Sexuality and the Prophetic Message of Jesus

There is this message board that I used to frequent. Often, the people in this online community are Christians, who discuss various things, from the theology of sin to the newest M. Night Shyamalan movie. Most people there would probably fall into the category of twenty and thirty-something people, who like to think they are culturally savvy individuals. I became frustrated after awhile there, though. In a nutshell, it seems like many people there tend to be just that--very savvy of, and comfortable with, culturally contemporary innovations and norms. Many of those people, however, also tend retain the same, often conservative, theological framework within which they usually operate. This, to be sure, is not a bad thing in itself. Argued intelligently, someone could quite well serve to defend their conservative theological beliefs. The same might be said when one does the same, but only from the more liberal theological perspective.

What matters is not where one inherently falls on the spectrum theologically, but how willing they are to challenge the often ordered, static framework within which they have been originally taught to think. Problems often occur when any type of theological perspective is used to oppress and marginalize. Or, said better, when any person, in any way, says or does any type of thing that serves to diminish the humanity of another--especially by way of the theological (whether intentional or unintentional). Most notably, however, such oppression tends to come at the hands of our need to retain order socially, politically, and most importantly, theologically. This type of marginalization and oppression is seen most often in the experience of groups who once were, or still are, on the outer fringes of society: African-Americans, Latinos, the economically poor and homeless, women, and--most notably in our society today, with help from mass media--people who identify themselves as homosexual in sexual orientation.

I returned to the message board I once frequented the other day, finding an interesting surprise there. A homosexual man, in his twenties, had begun a discussion on the merits of homosexuality as a valid sexual orientation. Seeing responses from both sides slowly become more argumentative, and minds and hearts slowly become more closed rather than opened, I realized why I had left the community there to begin with. I, being the sarcastic and cynical but rather optimistic person I am, nonetheless chose to respond and highlight the words of Jesus while he was in Jerusalem during his final week of life, advising the disciples and anyone who had ears to hear, that the most important ideals we must seek to preserve and manifest as his followers are to love God and love our neighbor (and thus, essentially, love our own selves).

Sure, I could have rather chosen to question the legitimacy of the Pauline scriptures concerning homosexual behavior through the use of insights gained through modern biblical scholarship. I could have advised those who chose to cite the ancient Holiness Code in Leviticus to also throw away any clothing consisting of two types of fabric and begin offering up burnt offerings to God at periodic times throughout the day, week and year. But, I chose not to. When all is said and done, proof-texting without the use of contextual observation will continue to be the technique of choice in biblical interpretation, both for liberal and conservative-minded individuals, because it is the most methodologically simplistic and easily comprehensible in terms of its conclusions. The fight over interpretation, no matter the issue at hand, will only continue unless we find ways of digging beneath the surface in a search for knowledge and truth that commences only when our souls are first bathed in an attitude of selfless humility.

What are we left with? Jesus, one might hope. Even though he seems to be bound-up and thrown in the dusty basement closet by so many of us today, afraid that he might say something to us that would cause us to think, re-think, and think again about what it means to engage the world with the message he entrusted us with. Love God, love your neighbor, love yourself. Maybe this means it matters more that we are exhibiting and manifesting the Gospel concepts of hope, reconciliation, redemption, and grace in our relationships, rather than whose genitalia we are coming in contact with in the bedroom. Maybe those concepts should be the gateway towards discovering what defines a healthy relationship, rather than the often discriminatory aspect of sexual orientation, which studies have shown at the least to be the result of a myriad of genetic and societal factors that one may not, in the end, be able to consciously control. Maybe we should approach a lot of issues differently than we do today, even if it means stepping out of the presumed order of our given faith and becoming increasingly prophetic in our words and actions. At least that much is true. Jesus was indeed a prophet, of the most notorious kind.