Off Track on Orientation

The always contentious debate over homosexual orientation has heated up in the news recently in connection with the controversial views of a high-profile U.S. Presidential candidate. If we take a step back, we'll see that the premise of the entire debate is flawed because of our modern prejudices.

The Bible does not discuss sexual orientation not because the writers were ignorant of sexuality but because this concept is a fairly new one tied to another false modern construct: sexual identity.

The Bible presents one model of sexual behavior and that is within the male-female marriage. It paints all other sexual behaviors outside of this model with various degrees of disapprobation. In the New Testament, Jesus takes this further to describe that sexual behaviors begin in the thought processes (Mt. 5:27-30). Thought processes, however, are not the same as orientation/identity. The whole idea is thought processes are behavior.

What's the real orientation of humans? Against God. In the hearts of fallen men and women, "anything goes." Inherent in all individuals is a sliding scale of sexuality — no fixed orientation, no Balkanized identities. Fallen man's only identity is against God. Cultures and societies determine the rest.

The Judeo-Christian model of the monogamous male-female marriage covenant was/is completely anathema to the way the rest of the world worked and works. The civilizing influence of this strict model turned out to be quite successful in preserving the race of humankind and helping it flourish.

The concept of homosexual — and by extension, heterosexual — orientation was based on the errant belief that man is "inherently good" and was a way to shoehorn contra-Biblical behavior into a Biblical framework that seemed right.

Outside of Biblical morals and God-given conscience, it's social conditioning (family, friends, community, society) which shapes people's sexual behavior. That behavior can run the gamut depending on those conditions.

This is a huge topic deserving of more space, but for the moment let's look ahead to the future. What will future generations see? The concept of "orientation" will itself be discarded as outdated and rigid. The dead seeds of "sexual orientation" will be swept away for a more "fluid" sexuality that will not recognize or adhere to any arbitrary divisions. The world has been there before and, on its current track, will return there again.