrong with LBGT without resorting to hatred at all. More Christians would be well to adopt your style of love to others.
Chris I'm torn on this. What do you think about gays/lesbians whose nature is that they're that way? Or what I mean is, how about it when a person is born homosexual?
Dear Laura,
I absolutely believe that there is such a thing as homosexual temptation. Just as there is temptation for many other things that can destroy us. I don't know what that particular temptation is like and I never will, but it does exist. The trick is, not succumbing to the temptation. Controlling one's self.
I am celibate. That's my choice. I'm not going to be completely intimate with someone until I'm married (hopefully sooner than later). It's something I've enjoyed a lot of control over. If I were to give in to the temptation, I would be damaging a lot of aspects of me: possibly physical but also emotional and mental. Things that are too important than to potentially jeopardize like that. Does that mean I don't want intimacy? Not at all! But that desire should never control us. We are better than that. We must rise above our appetites, and wait to savor something much sweeter.
We can't help but be tempted. Even Jesus was tempted. It's HOW we deal with temptation that's the important thing.
Thank you for reading this, and your comment :-)
Well said, Christopher.
I don't know why you wrote this but it's like an emancipation proclamation for Christians and others who are resisting the LGBT agenda. Fact: we do love LGBT people. But a lot of them want our complete endorsement of their 'life style' and that is something that violates our conscience. Liberals crow about being tolerant. They should tolerate people of conscience too.
Your kind of people are dying off. One day you won't exist. See that meteor coming at you dinosaur? It's got a big bright rainbow behind it coming to smash you to hell. You aren't a real christian.
That's a very Rand-ian way of looking at it. Read any of her books?
Hey Charlotte, thanks for visiting :-) Of her books I've only read Atlas Shrugged. It made an ENORMOUS impact on me. I didn't care for her rabid atheism but everything else really stuck with me. I first read it in 2011 and ever since I've pretty much considered myself a "Christian objectivist", if such a thing might even exist.
Rand couldn't emphasize it nearly enough: that reality exists and it's impossible to escape from it. If a person engages in activity that invites disease and death, that is what a person should expect sooner or later.
Existence demands responsibility.
To the person above who said Chris isn't a real Christian. I've been reading Chris's blog for a long time and haven't detected any falsehood in him and his writing. He is someone who goes above and beyond what it means to serve Christ. I'm a better person for reading his material that's for sure. To accuse Chris of hating anyone is ridiculous. Maybe you're jealous because he's a better person than you're likely to ever be.
Chris don't listen to the twits. Keep doing what you do. You're changing the world for the better with what you do. Thank you especially for your writing about bipolar disorder. That takes rare courage and everytime you do that I'm educated a lot.
Sharing this with my pastor. Methodists are tearing themselves apart on the matter of gays in the ministry. Thank you for sharing your perspective, it was heartening to read it.
Beautifully said with strength and virtue.
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