Why God made gays

OPINION By Nathaniel Batchelder,
Director, The Peace House OKC

Reasonable people today comfortably acknowledge the various sexual orientations and gender identities present in all societies. This is how species are created. Examples are common in nature.

Historically, of course, human beings have been fearful of differences in individuals they could not understand - as though difference were a disease and possibly contagious. Different ones were rejected, excluded, ridiculed, bullied and ostracized. Pity the child born with a clubfoot or cleft palate. In Latin, the word for left-handers is “sinister” and until recently they were forced to become “right” handed or made to suffer the consequences.

Ignorance can render humans cruel and heartless.

Historically confused about sexual issues anyway, humans have condemned minority sexual orientations and gender identities, typically accusing them of being evil, sinful, ungodly, pathological, criminal, dangerous and deserving of prison or worse. Witness the recent ruling by the nation of Brunei that individuals guilty of homosexual acts be stoned to death.

Given this torturous record, why has the Almighty deigned to create varieties of sexual orientation and gender identity? The answer to me is obvious: They are here to teach heterosexuals that human sexuality is good, wonderful and purposeful in its own right, regardless of whether it leads to pregnancy and childbirth.

Of course it’s true that sexual intercourse between heterosexuals sometimes results in pregnancy, but to suggest that procreation is sexuality’s primary or only justifiable purpose is to utterly distort the nature of human beings.

Our sexuality may express love, intimacy, commitment, adventure, rebellion, defiance, lust, tenderness, physical strength, bodily pride or just recreational delight. It can result in pregnancy, which is useful for building families and continuing society. But to burden and condemn the wonder of sexuality with the pronouncement that its primary or only proper purpose is procreation is to distort all its other important contributions to human life and relationship.

Authors of scriptures two and more thousand years ago doubtless believed that “God intends people to go forth and multiply.” Today, this is a prescription for environmental suicide. Fifty years ago, when our population was only 5 billion, humanity was already stressing nature’s life systems. Today, with human population half again that large, at 7.5 billion, our numbers are still growing annually by 80 million (that’s births after deaths).

Again, the valuable example of sexuality among the minority sexual orientations and gender identities, where procreation is not the goal, may contribute helpfully to population management needed before our species totally devastates the rest of Nature.

For information about The Peace House, or to contact Nathaniel Batchelder, Director, please visit www.peacehouseok.org.

The Gayly. 4.6.2019 @ 7:04 a.m. CST.