Sexual Orientation and the Marks of the New Birth

Sexual Orientation and the Marks of the New Birth

I signed up for a course entitled, “Human Sexuality” in the last semester of my seminary work in 1977, at Candler School of Theology.  Toward the middle of the semester our professor announced that the pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church would be our guest lecturer for the next week and that he had invited him to preach at our chapel service.  He informed us that the pastor was openly gay and was in a committed same sex marriage; and that the Metropolitan Community Church was a church whose membership was predominately composed of openly gay, lesbian and transgendered people.

It was a major step for this white southern churchman to study human sexuality in its most culturally accepted forms.  I had never had a sex education class from anybody in family, church or school and now this openly gay man was going to talk to us about homosexuality.  Totally out of bounds!  My first reaction was to drop the course and run.  Homosexuality was an evil act and an abomination to God in my view and my tradition.  All hell and hate broke loose at Candler when the word got out about this perceived invasion.  Attempts were made to prevent this gay pastor from coming to our class and to prevent him from preaching in chapel.  Pressure came from the seminary administration, Emory University, and the United Methodist Connectional leadership.  Thank God that academic and religious freedom partiality won the day.  The openly gay pastor was allowed to come to speak to our class and to lecture in chapel.  He could not preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ; he could only lecture in chapel.  This was the compromise that was reached for him to participate at this United Methodist seminary.  This encounter with an openly gay pastor was the hot topic in the Candler campus for the week preceding the arrival of the Metropolitan Community Church pastor.

Homosexuality and Christianity was a raging contradiction in my consciousness for sure.  Homosexuality was nothing but an ugly act of multiple sex partners that took place in public restrooms.  How could any homosexual be Christian?

Wesley’s teaching, confirmed by my experience, that the grace of Jesus Christ is the source of our salvation kept me connected to the class.  Thoroughly convinced that there was no way this homosexual pastor could have any relation to Christ I began to think about how I could prove my conviction about homosexuality and Christianity to myself and others.  Still deeply influenced by Wesley’s Standard Sermons, his sermon “The Witness of the Spirit” came to mind.  (Sermon #10, Romans 8:16). In that sermon Wesley makes the point that our spirit bears witness that we are children of God in the following way; the Bible gives clear marks or characteristic of the children of God and that we as conscious creatures can identify those marks in our lives and in the lives of others.  Therefore when we see the biblical marks of a Christian in our lives and in the lives of others we can be certain that we are children of God. 

Based on this insight, I decided that I would confirm my convictions that this gay pastor was not a child of God by showing that he did not demonstrate the biblical marks of a child of God.  Wesley identifies two primary sets of the biblical marks of the children of God, the beatitudes and the fruits of the Spirit.  I thought that the fruits of the Spirit would be simpler to identify in the short time frame that we would have while the gay pastor was at Candler.  I made a chart that had the fruits of the Spirit across the top; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control (I knew I would get him on self-control) and the name of our professor, the gay pastor, the chapel leader, and other prominent seminary faculty and administrators on the left side of the paper.  So all prepared with my assumptions and my chart, I was anxious for the day to arrive when I could expose the gay pastor’s hypocrisy.

The class on human sexuality began.  There was no peace in the room or peace demonstrated by our professor.  He introduced the gay pastor, detailing the distress, conflict and compromises around the gay pastors presence on campus.  No fruits of the Spirit for him at that time.  The gay pastor however was at peace with himself and the context in which he found himself, expressed gratitude for the opportunity and began to patiently teach and respond to our questions.

The first thing he taught was that homosexuality was an identity not a behavior.  That was amazing to me that homosexuality or sexual orientation could be about being not about activity.  He went on to teach us that there were homosexual people in committed heterosexual relationships, celibate, committed same sex marriages and in abusive, destructive multiple partner same sex relationships.  He pointed out that the same variety of human sexual activity was true for heterosexual people.  What a diferent view this was from the unexamined one that I held that every human being was heterosexual and that homosexuality was an evil undisciplined multiple partner sexual activity that was carried out by perverts in public restrooms. He also pointed out that as a pastor in the Metropolitan Community Church of Atlanta he was opposed to abusive, multiple partner sexual relations whether it was by homosexual or heterosexual persons.

This gay pastor shared with us that the church he served had a strong street ministry in Atlanta.  In that ministry it was their experience that when men and women on the street were converted to live in and be transformed by the grace of God in Christ they made significant discoveries about their sexual identity.  These new or renewed Christians were mentored to become disciplined in their sexuality.  Some who were involved in abusive multiple partner homosexual relations discovered that they were heterosexual ; others confirmed their homosexual identity and all were disciple to be in disciplined relationships that reflected their sexual orientation and to refrain from sexual intercourse outside of a lifetime committed relationship.

My chart was beginning to reveal conclusions radically different from the preconceived notions that I was planning to confirm.  I did not rush out of class that day.  It took me a few minutes to absorb what I had seen and heard in that class.

Chapel began not long after the human sexuality class that day.  The professor who presided at the chapel service introduced our speaker and made it crystal clear that self-avowed practicing homosexuals were not allowed to preach in the United Methodist Church.  To ritually demonstrate that position with absolute clarity our chapel leader walked up to the pulpit where a huge pulpit Bible lay open.  He then with expansive gesture slammed it shut.  A loud “Wham” resounded through the chapel.  He then turned to our speaker for the day.  The gay pastor of the Metropolitan Community Church then stood up and began speaking about God’s love for all.

The chart that I had devised for the condemnation of another human being showed that it was the one I had prejudged who had become the only one that had the only marks that I could clearly identify as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self-control. My eyes were opened to see the unexpected and free Spirit of God.