Same-sex Love Isn’t Love; It’s Lust

Pastor Mark Driscoll’s bio on Twitter boldly and proudly declares, “It’s all about Jesus!”

That’s why it’s kind of surprising that recently, Mark Driscoll decided to Tweet about a topic that Jesus had nothing to say about: Same-sex attraction.

Since Jesus said nothing about it, then I would have to conclude that Mark Driscoll’s Twitter bio should actually declare: “It’s all about Mark Driscoll.”

Yes, Driscoll has a habit of intentionally stirring up the Twittersphere with Tweets that are clearly designed to outrage people. It’s his way of getting eyes on his Twitter profile because everyone knows that on Twitter if you want attention, say something outrageously inappropriate.

Driscoll is the king of these kinds of Tweets.

Every time I see a post like this from Driscoll, I am left asking myself the same three or four questions:

1. What benefit is there in Tweeting this?
2. Will this statement draw people to Christ or repel people from Christ?
3. What is the motivation behind this Tweet? Like… why the heck post something like this.
4. Would Jesus Tweet something like this?

I don’t know for sure, but I suspect that Dricoll’s answers to these questions would go something like this:

1. I don’t care if people like my Tweet. I’m not afraid to state the “Truth!” (that’s his “Truth,” by the way).
2. I won’t draw people to Christ under false pretenses. If you can’t follow the Bible, you can’t follow Christ. (Of course, Driscoll is talking about his interpretation of the Bible)
3. Because I love people, and I don’t want them to go to Hell, I’m warning them. I’m motivated by love! (Yeah, right… no one’s buying that bullshit).
4. Yes.

On the other hand, after much consideration, my answers to these questions go something like this:

1. There is no benefit in Tweeting this
2. It repels people from Christ and the church
3. The only reason someone would post this was if they intentionally wanted to piss people off
4. No.

Driscoll’s latest Tweet follows closely on the heels of another wherein Driscoll posts a video answering the question, “Can a Christian attend a gay wedding?” You don’t need much imagination to guess what Driscoll’s answer to the question is:

This guy wouldn’t get invited to a gay wedding anyway because no self-respecting member of the LGBTIQ+ community would be friends with him.

Here’s a guy who is quite happy to pontificate over whether Christians should attend a gay wedding without addressing the more pertinent question of whether Christians should attend a church where the pastor has a demonstrated history of bullying, angry outbursts, and a dictatorial leadership style.

For more on that, check out my last article about Driscoll.

The Biblical problem with Driscoll’s Tweet

Of course, Driscoll would probably deny being a raging homophobe and merely paint himself as a guy who is boldly repeating what the Bible says.

But there’s a problem.

Driscoll might assert that same-sex love isn’t love at all, but there are some stories in the Bible where Driscoll’s case falls over.

The most obvious one is the relationship between David and Jonathan, recorded in 1 Samuel, where David described the love that exists between him and his male friend Jonathan as being “better than the love of a woman.”

That sure sounds like same-sex love.

Of course, the evangelical view is that David and Jonathan were just best friends, which is convenient. It absolves the church from entertaining the possibility that there could be a positive, affirmed same-sex relationship in the Bible. The reality is any conversation about the real nature of David and Jonathan’s relationship is purely speculative. They might have been just friends. Or they might have been more. They sure seemed to be close… real close. My friend,

Eric Sentell

, has written a great article about the relationship between David and Jonathan.

I’ve also written about the story where Jesus heals a Roman centurion’s servant in an article entitled “Jesus Heals and Man’s Boyfriend” — another example of where same-sex love appears to be a key motivator for the characters involved.

That aside, when the Apostle Paul wrote some of the clobber texts that are commonly used by over-zealous Christians to bash the LGBTIQ+ community in the modern world, I doubt very much whether he could have conceived of a world where same-sex people could live in loving, committed relationships. He was speaking to his culture. The biggest mistake that many Christians make is taking the Bible and decontextualizing it, and somehow making it about now. It’s not about now. It’s about an ancient culture’s best efforts to understand the will of God in their culture at their time in history.

We live in a different world, and the cultural laws of the Bible are intended for another time and place. The universal laws of the Bible that transcend time and place are much more clear and far less controversial:

God is love.

When we love, we are being like God.

We ought to treat people as we would like to be treated.

All people are inherently valuable and worthy of respect and love, and acceptance because they are made in the image of God. This truth transcends all of the boundary markers that human beings establish: culture, race, religion, gender, and, of course, sexuality.

One more thing…

Apart from the Bible, the biggest problem with Driscoll’s Tweet is that it belies the reality of life. I doubt very much whether Driscoll actually has any friends who are in same-sex relationships. I mean, Driscoll is pretty good at building walls to insulate himself from that possibility.

If he did have friends who are in same-sex relationships, he would probably observe that their love doesn’t look any different from heterosexual love. I know people who are in same-sex relationships who are actually a great example of the kind of self-sacrificing love that ought to characterize relationships. And I know plenty of people in extremely toxic and unhealthy heterosexual relationships.

To say that same-sex love is actually just lust is pure ignorance, in my opinion. You cannot really know people in loving same-sex relationships and maintain this perspective.

Still, Driscoll isn’t the first and won’t be the last preacher to speak from a place of fear and ignorance while claiming to be the enlightened one.

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This post was previously published on MEDIUM.COM.

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From The Good Men Project on Medium

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The One Thing Men Want More Than Sex

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