PERSONAL TAKE ON HOMOSEXUALITY | Criminalize or Legalize?
As I grow up and understand God better, I get wiser, I know better and my personal opinion about certain things changes. This may not really sound good to you if you are homophobic but don’t you think it is time we see from another perspective? I am not part of the LGBT movement and I am a PRO-life.
We all know what God’s opinion about homosexuality is if we are looking in the Bible but sometimes we pretend like we don’t know God’s opinion about premarital sex, adultery, cursing, lying, anger and so much more. Many of us, especially evangelical Christians are ever ready to throw stones and even want homosexuals imprisoned. As much as God doesn’t like things being used outside purpose, God doesn’t hate homosexuals and God isn’t homophobic. We may want to talk about Sodom and Gomorrah as an indication that God hates homosexuality so much but we should also look back at the story of Noah to see how God hates sin in general. One of the biggest indications of God’s hatred for sin is the cross on which Jesus was crucified! But that same cross is the biggest indication of God’s love for the man regardless of who they are. First, let us establish here that if Jesus was to be physically on earth, He wouldn’t be handling the issue of homosexuality the way we do today because we are excluding it from the list of other human issues and in this regard it becomes discrimination.
You don’t force people to do the right thing especially when it doesn’t affect you just as you don’t force people to stop being angry, being envious or being promiscuous and all of that. Many countries have never forced prostitutes to stop prostituting even when it affects the society in some ways, we have never stopped people from having premarital sex and all of that, why should we then single homosexuality out? It is because many of us are guilty of other misconducts and possibly homosexuality is the one we have managed to avoid and then we think we are better than other people.
“We all know what God’s opinion about homosexuality is if we are looking in the Bible but sometimes we pretend like we don’t know God’s opinion about premarital sex, adultery, cursing, lying, anger and so much more”
We treat homosexuality as though it is the worst of it all. If we should jail homosexuals for 14 years in Nigeria, we should also jail people who commit adultery, fornication and so on. If we say premarital sex is about two consenting adults, what do we say about homosexuals? The world is experiencing a very high rate of moral decline but we can’t just single out homosexuality neither should we force people to become who they don’t want to be.
Let me talk specifically to some of my fellow Christians.
What was committed to us is the gospel of reconciliation and the cross says to anyone who is willing “come!” It is not something we force people to become and it is not something we must have to subject people to some kind of false therapy just to become who we want them to be. If we love God so much, we should be preaching the gospel of Jesus and not becoming moralists only to homosexuals. Moralism doesn’t save anyone, sometimes it increases the number of pretenders. Most of us have friends who are fornicating, most of us have discussions with adulterers and many of us even among the Christian leaders are messed up in sexual sins, what do we do about them? Do we push them to jail? Do we discriminate against them? Do we carry placards around asking the government to either legalize or not legalize fornication?
This is an unpopular opinion and I hate the act of homosexuality with every sense of it but we are not being moral by punishing homosexuals and not punishing fornicators and adulterers. I don’t hate on homosexuals and when I meet them, I don’t even start arguing their lifestyles with them. If I should preach Jesus, I just preach Jesus because that is the only life-changing teaching. If we say Jesus changes people, then we should allow Him to do the change. Many people have testified about experiencing change from certain addictions after they got born again and therefore we must leave to God what is His duty. If Jesus said, “come on to me all ye who are burdened…” And someone burdened with sin comes to Him, it is not your business what God decides to do with the person.
“Most of us have friends who are fornicating, most of us have discussions with adulterers and many of us even among the Christian leaders are messed up in sexual sins, what do we do about them? Do we push them to jail? Do we discriminate against them?”
Christ never for once campaigned against people’s weaknesses, He rather offered Himself as a way out of the nature of sin. Jesus didn’t sit the woman caught in adultery down to tell her how bad adultery was but He simply told her “go and sin no more.” If she was brought back to Him, He would still say “go and sin no more.”
Putting up a law against homosexuality without putting up a law against fornicators is discrimination and I think this is the perspective from which many people have never viewed this. These personal moral issues are not what you get people out of by enforcing certain laws on them. By doing so, we only allow it’s progression is secrecy or stubbornness. Countries shouldn’t be legalizing or criminalizing homosexuality in the first place. I understand that the reason some countries legalize it is to offer some kind of protection or to reverse a law that has been put against it. We never had to legalize prostitution or premarital sex but people do it broad day light, people get pregnant without a husband and it happens to be none of our business because we know these are personal human challenges. Criminalizing homosexuality in the first place makes it right for the ban to be lifted.
I also think the areas that need to be looked at is in protecting the kids and ensuring a lifestyle that isn’t theirs is not enforced on them especially when adopted by homosexual parents. As a Christian who believes in the authority of the Bible, I can’t endorse Pastors being coerced or encouraged to perform homosexual weddings, freedom of worship means allowing people to practice their doctrine. Homosexuality for me is a moral issue that it is as bad as fornication and adultery and should be treated as such. We made it a big deal when we criminalized it, we made it a big deal when we took homosexuals aside and focused on homosexuality as though it is something worse than other sins. The big deal we made it backfired and so as a payback to years of torture, hatred and discriminations, they are asking for more and will continue asking for more because we made it our general issues when it was supposed to be their personal life issues.
“Putting up a law against homosexuality without putting up a law against fornicators is discrimination and I think this is the perspective from which many people have never viewed this.”
Nobody made fornication and adultery a general issue, nobody made co-habitation a general issue and that is why there isn’t any outrage. For instance, for years of gender discrimination, many women are beginning to ask for more than what the dictionary defines as feminism. Some women are beginning to ask for more than what is actually right. Some moral issues are personal and should be handled on a personal basis. There are good people who are helpful in society but they are homosexuals, there are people who have great skills but they are homosexuals. In our society, they are helping but personally, they have moral issues they are battling with. Whether they admit it is a moral issue or not isn’t our business anyway just as those engaged in premarital sex are going on with it. Sometimes, it takes the conviction of the Holy Spirit or a person’s willing efforts to get certain people to stop a certain lifestyle.
If I should be asked to join a campaign of choice, I would join the team that says “homosexuality should not be criminalized” because it is discrimination to select personal moral issues we will punish and the ones we will not punish. Nigeria, like many other countries, is a secular country. If we want everyone to follow our lines of thought and convictions by force, then maybe we should blame God for not enforcing a theocratic government on earth. Sins punishable by law on the nations should be those criminal activities that endanger other people’s life. I have been a victim of abuse in the hands of certain homosexuals right from my junior secondary school days and I was helpless to do anything about it, the memories make me throw up and keeps me sober but I am also not going to judge people based on my personal emotions and experiences.
My appeal to most Christians who believe that Jesus makes the difference is to allow Jesus to make the difference the way He wants to do it.
“Sometimes, it takes the conviction of the Holy Spirit or a person’s willing efforts to get certain people to stop a certain lifestyle.”
God bless you
