By ART SMITH
Alliance
Is it really a good thing to be “proud” that one is gay? Is it good for a community or country to publicly parade in the streets that the gay lifestyle and/or transgenderism is completely acceptable, good, honorable, healthy and satisfying? On every level the answer is “no.” The homosexual/ transgender lifestyle is not a physically healthy lifestyle. In the 1980’s the AID’s virus was most rampant in homosexual communities. It is not mentally and emotionally healthy. In the New Atlantis Fall 2016 report on sexuality and gender, Lawrence S. Mayer and Paul R. McHugh (both doctors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the department of Psychiatry) found: Members of the transgender population are at higher risk of a variety of mental health problems. Sex-reassigned individual were about five times more likely to attempt suicide and about nineteen times more likely to die by suicide. Only a minority of children who experience cross-gender identification will continue to do so into adolescence or adulthood.
The sad reality is that promoting a homosexual or transgender lifestyle is promoting a falsehood. As Quentin Van Meter, a pediatric endocrinologist, states: “You are never changing the sex of a patient. Never. Every cell in the body is programmed to be male of female.” Dr. Paul McHugh, MD labels transgender surgery of minors “child abuse.”
Aside from the medical, psychological, emotional and physical crises that homosexuality and transgenderism experience, individuals who follow this lifestyle travel down a hopeless, helpless path. It simply cannot end well.
Until recent years (since 2003, Lawrence, et. al. v. Texas) – such lifestyles were never encouraged and even against the law in our country. Sodomy was a criminal offense at common law and was forbidden by the laws of the original 13 States when they ratified the Bill of Rights. In fact, until 1961, all 50 States outlawed sodomy. Our Founding Fathers used God’s Word as the basis for right and wrong and never does the Bible condone any sexual practice outside of the one-husband and one-wife relationship. In Lawrence, et. al. v. Texas, the US Supreme Court reversed itself on the issue of State anti-sodomy laws. The dissenting Supreme Court Justices Scalia, Rehnquist, and Thomas—warned: “State laws against bigamy, same-sex marriage, adult incest, prostitution, masturbation, adultery, fornication, bestiality, and obscenity are likewise. . . . called into question by today’s decision.”
On a visual visceral level – have you ever seen a gay-pride event or parade on TV, in a major city? It contains the most lude, obscene, and perverse gestures imaginable. Can any parent or person with a conscience not recoil in disgust at such behavior? Is this what it means to celebrate “gay pride?” To flaunt immorality in the streets?
Our recent Supreme Court decision and that of the Whitehouse to display the rainbow and change the definition of marriage from “one-man and one woman” to allow homosexuals to marry – do not change the Higher Court of Moral Absolutes given us by God and over which He resides eternally. We merely display our rebellion toward our Creator.
And herein is the main problem. Have we become so “proud” as a country, that we are willing to openly defy our God? Do we think that is a good path to take?
Or – is there a better answer for individuals, communities and our country? Indeed, there is. Every person born on earth struggles with being a sinner. Sins differ, but they all have a detrimental affect on us. In degrees – they affect us individually, families, churches, communities, nations. A murderer – has a devastating affect not only on his victim, but on family, friends, communities. Adultery can destroy a marriage, two marriages, kids – friends, church relations, business relationships. Destroying the property of another… Lying. Scammers can take our money and future savings. And likewise, homosexual behavior negatively affects multiple lives.
The answer is not to legalize sin. The answer is to find forgiveness of our sins and live in the strength of God’s new life within. Jesus Christ came to seek and save the lost (us). He saves us from our sins – by first – paying their just penalty before God, dying in our place for our sins. For the wages of sin is death. When we accept Him as our Savior, He forgives us all our sins. Then we become a new creation, God’s child, with God’s Spirit living within us. We can live a new life by His strength within. We will never be perfect on earth, but we can experience a much healthier, satisfying life. We cannot make our community or culture better by ignoring sinful behavior or thinking we must force everyone to condone that which God calls wrong. We can make our individual lives and our communities a place of true love and grace and loving our neighbor as ourselves when we submit to our Creator, confess our sin, seek His forgiveness, then extend that forgiveness and grace to others. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.”