Homosexuality and the Bible by Dr. Robert Gagnon

A few weekends ago I had the privilege of attending a weekend seminar on Homosexuality and the Bible by Dr. Robert Gagnon of Pittsburgh Theological Seminary. Dr. Gagnon was called upon to speak on this topic because our state recently had a vote on the marriage referendum.
My pastor, Russell Hamilton, read his book on the subject last year and said it was the best one on the subject he’d found. The lectures were incredibly helpful. He presented the clear Bible teaching that marriage is designed as between one man and one woman and that homosexual behavior is an inordinate affection and is sinful. He dealt with major objections gracefully. The audience was split about 50/50 in regards to support of Gagnon’s presentation. Needless, to say there were some pretty heated objections directed at him. He handled the situation with grace and patience. Gagnon, the second day shared some more pastoral advice. This was no rah-rah fundamentalist party. It was a precise, gracious, and confident exposition of God’s thoughts about homosexuality revealed to us in His Sacred Word. I highly recommend Dr. Gagnon’s teaching on this topic.

The most helpful thing to me was the answer to the objection raised that people have ‘biological causation’ (they are just born with it) so therefore it can’t be condemned as sin. This erroneous idea has given birth to the idea that the right for two people of the same sex to be married is a civil right. They are comparing sexual preference to a person’s race. “They can’t help it.” The answer he gave was extremely helpful. He pointed out that even secular, homosexual supporting scientists have concluded that every behavior is biologically caused and therefore is no determiner of the morality of it. I was born a liar, but that doesn’t make it right. It is indisputable that some people are going to have a greater tendency to have homosexual desires than others. This does not negate the sinfulness of it. Some people have inherited their father’s genetic traits of anger. They still have a responsibility to control their temper.

The other observation was that he was lumping incest, polyamory (multiple partners), and homosexuality in one category. He said, “On what basis can you say that adult, consenting, monogamous homosexual relationship is appropriate but adult consenting monogamous incest or polyamory is to be condemned?” At this point, a man identifying himself as homosexual stood up and expressed his disgust that Dr. Gagnon would compare his sexual behavior to incest or polyamory. He basically walked into a trap. He tried to say those behaviors were bad based upon his personal preference. This is no way to determine truth. If we don’t have the Bible’s definition of marriage, then whatever anyone can conceive of (as long as it is adult, consenting, and monogamous) is okay. The objector had no answer.

I recommend his resources. His website is here.