Shocking Questions
BreakPoint: Shocking Questions, 8/10/2005
Yes, There Are Answers
August 10, 2005
Note: The following commentary includes graphic descriptions not suitable for children.
"I’m at my wits’ end," the young woman wrote. "I’ve asked pastors, friends, parents, God, and message boards this question and still haven’t received an intelligent answer that I can live with. Why are homosexual acts wrong? I’m a Christian and believe in the Bible, but this part always stumps me."
According to my friend, Dr. J. Budziszewski, author of the excellent book, Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students, disturbing questions like this show that church leaders aren’t providing young people with the whole picture about sexuality. They may be faithfully teaching God’s rules, but when asked why God made these rules, too often they say, "Take two aspirin, and wait for the questions to go away."
The good news, says Budziszewski, is that we can answer disturbing questions. Where are the answers found? In our creational design.
"People say homosexuality isn’t natural," the young woman complained in her letter, "but that can’t be true because it’s found among animals." Budziszewski answers, "But our nature is how God designed us. What’s natural for human beings isn’t whatever you can find some animal doing; it’s whatever fulfills our design. Men and women were plainly designed for each other not men for men, nor women for women." Children can be born in no other way.
"But homosexual acts don’t harm anyone," said the young woman. Budziszewski answers, "The idea that homosexual acts don’t harm anyone isn’t even close to being true; they harm those who perform them at every level. To begin with the most obvious level the physical how could it not harm a man to suffer physical trauma because body parts are repeatedly forced into bodily openings that were designed for a radically different function?" And the rates of a long, long list of diseases are also much higher among practicing homosexuals, and contrary to popular belief, this is true for lesbians as well as for "gay" men.
At the emotional level, Budziszewski explains, the damage of homosexual acts is just as grave. God designed the male-female pair to balance each other; by contrast, same-sex mating drives them out of balance. If you want an example, think of the anonymous, no-brakes promiscuity of men who have sex with hundreds, even thousands, of other men.
"And what about spiritual harm?" asks Budziszewski. "In homosexual acts, you’re seeking union with someone who is only your own mirror image, so in a way, you’re still trapped inside yourself. You haven’t experienced the power of marital sexuality to take you beyond the Self; you’re rejecting the challenge of union with someone who is really other. In that way, homosexual acts are less like marital intercourse than like masturbation with another body."
That’s frank, even startling language, but what’s happened to our culture is startling too. When young people confused by the culture ask questions, they need clear, unvarnished answers to set their thinking straight. That’s why I recommend this great book Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students.
God’s rules for sex are never arbitrary; they are based on how He made us. As Budziszewski rightly says, it’s all in the design.
This commentary first aired on December 3, 2004.
Thought Crime 