Last month there was a very public and virile discussion about the connections between living the gay lifestyle and lessened life quality and life expectancy.  This has come to the fore due to comments by the Australian Christian Lobby and Sydney Archbishop Peter Jensen on the ABC’s Q&A.  Many Christian folk that I know have surprisingly been ropable about what Wallace and Jensen have said; though neither were being homophobic, the former could have chosen his words better and presented certifiable research in a more loving context.  However, their comments undermine one of the core assumptions behind the gay community’s demand for marriage, which is that their lifestyle is as safe and wholesome as heterosexual ones.  The research suggests the opposite, and that’s not because society is unaccepting and ‘homophobic’ but because it is intrinsically unhealthy.

My own first-hand experience of having sexual relations with other men, in fact, bears out that gay sex is very dangerous. It is not the “gayness” that is unhealthy, but the particular sexual practices that are pursued. In that time I went to Anglican churches where Dr. Peter Jensen was the incumbent archbishop, and I was frequently warned against living in gay sexual sin.  Though I resisted hearing that at times it never once made me feel suicidal or depressed: rather, I felt loved and safe. I knew living as a homosexual was wrong even independently of what the Bible said because I had to keep having health checks at hospitals to make sure I hadn’t picked up hepatitis, AIDS, or blood toxicity from the things I was doing. The gay ‘life’ involves risky sex and relationships that put life on the line. These practices are also pursued by heterosexuals, and also have health risks. It is just that homosexuals seem more likely to participate in them more frequently.  This is not to indict gay people, as if they are worse than heterosexuals or any less valuable as people; however, the risks are more prevalent in the gay community. That is not homophobic to say because they are the facts.

Jesus called people to forsake sexual immorality and give people life to the full (John 10:10), and he offers that love to gay people too. And health research is bearing out the reality of the risks of gay sexual practice. The 2010 National STD conference by the Centres for Disease Control in the US produced evidence that the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and that the rate of primary and secondary syphilis among MSM is more than 46 times that of other men. The evidence is staggering and saddening, and it it begs the question: how can living like this make anyone happy?

We are told in Scripture that as people abandon God to worship creation and make reality for themselves (Jer. 2:13), they are receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:27b, ESV).  They ignore wisdom and in so doing they injure themselves and embrace death (Proverbs 8:36), and some health research- even that written by gay-affirming academics- empirically testifies as to how this is manifesting.  Although we are told by many sources that homosexuality is just another expression of ‘love’ and that it is a ‘gay’ (or happy) form of love, the reality could not be in stronger contrast.  Sin never ever leaves people happy but pays the wages of death (Rom. 6:23).  Israel too abandoned God in the days of the Judges and worshipped created things, resulting in embracing homosexuality (Jud. 19) and eventual social breakdown (20-21), which debunks the modern adage that as long as people are ‘happy’ living as they wish, no-one else is to judge.  In fact, sexual immorality always hurts others and those doing it because we are relational beings and sex was designed for a male-female love dichotomy with friendship as its bedrock (Song of Solomon 5:1,16).

Homosexuality does hurt people and it is the responsibility of Christian people to bring gay neighbours, friends, and relatives to Christ that they be healed and restored (Isa. 61:1-7).  The gay lifestyle is fraught with unstable relationships, emotional heartache, and its sources are almost always unstable upbringing, abandonment, self-loathing, workaholism, people-pleasing, narcissism, and more.  It’s a sad lifestyle and diametrically opposite to the love of Christ.  Safe-sex campaigns and advances in health screening will not eliminate these problems; neither will removing ‘homophobia’ (whatever that means any more).  Only the wounded Saviour can accomplish that goal (Isa. 53:5, Ps. 107:8-9) and safe churches are where the hungry are fed (Ps. 68:5-6).

How are Christians to love gay people?  Call them to Christ and live a life of dedicated holiness to a heavenly brother, Christ, who yearns to save lost people in spirit and in truth.  One cannot be gay and Christian, and neither can Christian folk ignore how sin is hurting other people.

Haydn Sennitt leads Liberty Christian Ministries, based in Sydney, Australia, which helps people coming out of the gay and lesbian lifestyle. Haydn is studying first-year theology at the Sydney Missionary and Bible College and is a husband and father.

Image: sxc.hu/alkat