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What to do if You Were “Born That Way”

The most widely repeated argument for gay rights and same-sex “marriage” is that homosexuals are born with homosexuality as their natural orientation. There has been no scientific corroboration of this allegation, a state of affairs the LGBTQ activist work hard to ignore, despite the secular commitment to believing only what “science has proved.” Activists offer a laundry list of areas for study and analysis that might provide the explanation they want to hear, but there is no scientific evidence to date that shows how a homosexual can be identified by a biological test.

Proceeding as if such a thing had been proved, the activists indict God for creating people homosexual and then declaring homosexuality to be sin. This argument may be taken as an improvement over the one where activists declare that the Bible doesn’t mean sin or doesn’t mean homosexuality everywhere homosexuality is identified as sin, but it isn’t a gain for human culture. It only means that people who intend to compel other people to consider homosexuality normal have taken a different tactic in an attempt to achieve an unchanged objective.

Suppose, however, that Christians were to concede that it is entirely possible that someone is “born that way.” The Bible actually does provide the possibility that someone could be born with homosexual tendencies. The Bible is not a textbook of human genetics, so the Bible doesn’t deal with it as a genetic issue. The Bible deals with homosexuality the same way it deals with adultery and murder and rejection of God’s sovereignty; the Bible says that every human being is born sinful. People are born lustful and violent and self-centered, and those qualities take shape in a person’s life as acts of lying, theft, and sexual immorality, including homosexual behavior. A person could certainly be “born that way” even if “that way” were murderous intention or lust for someone else’s wife. A person could be “born that way” if “that way” meant that he regarded sex as a trivial game for self-gratification and nothing more. A person could be “born that way” if he considered truth to be inconvenient or if he preferred homosexual behavior to fulfill his desires. No matter what “way” a person is born, the Bible upholds only one standard: God’s way.

The Bible has never said that people who engage in heterosexual marriages were less sinful than homosexuals. The Bible has never said that murder is worse than stealing a dollar. Human beings apply comparative standards; God does not. This fact makes it impossible for one human being to stand any higher in God’s presence than another. It makes the argument between Jesus’ disciples about which was greatest look completely ridiculous. Not one of them could be the “greatest” because each of them was born “that way,” which is to say that each was born sinful.

Despite God’s attempt to cleanse a sinful world by means of the Flood, God said afterwards, “every inclination of [man’s] heart is evil from childhood” (Genesis 8:21 ESV) and vowed never again to deal with sin by trying to purge it from the earth. Isaiah the prophet said it this way: “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way.” (Isaiah 53:6 NIV84) The apostle Paul said it very clearly: “There is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:22-23 NIV84) Generation after generation of inspired writers documented that humankind is born sinful. So to say that a homosexual is “born that way” does not excuse the homosexual from responsibility for his sin before God any more than a person who shoots down innocent schoolchildren or someone who embezzles from a bank. Each person is responsible to God for his choices, no matter what “way” he was born.

What is a person to do? No matter what “way” a person is born, he appears to be doomed before God. Isn’t that unfair?

The answer is simple. It is so easy that many people trip over it the way Naaman tripped over the cure for his leprosy. Do you know that story? It is found in 2 Kings 5:1-19. Naaman was an Aramite military officer who had an Israelite slave in his household. He also had leprosy, and his slave suggested he go to Elisha in Israel for healing. Naaman expected to be cured with actions and words worthy of his official status. Instead, Elisha sent a servant to tell him just to dip himself in the Jordan River seven times. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. How easy is that? It was so easy and delivered so casually that Naaman could not accept it. He was ready to go home with his leprosy unchanged. It took the pleading of another servant to persuade him that it was worth his attention. He finally changed his mind, did what was required, and his leprosy went away. The cure was so simple and seemed so unworthy of his status that he almost didn’t get cured.

Dealing with the “way” you are born is just as easy, and just as easy to dismiss. The “way” you were born is sinful, no matter the sin. Every sin is equally vile before God, so your sin is not worse, and absolutely not better, than the sin of anyone else. The way to fix it is to receive Christ into your heart and let him cleanse and forgive all your sin. Of course, that means that you would need to recognize that you are sinful and recognize that you need forgiveness. Jesus explained it to a man who came to him one night, sure that he was righteous and didn’t need to be cleansed of his sin. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and Pharisees knew that they were not sinful like other people.

Jesus said to Nicodemus,

“I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” “How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’” (John 3:3-7 NIV84)

The cure if you are “born that way” is to be born again.

It is that simple. Jesus explained it:


Here is the clear truth. You were “born that way,” that is, you were born sinful. If you have not received Christ into your heart, then you are condemned for being sinful. God is holy and sovereign, and he has the right to say so, but he does not want it to be so. He wants you to be set free from the “way” you were born, and he paid the price himself when Jesus died on the cross.

What can you do about it if you were “born that way?” You can trust Christ and be cleansed of your sin. Your life can be redeemed and you can live a fulfilling life that never ends. It really is that easy to deal with the problem if you were “born that way.” Don’t miss it and miss out because it seems too easy.

That is what to do if you were “born that way.”

We are all “Born That Way”

People who see the demographic for homosexuality increasing in the context of today’s cultural stew really do want to know where homosexuality comes from.

The answer is: Satan

Homosexuals, and all the other sexual variants that now fall under the umbrella of “gender queering” want to say that it is genetic. The fact that no evidence has been found for any genetic basis for the behavior has not discouraged the political types at all. They list possible areas of research as if the list itself proves the hypothesis the research will test.

Christians come under intense pressure and vitriolic scorn from LGBT activists, because Christians call homosexual behavior a sin. The revealed Word of God calls it sin, and people who take the revealed Word of God as their guide for faith and life accept that what it says is truth.

The mantra of LGBT activists, bloggers and public figures is that homosexuals are “born that way.” Further, they assert that the drive for homosexuality is not only inborn, but it is also immutable; a born homosexual is incapable of changing his or her sexual orientation.

 They further declare that only a vindictive God would create homosexuals and then condemn homosexuality as a sin. Thus, if one accepts that a person could be born homosexual, that fact is said to completely debunk the Bible as a vicious myth, because the Bible says that homosexuality is sinful and lumps that behavior in with a lot of other behaviors that are condemned as evidence of Satan’s work in human life. According to the LGBT activists, the fact that a person is born homosexual, “born that way,” automatically establishes the behavior as normal. They are outraged that God would condemn someone for something he did not choose and cannot change.

Christians who hear this argument are tempted to engage in the rhetoric over genetic research. Genetic research to date has found no evidence of a genetic basis for homosexuality. Christians want to say that the lack of evidence proves that homosexuality is a choice. LGBT activists, firm in their conviction that it is not a choice, aggressively point to what they consider to be promising lines of inquiry that could establish some prenatal factor in the vast biochemical stew that is the human body which predestines a fetus to be born homosexual.

Christians cannot disprove what has not been alleged to be proven. This line of argument is fruitless. It is also beside the point. If homosexuality is a sin, then the real problem homosexuals have is not genetic. It is also not unique, because every human being is born a sinner. Being born sinful is a universal problem.

Every one of us is “born that way.”

To accuse a homosexual of being a sinner is no different from accusing a thief of being a sinner. The behavior someone engages in as a consequence of being a sinner is irrelevant to the real problem. Every person is sinful and needs salvation, and there is only one way to fix the problem.

The answer is: Christ.

The cultural issues surrounding homosexuality and the way people act when confronted by it are complicated. Homosexuals feel that society has scorned them, and it feels hurtful. The reason they feel that way is because society does scorn homosexual behavior. It is true that the culture has expressed complete repugnance at homosexual behavior. Homosexuals rightly point to a long history of real abuse of homosexuals, but the fix for the problem is not to deny the biblical truth that homosexuality is sin.

The fix is: Christ.

Christians and non-Christians alike have expressed outrage at homosexual behavior. Many Christians have behaved very badly. Why? Because Christians are human beings, and human beings are “born that way.” What way? Human beings are born sinful. Christians are human beings. The difference between Christians and non-Christians is not perfection of behavior and attitude: the difference is the blood of Christ. Christians are born sinful, and their sins are forgiven, because Christ died for all people. When they receive Christ as their Savior, they become forgiven, not perfect. Bad behavior toward homosexuals is the consequence of their human nature, not an indictment of the Savior.

This problem proves an important point: because every human is born sinful, and because forgiveness of sin neither eradicates sinful human nature nor destroys Satan, every Christian is still subject to behave under the influence of Satan through the agency of sinful human nature. LGBT activists say that because a person is “born that way,” the condition is immutable. If being born sinful were immutable, then Christ’s death would have no purpose. The fact that Christ died for all people and rose to give all people eternal life means that while everyone is born sinful, and even though the condition of being sinful is immutable, everyone is invited to be forgiven and to be fundamentally transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Every person is born a sinner. The kinds of sin are numerous. Homosexuality is only one. No Christian who happens to be untempted by homosexuality should scorn those who are. We are all born sinners, and one sin is not any better or worse than another. What Christians must NOT do is be tempted to deny the sinfulness of sinful behavior. Christians who feel confident in asserting that homosexuality is sin must also be honest in asserting that lying is a sin. There are, for example, no “white” lies that are good in contrast to “black” lies that are evil. God is the God of Truth, not of lies.

We cannot classify some sins as worse than others. What makes us feel that way is often the problem of advocacy. We feel that while every person is a sinner, those who make a career of luring others into sin are worse than those who go about their sinning quietly. Jesus agreed with that evaluation. He said that misleading a person and luring people into sin would merit a particularly gruesome punishment in God’s eyes. Christians are justified in their insistence that voices demanding the normalization of homosexuality in the culture and voices pushing to teach kindergartners that they need to figure out if homosexuality is for them must be silenced. To demand an end to public advocacy for homosexuality is not the same thing as demanding the shunning or exclusion of homosexuals. To refuse to participate in homosexual behavior such as pretending to get married is not the same thing as saying that homosexuals have no right to pretend whatever they like to pretend. Christians must be firm in rejecting the behavior and in refusal to participate in it, just as they might refuse to promote a Ponzi scheme or decline to drive the getaway car for a bank robber.

Christians must reject sin in all its forms. Christians are called to hate sin and love sinners. This attitude does not justify or promote ugly behavior toward homosexuals; if anything, it should promote understanding of their plight, which is no different from anybody else’s plight. Christians are, as Martin Luther commented, sinful saints and saintly sinners. If Christians do not love sinners, then they cannot love anybody, because the truth is:

We are all “born that way.”