Today we continue to look at Genesis and then at Jesus’ teaching related to those who are gay.

So third, even if we did see Genesis as establishing a pattern, creation order, or creation norm for sexual relationships, we have to acknowledge that the Bible itself allows for exceptions.  The Bible doesn’t require everyone to get married or “be fruitful and multiply.”  In fact, the Apostle Paul encourages a life of celibacy for those who have this gift (1 Corinthians 7:7-8).  And Jesus gave us a living model of celibacy.  If the Bible presents us with one clear exception to the “creation order” of male-female marriage, why couldn’t there by another?

As another exception to the general pattern for families formed through male-female marriage, the Bible mentions couples who are not able to conceive children.  We too are keenly aware that some couples have infertility issues.  But the Bible and the church do not condemn such marriages as illegitimate simply because the couple can’t “be fruitful and multiply” by conceiving children.

Rather, we fully include infertile couples in society and the community of faith.  And we provide other ways to “be fruitful,” such as adoption or various other creative contributions to the community.  If we take this approach with one group of people who are not able to fulfill the typical human pattern of procreation described in Genesis, why couldn’t we take this approach with another group of people, namely, those who are gay?

Some people say that Jesus implicitly condemns marriage for gay couples when he affirms male-female marriage.  It’s true that in Matthew 19:4-5 and Mark 10:6-8, Jesus quotes the Genesis passage about God creating the first humans as “male and female,” but we need to look at the context.  Jesus is not answering a question about gay people; he is answering a question about divorce.  When he quotes Genesis as saying that “the two shall become one,” he is declaring that God made marriages to last for a lifetime.  So Jesus is condemning divorce, not marriage for gay people.

It’s also significant to note that the Bible never mentions Jesus saying anything about gay people.  The closest it comes to this is in a passing reference (in Matthew 19:12) to some people being “eunuchs who have been so from birth . . . . .”  Rather than condemn eunuchs as a deviation from the Genesis blessing to Adam and Eve to “be fruitful and multiply,” Jesus concludes the passage by saying, “Let anyone accept this who can.”  Could it be that Jesus would say that same about those who have been gay from birth?

In the next post we will begin our exploration of the passages that explicitly condemn certain forms of same-sex sexual activity.

Okay.  We’ve looked at basic principles of biblical interpretation.  Now it’s time to apply those principles to our study of Scripture as it relates to those who are gay.

We could start with a review of some major themes of Scripture that are pertinent to our study.  Or we could start with the few passages that the church has traditionally used to condemn gay people and gay relationships.  In seminary I started my study by looking at the specific passages, and that is where most Christians focus their conversation.  So let’s start there.

What I discovered is that the particular passages that the church has traditionally used to condemn gay relationships really don’t address the morality of gay relationships as we understand them today.  Those passages fall within two basic categories: 1) passages that the church as traditionally interpreted to teach a “creation order” for male-female marriage, and 2) passages that speak of same-sex relationships in negative terms.

For the first category, people typically turn to the creation accounts in Genesis 1 and 2 as well as passages in which Jesus quotes the Genesis creation accounts.  Certainly Genesis speaks about God’s creation of the first man and woman, but does this reference teach that male-female relationships are the “creation order” or “creation norm” for all human beings throughout history?

There are a number of reasons to say no.  First, Genesis is descriptive of God’s creation of the original man and woman, but is it also prescriptive?  Male-female marriage is the normal (that is, usual) pattern for forming new families, but is it also normative?  There is certainly no clear reason to say yes.  Sure male-female marriage is typical for people, but why couldn’t there be exceptions?  After all, Genesis paints a picture of creation in very broad terms, and we see that the creation is in reality filled with tremendous variety.  Why couldn’t gay love and marriage for gay couples be part of the variety?  Genesis doesn’t close the door on this possibility.

Second, people often go to the creation accounts with questions such as, “What does Genesis say about gay people?”  However, that is not the question Genesis is addressing, and by approaching Genesis in this way, we are in danger of proof texting.  In fact Genesis 1 and 2 are answering a question that people throughout history have asked: “How did this world, including human beings, come into being?”

Genesis answers, “God did it!”  Since Genesis is telling a story about the beginning of the human race, of course it’s going to speak about God’s creation of a man and a woman.  To expect (or demand) that Genesis answer a question about same-sex attraction and same-sex marriage is really expecting more from the text than it offers.

In the next post I will continue to examine Genesis and then go on to look at Jesus’ affirmation of Genesis.

As I mentioned in my last two posts, acceptance in a church, meeting others who are gay, and counseling were essential in my healing journey.  But even more important was a careful and prayerful study of the Bible.

I had heard that the reason that the church declared gay people sick and sinful was that the Bible said so.  I never questioned this assumption until my senior year at Calvin College.  Once I heard that some biblical scholars were questioning this assumption, I needed to do an in-depth Bible study to see if they might be right.

In seminary I learned the tools for biblical study and theological reflection, and I applied these tools to my exploration of how to make biblical and theological sense out of being gay.  Fortunately, sincere Christian scholars were publishing a number of new books and articles on this subject during my time in seminary, and this literature greatly helped me in my biblical exploration.  I summarized what I learned in my seminary senior research paper on the pastoral care of gay people in the Christian community.

I noted, for example, that when we read and study the Bible we are always interpreting it.  And since we human beings are limited and flawed, we sometimes interpret the Bible poorly.  I noted that Calvinists hold the doctrine of total depravity, which means that all parts of our lives are tainted by sin.  That includes our ability to understand Scripture.  So we should be suspicious when people insist that their interpretation of a particular passage is “the clear teaching of Scripture.”   And we should always be humble and open to the Holy Spirit showing us a better way to interpret the Bible.  The Spirit has done so in the past (on Christians owning slaves, for example), and we can be sure that the Spirit will do so again.

I also pointed out that biblical scholars provide us with basic principles of biblical interpretation.  For example, we always need to understand particular passages of the Bible in their context within the Bible.  We need to look at a verse in its immediate context as well as its context in Scripture as a whole.  We need to look at minor themes in the context of major themes.  Similarly, we need to consider passages in their historical context.   We need to ask what particular words, stories, or moral teachings meant to their original writers and hearers.  These basic “tools” of studying the Bible can keep us from proof texting, a common practice in which we go to the Bible to look for verses that support a preconceived idea.

In my next post I will begin to look at particular Bible passages that the church has traditionally used to condemn gay people and/or gay relationships.

Seminary was trans-formative for me a number of ways.  I mentioned the inclusion I experienced in a church community and the importance of meeting others who are gay.

Third, I went to a psychologist for therapy.  Early in seminary I was still really anxious and depressed, and I told my counselor that my goal was just to be happy again.  In my own mind, however, I started therapy thinking that I was feeling miserable because, well, that came with the territory of being gay, and I hoped to find a way out of being gay.

However, my counselor led me through some really in-depth therapy, and what I discovered was that I was miserable not because that was an inherent part of being gay but because I had swallowed the message of our society that gay people are sick and that gay relationships are sinful.  That message, I realized, was like poison to my soul.

So what was I going to do?  Well, what do you do when you discover that you have been inadvertently swallowing poison?  You look for antidotes to the poison you have already swallowed, and you do what you can to stop swallowing the poison.  And that is what my therapist helped me to do.  I learned ways to let go of the message that gay people are sick and gay relationships are sinful.  I came to believe that God loves me just as I am, that I too am created in God’s image, that I too am a beloved child of God, and that God would be pleased for me to have a life partner.  And so over the course of my months and years of therapy I came to peace with myself and God.  The anxiety faded away, and the depression faded away about 90%.  I will tell you about the remaining 10% in a bit.

I sometimes summarize my therapy by saying, “I came to believe that it’s okay simply to be who I am.”  Why did it take so much hard inner work to arrive at something so simple and obvious?  Because I was immersed in a culture that said in a myriad of ways that it was fundamentally not okay to be who I am.

You might be wondering what kept me going through those years of depression and anxiety—and therapy.  Well, my beacon of hope was Jesus’ promise in John 10:10, “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.”  I knew that I was not experiencing abundant life—I was miserable.  But I held onto the hope that someday Jesus would fulfill for me that promise of abundant life.  It was really that hope, that assurance, of life that kept me going.

I will continue on Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) with beginning reflections on the Bible as it relates to being gay.

In the fall of my senior year at Calvin College, I noticed posters around campus advertising a lecture entitled, “Homosexuality, Homophobia, and Healing.”  I attended and for the first time in my life heard someone—someone who was a Christian professor and author—speak about gay people in ways that were thoughtful and compassionate.  For example, the speaker told about famous and revered people in history who were gay.  She recounted that the psychological profession had taken homosexuality off its list of mental disorders in 1973.  And what was most shocking to me, she reported that there were sincere Christian scholars who were arriving at the conclusion that the church had been interpreting the Bible incorrectly with regard to gay people and that there should be a place in the Christian community for faithful, loving same-sex couples.

This speech shook my world.  I had never heard such things before or even considered them possible.  As the shock subsided I found that I was experiencing a mixture of skepticism and hope.  On the one hand, the speaker’s approach was completely new to me, and I am by nature very cautious and respectful of the teachings of the church.  On the other hand, I found the message incredibly life-giving.  So I began to feel a tiny but powerful sense of relief from my anxiety and depression.  I thought, “Maybe I don’t have to hate myself after all!  Maybe there is a place for me in the church and in the world!”

The next fall, in 1979, I began my studies at Calvin Seminary.  Seminary turned out to be a time of tremendous growth for me both personally and educationally.  By the time I graduated I had come to peace with myself and with God, and I felt ready to begin my career as a pastor.

So what happened in seminary that was so trans-formative?  First, I continued to be active in the households and church of Christ’s Community, and the church elected me as a deacon and then an elder, with most of the members knowing that I’m gay.  That helped me feel that there really was a place for me in the Christian community.

Second, I started meeting other people who were gay.  I had been afraid to do so because I had learned that gay people were supposedly strange, disgusting, and perverse.  I just thought I was an exception!   But when I actually met others who were gay, I was surprised to discover that they were . . . just normal people.  If anything, the gay people I met were unusually nice.  So this also helped me feel better about myself.

In my blog post next Monday I will tell about the healing I experienced through psychotherapy while in seminary.

My faith was always important as I was growing up, and during high school I became excited about following Jesus.  I made profession of faith in church when I was 16, I was active in prayer meetings and Bible studies, I was elected president of our church’s high school youth group, and I started thinking about becoming a pastor.  So it seemed natural that soon after starting Calvin College in 1972 I joined the pre-seminary program.

It was early in my time at Calvin College, however, that I started becoming honest with myself about the fact that I felt romantically attracted to other guys.  I experienced this realization as deeply troubling.  I literally thought it was the worst thing that could be true of me because that was the perspective I had learned from the entire culture around me.

What was I going to do?  For years I didn’t dare tell anyone about what I was experiencing for fear of being scorned and rejected.  I felt ashamed and isolated.  All I could do was pray—pray continually that God would heal me of this terrible affliction.  The more I prayed, however, the more I noticed the good looking guys on campus!  This realization sent me into a downward spiral of anxiety and depression.

By my third year at Calvin I was growing concerned about my suicidal thoughts, and so I started taking some steps to reach out to others for support.  I joined a new faith-based community which had a big emphasis on people being open and honest with each other, and it was there that I began to tell people about what I was feeling.  This community eventually formed a church, called Christ’s Community Christian Reformed Church.  Well, the people of Christ’s Community responded to me with love and acceptance, for which I am still deeply grateful.  As far as I could tell, however, they all held the traditional view that gay people are sick, and so I continued to hold this view as well.  The thought never even occurred to me that there might be another way to look at being gay.

Until the fall of 1978.  I had attended Calvin for three years, then took three years off, mostly because I was an emotional wreck and couldn’t make sense out of how I could be gay and be a pastor.  By the end of those three years away from college, I once again became convinced that God was calling me to the ministry, and I believed that God would somehow make it all work out.  So I returned to Calvin for my senior year.

In my Thursday post I will tell the story of hearing a shockingly new approach to being gay for the first time.

Twenty Years Later

A Presentation Sponsored by All One Body

On November 8, 2018

Expanded Version

Thank you very much for being here.  I invite you to follow my blog as I post entries twice a week (Mondays and Thursdays) in the following weeks and months.  I promise that it will be a fascinating journey!

What’s this blog about?

In May of 1998 Classis Grand Rapids East of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) “released” me from the ordained ministry.  Why?  No church was willing to call me to my LGBT+ ministry because I had stated my affirmation of faithful, loving gay unions.  This approach was contrary to that of the denomination.

Early this year I mentioned this 20-year anniversary to friends on the board of All One Body, and they graciously agreed to organize an event for me to share some reflections.  We held this event on November 8, and this blog is an expanded version of the remarks I presented that night.

Here’s a brief overview of what I said on November 8 and the blog entries I will post over the course of the next weeks and months.

• Part 1:  Before Twenty Years Ago
• Part 2:  Twenty Years Ago
• Part 3:  Twenty Years Later
• Part 4:  Future Steps

Please note that I will be presenting stories and insights from the past, but I will be doing so with an eye to the future.  I genuinely want my remarks to provide inspiration and ideas for all of us as we work to be more faithful followers of Jesus Christ.

So here we go . . .

Part 1:  Before Twenty Years Ago

I grew up in the suburbs of Grand Rapids, Michigan—in Wyoming near the border of Grandville—in a healthy, happy, faith-filled home.  Our family was Christian Reformed and had deep roots in the CRC.  In fact, my Lucas ancestors immigrated to West Michigan in the mid-1800’s and became founding members of the first Christian Reformed Church in North America, the Graafschap CRC.  My mom immigrated to Michigan in 1948 with her parents and brothers, and they had been devoted members of the CRC’s counterpart in the Netherlands.

When my parents got married, there was no question about what church they would attend.  Of course, it would be the closest CRC.  I was my parents’ first surviving child, and within 6 years my two sisters and brother were born.  My mom and dad were kind, generous, and self-sacrificing.  They took us to church twice every Sunday and also sent us to Sunday School, catechism, and Christian day schools.  I was a really good kid, excelled in my studies, and graduated second from the top of my class at Calvin Christian High.

The story will continue next Monday as I recount my faith in early adulthood and growing recognition that I’m gay.

Notes:

• All One Body works toward the full inclusion of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender members in their church homes.
• Classis Grand Rapids East is a regional body of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.  It is comprised of congregations within an eastern portion Grand Rapids, Michigan.
• LGBT+ is one of a growing number of shorthand ways of referring to people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, pansexual, gender non-binary, or other gender minority.