We read in the very first chapters of the Bible that sin has entered the heart of every person through Adam & Eve. All humankind is predisposed to sin and the sin options available in life. In fact, everything from the weather to our relationships, from our disease-ridden bodies to our sexuality, has been infected by the fall and sin.
Without a doubt, you and I are born with a predisposition to sin. Even after we have entered into a relationship to Christ and have His Spirit within us to steer us away from sin, we still have the capacity to choose to partake from the big buffet of sin options. There are the sin options surrounding food. The options surrounding material things and money. And, of course, there are the options surrounding our sexuality.
God knows that because of that lingering sin orientation all of us have the capacity for many different sexual options, including adultery, premarital sex, incest, bestiality, promiscuity, pedophilia, voyeurism, exhibitionism, sadomasochism. The list goes on and on. He knows that we have the capacity for same gender sexual relationships. Homosexual behavior is just one of the sin capacities available to humankind from the big buffet of sex options.
Clearly, though, the truth that we have the capacity for homosexual activities does not mean that they are condoned by our Creator.
Our Creator—knowing the sin orientation within us—established and told us in His Word His one plan for our sexuality: monogamous male-to-female, lifelong, covenantal relationship. It is a perfect and beautiful plan that reflects His very nature. Thus, anything outside of that one plan—all those options listed above—are hurtful to Him, to our relationship with Him and our human relationships.
So, then, do we all have the capacity for homosexuality? If you breathe, yes, you do, because you have a sin orientation. Homosexual behaviors, feelings, identities are among the numerous broken forms of sexuality to which we are predisposed.
The more specific question is this: What causes some individuals to be drawn specifically to homosexuality out of all those sexual sin options? First, I repeat: One, we all have the predisposition to sin; and, two, we have the numerous ‘big buffet of sin options available to us including homosexuality. But then additionally and thirdly, there are the factors that I refer to as chance, choices and circumstances or that some refer to as “environmental” factors.
CHANCE
Something happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause. (Note: I acknowledging the sovereignty of God)
CHOICES
The act of selecting. Personal choices/vows made by an individual, or the choices of others against an individual.
CIRCUMSTANCES
The conditions surrounding a person’s life.
What causes one person’s heart to race, salivary glands to water and mind to plan ways to obtain cocaine while another person looks at it with disgust? What causes one person to enter a dinner buffet and his/her heart races, mouth salivates, and he/she makes numerous trips to the food line long after he is nourished, while another person makes one trip and is satisfied. What makes one person embezzle from a corporation and another person not? And—what is it that draws some persons to homosexuality and others not? Chance, choices and circumstances within a person’s life combined with the sin orientation and the buffet of sin options available makes for the homosexual attraction. We all have a sin orientation and the same buffet of sin options, but I say that it is environmental and life factors (chance, choices and circumstance) that draw some people to homosexuality. For others, their chance, choices and circumstances lead them to other sin-options on the big buffet table of life.
There is no need to be surprised by homosexuality in the world today. God the Father knew humankind had the capacity and the option to use sex in a way for which it was not designed. I imagine The Creator looked upon His created ones and said, “They have the capacity for all kinds of sexual activity. I’d better tell them of the design and intent for sexual relating. He wrote to us in His letters to us (Leviticus, Corinthians, Romans…) of the things not to do with sex including homosexual activities. Also, the Bible in its entirely speaks of monogamous heterosexual relating as the exclusive intent for sexual expression.
We do not need to be surprised by the phrase “born that way”. In a very real sense, we are all born ‘that way” – our self-centered capacity to reject God’s plan and authority over our lives and do things ‘my way’. God knew that we had the capacity for homosexual relating. The Father provided victory over that sin-predisposition through the life, sacrificial death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus the Christ. God has given us everything for life and godliness in the midst of all the sin-options available to us. He restores. He transforms. He saves.
True joy in life can only be found through walking in our Divine design, by the power of His Holy Spirit, in a dynamic relationship with Jesus.