The debate of Standard

It's very interesting that we as a society, who claim "freedom to speak as we wish," don't truly mean what we say. In fact, we have gotten so bad about this that when someone does not agree with us, we get our feelings hurt. Then as a result, we take sides and begin to fight with our words. We would rather claim tolerance than truly live it (so much easier to speak than to act).

I found myself contemplating on this topic as I was reading some dialogue on Facebook about homosexuality. I read phrases such as, and I paraphrase: 10% of the population is born gay, therefore God loves them for who they are; Who are we to judge how someone lives his/her private life?; and Gay people are good and don't force their lives on us so why should we force ours on them? And as I read the debate I began to realize one thing - no one "wins" this conversation if the standard for our views is purely human.

We can try to throw science in to prove our view, but for every theory for there is always one against. We can try to throw reason alone in to prove our point, but for every statement there is a converse, inverse, or contrapositive statement that may prove our logic false. Just think of some of these contradictory examples out there today: bisexuality (how can a person be born both heterosexual and homosexual?), or homosexual repentance (how can a person who is born gay repent of his/her lifestyle and become heterosexual?)

So how do we come to any conclusion on this debate, or any other moral debate for that matter? Well, speaking first hand from knowing a young man who was sexually abused by a homosexual when he was nine and ten, who has also forgiven the abuser, he struggled to understand his identity as he grew into a teenager. The struggle stemmed from the fact that society determines a persons value and identity by his/her "sexuality." So, is my friend homosexual because he unknowingly participated (had no idea what sex was)in homosexual behavior? That was a question he had to grapple with in his early teen years.

And the answer that God showed me is that our value is not determined in our sexuality - how beautiful or sexy we are - but in our being made in the image of Him. And this concept comes from the Scriptures - the Bible itself. God created us to be in control of our sexuality for procreation; not for it to control us for sensual pleasure. God created us to be self-disciplined; knowing our identity was in Him and not in ourselves. God created us to do what was right, but we chose to do what was wrong.

Now some may say that the Bible is not a standard to be used in this conversation. Then my question is: What do we use? Ourselves? Our feelings? Where do these get us? Back to the argument of who's right and who's wrong. Only God can be our standard for concluding this debate, and the Bible, created by God through man over many millennia, states what that standard truly is.

If we decide we want to throw the Bible out because we feel it to be invalid, then we must throw out Jesus as Savior as well. Without the standard of the Bible written as it is, we throw away any proof that Christ ever lived, died, and rose again. Our only prove of His existence comes from an early church who, inspired by God, wrote what they witnessed.

So the question is not whether homosexuality is sin or not. The real question being debated here is whether the Bible is the standard upon which sin is determined. Hmm? I'm going with the Bible. I've messed up too many times on my own.