!! !! !! !! !! !! Gay Gene! If there is one, is it the last frontier to be crossed by homosexual to find their complete access to every sphere of society?! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! Luis Alexandre Ribeiro Branco Truth and Action Lisbon, September, 2014 Copyright © 2014 Luis Alexandre Ribeiro Branco All rights reserved. ! !! ISBN-13: 978-1502552280 ISBN-10: 1502552280 No part of this book or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied, modified or adapted, without the prior written consent of the author. ! ! ! ! !! Publisher: Truth and Practice Author: Luis Alexandre Ribeiro Branco Lisbon, September, 2014 wwww.truthandpractice.wordpress.com Email: contato@verdadenapratica.com !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! Philosophy | Apologetic !! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! DEDICATION ! I dedicate this work to my beloved family that has supported me in the most difficult parts of my life. !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! !! ! Introduction !! When we think about postmodernism we have to consider its implication in every aspect of society and none would doubt that homosexuality is one of these major implication especially for the contemporary church. The influence of relativism and the paradigm shift in humanity made homosexuality not just acceptable, but in many cases a norm. ! For a long time the church barricaded herself not only behind her Jewish-christian worldview and theological values, but also behind the absolutes of science that just has to agree that in the beginning there were only male and female. For long time homosexuality has been viewed as a behavior option, but what about if science has come up with a new discovery so called Gay Gene? That is exactly what we want to discuss in this essay. !! !! !! ! ! ! ! ! ! Índice Introduction 5 In the beginning 9 Friendship and homosexuality 11 The search for the gay gene 14 The discovery impact on theology 16 The influence of original sin in the human gene 19 A Christian response to homosexuals 22 Conclusion 27 Autor 33 Bibliography 35 ! "9 In the beginning ! The issue involving homosexuality might be one of the most challenging events for the contemporary church. Homosexuals are no longer satisfied in finding their civil rights assured, but they want to move forward into the various sphere of society invading into every aspects of life not just fighting for their rights, but fighting to demoralize and destroy any other worldview that differ from them creating a society oriented and guided by a noisy and quarrelsomeness minority. ! Since the earliest light of civilization and human communities of which we possess any historical record it is possible to observe and assume the homosexual presence throughout history. In some civilizations homosexuality was viewed as innate, while in other with resistance, the truth is that since the outset of history this practice has traditionally been a reality. Nevertheless this practice was never "10 acceptable by the church, as we can read in Romans 1:24-27: ! “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their b o d i e s w i t h o n e a n o t h e r. T h e y exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust f o r o n e a n o t h e r. M e n c o m m i t t e d indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! "11 Friendship and homosexuality ! The Church was born in the Jewish cradle and have developed the culture we now call the Judeo-Christian culture it was expected that Christians continue to respect and obey most of the moral and ethical mosaic pattern in those days. Homosexuals tries to speculate into the Bible stories to make the assumption of homosexual behavior between the Bible characters, as they do, for example in the case of the friendship of David and Jonathan, using the following verses: ! “After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became one in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself.” (1 Samuel 18:1) ! ! “I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” (2 Samuel 1:26) The renowned Christian philosopher C. S. Lewis wrote beautifully in this regard of the same gender friendship: “To say ‘These are "12 my friends’ implies ‘Those are not’. For all reasons if a man believes (as I do) that the old estimate of Friendship was correct one, he hardly write a chapter on it except as a rehabilitation. This imposes on me at the outset a very tiresome bit of demolition. It has actually became necessary in our time to rebut the theory that every firm and serious friendship is really homosexual. The dangerous word really is here important. To say that every Friendship is consciously and explicitly homosexual would be too obviously false; the wiseacres take refuge in the less palpable charge that it is really unconsciously, cryptically, in some Pickwickian sense - homosexual. And this, through it cannot be proved, can never of course be refuted. The fact that no positive evidence of homosexuality can be discovered in the behavior of two Friends does not disconcert the wiseacres at all: ‘That’, they say gravely, ‘is just what we should expect.´ The very lack of evidence is this treated as evidence; the absence of smoke proves that the fire is very carefully hidden. Yes - if it exist at all. Bur we must first prove its existence. Otherwise we are arguing like a man who should say ´If there were an invisible cat in that chair, the "13 ! chair would look empty, but the chair does look empty; therefore there is an invisible cat in it.’ A belief in invisible cats cannot perhaps be logically disproved, but it tells us a good deal about those who hold it. Those who cannot conceive Friendship as a substantive love but only as a disguise or elaboration of Eros betray the fact that they have never had a Friend.”1 Assume, therefore, that the close relationship of David and Jonathan was a homosexual relationship jeopardize any same gender relationship in our contemporary world. What would be merely an absurd. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 1 C S. Lewis, The Four Loves (London: ! Collins, 2012), 72-73. "14 The search for the gay gene ! Dean H. Hamer and Peter Copeland presents an interesting study on the search for what some homosexuals would view as the final frontier of the debate on homosexuality, the existence of a homosexual's gay gene, which presumably would require the society as a whole to look at homosexuality as a biological fact and common in the lives of some humans. ! According to the authors, over several years of research there was just a small, but significant difference between the brains of homosexual and heterosexual. The survey also demonstrated that identical twins have a high probability of being both homosexual, which somehow suggests that there is a chance of homosexuality being at least in part hereditary.2 In 1991, Dr. Dean Hamer, one 2 Dean H. Hamer and Peter Copeland, The ! Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 21. "15 renowned geneticist, graduated at the famous Harvard Medical School, initiated a research filed as PROTOCOL # 92-C-0078, when he started his search for the possible existence of a gay gene. After years of research and millions of dollars in investment, Hamer finally published his research finding, along with an elite formed by major researchers in the area, which had identified the gay gene, but that it had not yet been isolated, which would take several years of research to do so. The discovery by researchers from Harvard opened a window unimaginable in science and the last frontier had at last been sighted, and at once it ceased to be a matter of XX and XY chromosomes. In fact the biological race continues, this time calling for a larger number of researchers from other fields, such as psychiatry, the search for more concrete and satisfactory answers. ! ! "16 The discovery impact on theology ! The earnestness of the matter also came to contemporary writers of systematic theology, such as the famous "Theology of Lordship"3 by John M. Frame, in its third volume, "The Doctrine of the Christian Life” Frame addresses the issue acknowledging the existence of the abnormal chromosome XYY in a large proportion of young people who is responsible for their anti-social behavior, and even criminal acts in people with this type of chromosome.4 A little further neuroscientist Simon LeVay published an article about the difference in hypothalamic structure between 3 John M. Frame, The Doctrine of the ! Christian Life, Theology of Lordship (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P & R Pub., ©2008) ! 4 Ibid. 261. "17 homosexual and heterosexual men,5 in which he confirms and explains the existence of a minute deviation in the size of the "INAH-3", but of great significance in the brains of heterosexual and homosexual men. INAH-3 is the short form for the third interstitial nucleus of the anterior hypothalamus, and is the sexually dimorphic nucleus of humans. The INAH-3 is much bigger in males than in females irrespective of age. Homologues of the INAH-3 have been discovered taking a direct role in sexual behavior in rhesus monkeys, sheep, and rats. This breakthrough has led many scientists to deduce that there is a possibility of homosexuality being a natural tendency of the individual rather than a simple behavioral choice. ! Now the church has to deal with something that goes beyond theories, but deal with a scientific issue. I still believe that the 5 L e Va y S ( 1 9 9 1 ) . A d i f f e r e n c e i n ! hypothalamic structure between homosexual and heterosexual men. Science, 253, 1034–1037. "18 church has enough biblical arguments to refute homosexual activity and label it as a sinful action against nature and God. John M. Frame, however, says that a “homosexual genetic predisposition does not eliminate the fundamental element of choice.” 6 The conclusion of John M. Frame is based on the fact that people born with a hereditary predisposition to other trends such as alcoholism, choose healthy behavior and resistance to their natural tendencies. ! ! 6 Ibid. 264. "19 The influence of original sin in the human gene We have to take in account as well the impact of original sin into the man entire being. In theology we would call it total total depravity. John Piper explains this doctrine as following: “When we speak of man's depravity we mean man's natural condition apart from any grace exerted by God to restrain or transform man.”7 Charles Hodge in his Systematic Theology provides a more detailed description of this problem: ! “This universal depravity of men is no slight evil. The whole human race, by their apostasy from God, are totally depraved. By total depravity, is not meant that all men are equally wicked; nor that any man is as thoroughly corrupt as it is possible for a man to be; nor that men are destitute of all moral virtues. The Scriptures recognize the fact, which experience abundantly 7 John Piper, “Total Depravity,” Monergism, ! http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/articles/ piper/depravity.html (accessed September 24, 2014). "20 confirms, that men, to a greater or less degree, are honest in dealings, kind in their feelings, and beneficent in their conduct. Even the heathen, the Apostle teaches us, do by nature the things of the law. They are more or less under the dominion of conscience, which approves or disapproves their moral conduct. All this is perfectly consistent with the Scriptural doctrine of total depravity, which includes the entire absence of holiness; the want of due apprehensions of the divine perfections, and of our relation to God as our C r e a t o r, P r e s e r v e r, B e n e f a c t o r, Governor, and Redeemer. There is common to all men a total alienation of the soul from God so that no unrenewed man either understands or seeks after God; no such man ever makes God his portion, or God’s glory the end of his being. The apostasy from God is total or complete. All men worship and serve the creature rather than, and more than the Creator. They are all therefore declared in Scripture to be spiritually dead. They are destitute of any principle of spiritual life. The dreadful extent and depth of this corruption of our nature are proved, 1. By its fruits; by the fearful prevalence of the sins of the flesh, of sins of violence, of the sins of the heart, as pride, envy, and malice; of the sins of the tongue, as slander and deceit; of the sins of irreligion, of ingratitude, "21 ! profanity, and blasphemy; which have marked the whole history of our race, and which still distinguish the state of the whole world.”8 My understanding is that even if we recognize any sort of Gay Gene, if it is real, we have to realize as well that the effects of sin wasn’t restricted to the spiritual life of man, but it had an effect over whole nature, therefore a chromosome XYY found in human with natural disfunction or misbehavior is a direct effect of sin in the human being. Of course it will not sound good to the ears of the homosexual militants, but it is what it is. What we cannot accept is that a chromosome XYY influences certain men to do evil, but in homosexual it influences for good. 8 Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology ! (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999), 2:181-83. "22 A Christian response to homosexuals ! However, William J. Webb, a professor of theology at Heritage Seminary, Ontario wrote a fabulous book called "Slaves, Women & Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis”9 where he explains that “in a pluralistic society such as we live today, Christians must defend the rights and freedom of homosexuals and not impose the Christian ideal of sexuality on others.”10 Rather, the Church must establish a redemptive stance in its praxis, which implies that we must love homosexuals as we love ourselves. ! This entails that we must treat them with the same kind of grace, respect, care and compassion with which we expect to be treated. This implies that even though we do 9 William J. Webb, Slaves, Women and ! Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, ©2001). ! 10 Ibid. “368,” Kindle. "23 not agree with the sexual ethics and attitude of certain people, we still and respect them, seeking to persuade them to rethink about their sexual ethics and so seek a divine transformation in their lives. As John M. Frame makes clear: "I believe that God can transform the lives of homosexuals.”11 ! Even that some people opt to live in their own way apart from God we should not look for their failure as human beings, neither should we deprive them of their civil rights. I can understand exactly how hard it can be for Christians not only to understand, but also to accept the civil rights of a certain group that decided to live contrary to the Scripture. I see no other means of dealing with this problem, but developing within the church a redemptive hermeneutic and theology. ! Bishop McLaughlin, a minister and a father of a homosexual wrote un interesting ! 11 Ibid. 265. "24 book, not academical, but something deep from his heart as a father of the strangles that homosexual people have to deal with, in which he says: ! “If the murderer is caught, convicted in court AND sentenced; then he is punished and serves his time. The same thing holds true of a child molester, rapist, bank robber and everything else illegal. When these criminals serve their time; they are released and live normal lives. Most are not harassed after they get out and they can do just about anything that they want to do. With the exception of child sex offenders; nobody ever knows who they are. They get out of prison, move to another city, get a job and start completely new lives. However; for a gay person they are punished every day of their lives. The gay person doesn’t have to be caught and they certainly don’t get a trial. They don’t even serve a limited number of years of punishment. (There are minimum and maximum sentences for crimes but these don’t apply to gay people.) The gay is shunned and has their rights restricted their entire life and never has the right to a jury trial or to present their side of the argument … "25 ! Every year 4,000 - 6,000 kids are successful in their suicide attempts. They think that as many as 400,000 may make attempts every year but fail.”12 Nevertheless, even though that homosexual face daily struggles, specially the young ones, the LGTB groups (LGBT is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) will resist any kind of transformation program or counseling offered by the church. In some countries, they have been filing cases against psychologists, pastors and churches that provide any kind of transformation to homosexuals. If for one side the homosexuals groups have been charging the Church for closing her eyes towards the scientific developments regard to homosexuality, they must be held responsible for closing their eyes towards history, science 12 Bishop McLaughlin, Gay in America: ! Punishment 24/7 Without a Trial (United States of America: Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2012), 6, 13, Kindle. "26 and human rights. If a person is trying to get help, we must help! ! ! "27 Conclusion ! The reality is that genetic mutations or the ever-existing reality of a gay gene do not alter the fact that God created man and woman with their particular anatomies, complementarity and the biblical ethics of sexuality does not change. What changes have taken place since then? Changes the reaction of the Church towards the manner in which Christians should look at homosexuals. ! This fresh approach must be with love, concern, mercy, grace, and include them in their agenda in the quest for a more just society, recognizing that many of these are dealing with issues beyond the limits of choice even it is not eliminate though, in their daily lives and like any human being wish to live in peace in a just and egalitarian society. The Church must realize as well that an egalitarian society cannot deny its basic right "28 to any specific group. We may begin to ask the questions in order to find a solution to homosexual civil rights, such as the civil union, child adoption, pension and right to the partner inheritance, and so on. This paper cannot provide an answer to all these subjects, but can challenge the Church along with the society to find a plausible solution or at least acceptable to all parties. Nevertheless, there is an important issue and I would risk saying to be the most important thing above all, which is God's love. What would happen even to the most holy man on earth without the love of God? He would perish because it is God's love, grace and mercy that save us from spiritual condemnation. John M. Frame puts it in this way: ! “For these reasons, pedagogical and substantive, I prefer to begin with the ethical attributes, or, as I call them, the attributes of divine goodness. Scripture, as we have seen, never suggest that "29 ! God’s eternity or aseity is more fundamental to his nature than his love or justice. Indeed, those passages of Scripture that sounds most like definition of God tend to focus on his attributes of goodness, not his attributes of knowledge or power.”13 As we have addressed in this essay on homosexuality have been present in human history for a long time and it will not walk away and even countries with rigorous law against homosexuality have not been able to vanish it completely from their midst. We have seen also that science points to new directions, these different directions do not contradict the Scripture at all, but simply reinforce the idea of the total depravity or pervasive depravity. As a result of the Fall of Man, every person born into the world is enslaved to the service of sin and, apart from the efficacious or prevenient grace of God. Sin has affected human beings as a whole, 13 John M. Frame, The Doctrine of God, A ! Theology of Lordship (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Pub., 2002), 392. "30 including his biological system. Otherwise death would not subsist. Therefore, it is not surprising at all if science shows that traces of sin can be discovered in the human biological system. I am certain that the word sin will still be annoying to some after we have taken the standard of recognize the advancement of science and the possibility of the gay gene. However, it is not up to the scholar to change the biblical view of homosexuality, but to find a way to apply it after all this new science development. The idea of post modernity will be to force the biblical scholars to embrace science, to set down the differences, and to accept homosexuality as a natural process of human life and that we should accommodate this new reality. As biblical scholars, we do recognize the new reality with the ancient reality, pervasive depravity. Nothing changes in the Scripture, but we do know that there must be a change in our behavior towards homosexuality, understanding that it is still a matter of choice, but not only a matter of "31 choice, and that we need to help, accept, love and encourage those who look to the church in a search for Christ even with their homosexual tendencies knowing that Christ has all the power to transform them as he did with each one of us. There are thousand and millions of homosexuals needing to be loved, accepted, and encouraged. Many of those have been rejected by families, friends and communities due to their life style. We cannot ignore this reality as we face the new challenges of evangelism and missions in the post modern era. These teens are not only dealing with a decision that they should make towards Christ, but they have their whole biological system, the world mindset, passions and desires fighting against them, trying to keep them away from the love of Christ. It would be a presumption from my side trying to provide a final view and answers in this matter, perhaps we have more questions "32 than answers, but it is a very good beginning. We need some how to provide a response to the challenge of homosexuality and the science related to it without fear and without holding upon our shoulder the responsibility to answer all the questions, I think that it is okay to leave some unanswered, but we need to move forward in this matter. I believe that the issue related to homosexuality is one of the main agenda of the post modern society, from what we cannot scape. God is interested in this subject, I say this because God is interested in justice, therefore we may count with his marvelous wisdom. "33 Autor ! Luis Ribeiro Alexander Branco, was born in the city of Petrópolis, RJ, Brazil. He is married, a father, a poet and a clergyman. He has a Degree in Biblical Studies and Theology, a Master Degree in Church Administration and Leadership, a Doctor Degree in Ministry and is actually pursuing a Doctorate in Philosophy, he is a member of the Society of Christian Philosophers, member of the Sociedade Brasileira dos Poetas Aldravianistas, member of the Movimiento Poetas Del Mundo, member of the União Brasileira de Escritores and member of Academia de Letras e Artes Lusófonas, he is affiliated with the Mission Board of the National Baptist Convention, having served in several countries gave him the prerogative of a major cross-cultural experience; His theology is reformed, as a poet, he has a melancholy style. "34 He is a humanist characterized by the idea that man gets his true essence in the knowledge of God. His work is composed of serving as a resident pastor, a scholar in seminary and writing articles and volumes on several subjects. He lives in Lisbon with his folk and have published books on spirituality, theology, philosophy and anthologies. !! "35 Bibliography ! Frame, John M. The Doctrine of God. A Theology of Lordship. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R Pub., 2002. ! ________. The Doctrine of the Christian Life. Theology of Lordship. Phillipsburg, N.J.: P andamp; R Pub., ©2008. ! Hamer, Dean H., and Peter Copeland. The Science of Desire: The Search for the Gay Gene and the Biology of Behavior. New York: Simon andamp; Schuster, 1994. ! Hodge, Charles. Systematic Theology. Vol. 2. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1999. ! Lewis, C S. The Four Loves. London: Collins, 2012. ! McLaughlin, Bishop. Gay in America: Punishment 24/7 Without a Trial. United States of America: Amazon Digital Services, Inc., 2012. Kindle. ! Piper, John. "Total Depravity." Monergism. http://www.monergism.com/thethreshold/ articles/piper/depravity.html (accessed September 24, 2014). ! Webb, William J. Slaves, Women. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001. Kindle. ! "36 ________. Slaves, Women and Homosexuals: Exploring the Hermeneutics of Cultural Analysis. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, ©2001. !