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Gay by Choice?

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Are all homosexuals “born that way”? Not if you believe the testimony of a prominent “gay” actress.

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Chuck  Colson

For years we have been told that homosexuality is something people are born with — like the color of one’s skin — and that it can’t be changed. Gay-rights activists insist this is so, because, they say, if people don’t choose to be gay, it would be wrong to discriminate against them in things like marriage, adoption, and legal benefits.

And heaven help those who disagree. Just ask actress Cynthia Nixon, who in a recent New York Times Magazine article, had the gall to admit that she chose to be gay.

Nixon, who played one of the characters on the old “Sex in the City” television series, was involved in 15-year relationship with a man that produced two children. Now, however, Nixon has moved on to a so-called “gay” relationship with a woman. In the article, Nixon is quoted about her sexual life, “For me, it is a choice. I understand that for many people it’s not, but for me it’s a choice, and you don’t get to define my gayness for me.”

Curiously, gay activists, who in almost any other instance would celebrate a “woman’s choice,” are really upset. “Cynthia did not put adequate thought into the ramifications of her words,” said Wayne Besen, founder of Truth Wins Out, which opposes programs that seek to cure people of homosexuality. “When people say it’s a choice,” Besen added, “they are green-lighting an enormous amount of abuse.”

No, what Nixon is green-lighting is the dangerous idea that people make choices about their sexual lifestyle. And that’s a clear and present danger to the agenda of the gay-rights movement. That agenda seeks to prove that the gay lifestyle is natural and inevitable. But friends, there is absolutely no proof, and there'll probably never be any proof, that people are “born gay.”

University of California, Davis, psychologist Gregory Herek, an “expert on anti-gay prejudice,” admits, “The nature vs. nurture debate really is passé. The debate,” he said, “is not really an either/or debate in the vast majority of cases, but how much of each. We don’t know how big a role biology plays and how big a role culture plays.”

Wheaton College’s Stan Jones, who has written extensively on the subject, says the best research reveals that homosexual attraction is the result of a complex and mysterious interaction of biological, psychological, and environmental factors that produce different results for different people. Jones, and anyone else who has looked at the evidence in an unbiased way, says that there is no “gay gene.”

Thus, the project to — in the words of one pro-gay writer, “make homophobia as inexcusable as racism” — has failed. For some people, homosexuality is a choice, and to whatever extent that is true, the fact is we all have a choice about how we will respond to our various sexual inclinations and express our sexual brokenness.

And, contrary to what we hear, the different sexual choices people make are not all equal. Only one conforms to nature and nature’s God.

No, God’s Word does not give us a definitive word about the cause of homosexuality, but it is crystal-clear that we need to reject homosexual behavior as sinful, to embrace sex only in the context of marriage between a man and a woman, and to treat everyone we meet — homosexual or not — with love and respect.

 

Further Reading and Information

Genetic or Not, Gay Won’t Go Away
Frank Bruni | New York Times | January 28, 2012

Life After 'Sex'
Alex Witchel | New York Times | January 19, 2012

Actress' claim to be gay by choice riles activists
Lisa Leff | Yahoo.com | January 27, 2012

Same-Sex Science
Stanton L. Jones | First Things | February 2012

 


Comments:

Gay by Choice?
What if recent scientific research seems to support Cynthia Nixon . . . and also the Biblical view that "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he"? I've been reading a fascinating book called The Brain That Changes Itself, in which the author (Norman Doidge) explains the new research into brain plasticity and also its implications. The rule is, "neurons that fire together wire together," and there is no reason that that should be more true for a young man looking at online images that rewire his sexuality to respond only to violence than for a divorced woman who finds herself "falling in love" with another woman and decides to let it happen. If our brains really are plastic in the way the research shows, then all of our preferences are learned and can be unlearned--and both our freedom and our responsibility are beyond measure.
Gay by choice
Anything you were born to be or do and cannot help or control, cannot be sin.
Homosexualism
The popular (P.O.) view dehumanizes homosexuals. Those who deny that homosexuals have a moral choice regarding the preferences and orientations they develop and/or the actions that follow are likening homosexuals to dogs, rats or other creatures that just follow instict or determined forces with regard to sex and sexuality. The Christian view is that they are human beings, not merely dogs, rats or robots, as it were.
Why the difference?
If homosexuality is inborn, why aren't pedophilia, incest or bestiality also inborn and irrevocable? Or why aren't rapists and racists unalterably born that way? There's nothing like "selective morality" to justify our own indulgences. The really sad thing is many people accept this jargon and end up living long lives of disillusionment, frustration and ultimately despair.
Kelvin is right; Cynthia is bisexual and, furthermore, has explicitly stated so in later comments: 'While I don't often use the word, the technically precise term for my orientation is bisexual. I believe bisexuality is not a choice, it is a fact. What I have 'chosen' is to be in a gay relationship.' - http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/gossip/2012/01/cynthia-nixon-bald-by-choice-gay-by-choice.html
Gay by Choice
There are certainly factors, both behavioral and environmental that shape so much of our future behavior. As stated, the gay gene has never been found and it is unlikely that it ever will be. Reflecting one's sexual behavior is definitively a choice. One can argue that a gay person is attracted to the same sex. And...... choice of whether to follow through or not. Why? Unknown! While many believe that it's OK to have sex outside of marriage because the culture approves generally, does not make it OK with the Divine One setting down the rules. Either God is in charge and you will have to answer for your rebellion some day, or..... He's not in charge and you can do what ever you please. Know up front that if He is in charge, then one's actions have consequences period. Is it worth the risk to have what you want now because you want it now? Eternity is a long time.
LG-B-T
Sounds to me like Cynthia Nixon is actually acting as a bisexual, which was supposed to be part of what the LGBT community was supporting, but she apparently doesn't like that word. So she uses the word "gay," but attaches it to "choice," and while the two words separately are worshiped, they dare not be put together, and so the intolerant forces of tolerance have to attack.

JHW, you seem to be unhappy, but I'm not sure why. Chuck says homosexual behavior is sinful; do you see that as different from "sin"?
JHW
I think you misunderstood. He's saying we need to reject homosexuality because it's sinful.
Gay by Choice?
"...we need to reject homosexual behavior as sinful..." Chuck, am I hearing you right? The Bible is quite clear on classifying this kind of behavior as sin.
Gay by choice?
Whether homosexuality is inborn or by choice is not the issue. The issue is that God says that homosexuality is sin and should be avoided at all costs. THAT is the true, central issue.