There has been a lot of clamor and ranting in the public square: in the court rooms, policy making board rooms as well as the bedrooms, people seem to be familiarizing themselves with the third gender – the homosexual.

On homosexuality, The April  1976, ‘psychiatric annals’ reported, “One prominent psychiatrist said it was the first time in psychiatric history that a scientific society ignored scientific evidence and yielded to the demands of a militant group.” The homosexual movement proceeded regardless of research, science and dialog using intimidation as one of its weapons to achieve its aims!

Any counter perspective on this subject is met with suspicion and anger. Yet we must engage with it. So how do we approach homosexuality?

The family

Since the beginning of human society family has been understood as: father, mother and children. No child has ever been born of a homosexual union.  It is the ‘natural teleology of the body’ it takes a man and a woman to procreate. Even if children are not the result – it takes two to tango – it takes a man and a woman to have sex! Any experience outside of this is mere stimulation and artificial substitution. It is no different from thinking that masturbation is sex!  Though certain societies, only for the sake of illegitimate pleasure, practiced homosexuality it was never a norm nor understood as a permanent state of being. It is noticeable that even liberal ancient societies never understood homosexuality as a state of being/nature. If homosexuality is good it must help society. A society full of homosexuals would not thrive; it would self-destruct. When the family breaks down society breaks down, when society breaks down the individual is broken, and, in this case it would be slow yet sure!

Why the ‘animals also do it’ argument is not going to help?

If we believe that we have all evolved by a Godless blind chance process then, not only homosexuality, but everything would be permitted: murder, rape, incest and injustice. Animals do a whole lot of things that humans don’t do and are not expected to do. A cat might eat part of its litter. A dog might mate with its siblings. Animals don’t feel guilty after harming or eating an innocent being. We have been set apart from every other species by the way we understand morality and by our longing for justice and love. God descended upon us, breathed His image into us and set us apart from every other species. It is only to the human species that he said, ‘let us create them in our image’ and He created them male and female!

What about the ‘gay gene’?

All of us know that a homosexual is not a eunuch. A eunuch (by birth) is no case study for homosexuality. A eunuch is an “asexual” person and not a homosexual. What if homosexuality can be established as genetically determined then is it fine? A lot of studies are underway to prove the ‘gay gene’. So far there is no conclusive proof of the ‘gay gene’. Even if there were a ‘gay gene’ it would not justify homosexuality. There are genes that make up the body and there are genes that influence our desires and predispositions.

Jones and Yarhouse write in their book, Homosexuality: the use of scientific research in the Church’s moral debate, “We are used to thinking of genes as causing us to have things like brown eyes or wavy hair, and choice has little to do with such characteristics. But behavioral genetics has produced abundant evidence of genetic influences that clearly do not render human choice irrelevant.”

So even if someone were to say that his genetic disposition is to steal, we would not excuse him of his behavior. He has to make attempts to reform himself. As C.S. Lewis put it, just because we have an impulse to do something “we cannot … derive the practical principle, ‘I ought to obey this impulse…’ Telling us to obey instinct is like telling us to obey ‘people’. People say different things: so do instincts. Our instincts are at war.”

Are happiness, pleasure and freedom the only criteria?

If happiness happens to be the chief end of man, then shouldn’t the route be justified? If a man is happy only when he eats and if he believes eating humans will alone make him happy, is that justified? What if two consenting adults a mother and her child or a brother and a sister decide to get married, is that justified? One must according to Peter Kreeft,

1. Do the right thing
2. Have the right motives
3. And in the right circumstance

A homosexual might have the right motives and may even truly love his partner but he is not doing the right thing. We might truly love a friend and find it hard to see her struggling with cancer but to kill her is not the right thing to do. We might truly love our dog but to mate with a dog is a wrong action. Even if two consenting adults agreed to eat each other it is still a wrong action.

The route to happiness must be good and fair. And how do we know what is good and fair? For something to be good and fair it must be true? And how do we know what is true? We don’t look into ourselves – then cannibalism and rape could be true – rather we look out into God. 

What next? What does the Christian do?

Contrary to what some might think the bible is clear about homosexuality being unnatural and impure. But it is important for us to realize that homosexuality is no different from the list of sins that Paul quotes in Romans 1.  Jesus asks us to love God and our neighbor. We love the sinner and hate the sin. Loving sinners, like us, is necessarily dependant on hating sin. God loves us but hates the sin in us so much that he came and died for us. We don’t hate the cancer patient but we hate the cancer in him enough to take him to a chemotherapist. However, it is easy for us to say that chemotherapy is good treatment for cancer but only a cancer patient knows the pain of it. Only a homosexual will know what it takes to come out of the closest and into the arms of a loving, patient and forgiving God.

Peter Kreeft says, “We don’t tolerate good things we tolerate bad things for the sake of good things. And (Christians) believe that homosexuals are good and homosexual acts are bad. So we accept homosexual persons but we don’t accept homosexual acts. We tolerate homosexual acts but we don’t tolerate homosexual persons – we love them!”

– Bobby Thejus

Nishanth: Hey guess what?

Niharika: hmm… what?

Nishanth: You are such a pathetic guesser! Well anyways, I don’t think I want to believe in a God?

Niharika: Why?

Nishanth: Because you can’t guess for nuts and how can anyone even believe in a God? It is such a crazy thing to believe in!

Niharika: (Rolling her eyes) I guess you have been reading Richard Quackins again?

Nishanth: (With great enthusiasm) Yes, Richard Quackins is cool!

Niharika: So what did Quackins tell you that you are so easily offended by God?

Nishanth: I’m not offended by God I’m appalled by the idea of God. Isn’t it true that in the name of religion so many people have been slaughtered? And anyway believing in a God is like believing in a flying horse!

Niharika: hey… hey… hey… take it easy dude… smile… breathe in and breathe out… breathing is good for health. Your sentiments are well accepted. But don’t forget that many more people have been killed in the name of atheism.  If Christian rulers have killed approximately 200,000 people over a period of 500 years you should take a look at the number of people atheist rulers have killed in just a few decades.

You want to take a wild guess?

Nishanth: (Scratching his head) ah … hmm … well… I th..i…n…k…k…k

Niharika: hey, don’t die on me… it’s ok… you don’t have to fry your brain. A guy named Dinesh D’Souza fried his and came up with the staggering stats in his book, “What’s so great about Christianity”.

Check this out… Stalin tortured and killed 20 million people! Mao killed approximately 70 million! And Hitler 10 million people! Making a depressing total of around 100miliion people, all in just a few decades! 

Nishanth: Oh hell!

Niharika: Yes that is precisely what it is! Nishanth ‘you should never judge a religion by its abuse’. Christ never taught us to be violent. For instance when a Christian lies it is not because Christ has taught us to lie. We lie because we have abused the teachings of Christ. And Christ has not permitted us to kill for unjust and selfish reasons.

Nishanth: Well… neither has the atheist killed in the name of atheism.

Niharika: Well atheism will never tell you why you should not kill. Even if it did what stops you from breaking it? The greatest atheist of our times once said, “If God is dead anything is possible”. God is the only stable standard by which we can decide between right and wrong. Every other standard is a selfish standard. A standard that Hitler, Stalin and Mao set for themselves where Christ was no longer their King!

-          Bobby Thejus

Niharika: oh yeah… I guess I got carried away … I get carried away by beauty… do you know why Christ is beautiful?

Nishanth: ah… because beauty lies in the eye of the beholder?

Niharika: well that too… but more so because the truth is more beautiful than a lie. Good is more beautiful than bad. Christ is both good and true and so he is beautiful!

Nishanth: oh ok… now don’t get carried away again. So why is the idea of God any different from the idea of a flying horse?

Niharika: As a matter of preference and if I was given a choice I would like to believe in a world where there are horses that fly. But that is beside the point. True we have never seen flying horses. But how is it that you have imagined a flying horse?

Nishanth: I guess because I have seen a horse and I have seen things that fly.

Niharika: Precisely! You have put two categories – a flying bird and a four legged horse – that exist in the real world together.  Try to imagine something that doesn’t exist at all in the real world.

Nishanth: (A bit puzzled) Umm…a square circle?

Niharika: True a square circle does not exist but that again are two categories – a square and a circle – that exist in our experience which we have put together. Think of something that doesn’t exist at all.

Nishanth: (Looking flustered) ok I give up! So what are you getting at?

Niharika: Patience boy patience. So how is it that you have thought about the idea of God? What is there in reality that resembles anything remotely close to God?

Nishanth: Nothing!

Niharika: See…that’s my point! We can imagine flying horses because we understand the idea of flight and of a horse. But how in the world did man come up with the idea of God if he doesn’t know of anything like God? We are incapable of thinking up something that doesn’t exist and yet we have thought about a God. So there must be a God. It is something that we are inherently created with – a longing for him in our hearts.

Some call it the God shaped vacuum… and until God fills it we will never rest. We will be eternally restless beings until we find our rest in God!

In Hell we will be eternally restless because God will not be there.

Nishanth: Then why isn’t he more obvious?

Niharika: He is as obvious as your nose! Unfortunately we always miss the things that are right in front of us! And we neglect the experiences that bring us closest to Him – like the sunrise and the beauty of nature, the experience of love, which we feel from the day we are born and the community that we live in for the rest of our lives.

-          Bobby Thejus

Be careful little eyes what you see
It’s the second glance that ties your hands as darkness pulls the strings
Be careful little feet where you go
For it’s the little feet behind you that are sure to follow

It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
It’s a slow fade, it’s a slow fade

Be careful little ears what you hear
When flattery leads to compromise, the end is always near
Be careful little lips what you say
For empty words and promises lead broken hearts astray

It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day

The journey from your mind to your hands
Is shorter than you’re thinking
Be careful if you think you stand
You just might be sinking

It’s a slow fade when you give yourself away
It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray
Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid
When you give yourself away
People never crumble in a day
Daddies never crumble in a day
Families never crumble in a day

Oh be careful little eyes what see
Oh be careful little eyes what you see
For the Father up above is looking down in love
Oh be careful little eyes what you see

Think about these questions alone or discuss them with someone you trust and respect:

1. Do you think this song is true? Are you able to relate with the lyrics?
2. What images or things catch your attention? What changes did you notice in your life after this became a habit?
3. What are some of the places you visit often? Going there, does it set a good example to others?
4. ‘It’s a slow fade when black and white have turned to gray… Thoughts invade, choices are made, a price will be paid’. What do these lines mean to you?
5. Are you prone to using bad language, getting angry and talking filth?  What are you listening to?
6. What do you and your friends talk about and do together?  Have you made compromises?
7. What parameters do you use to assess whether your life has changed for the better or for the worse?
8. C.S. Lewis said, ‘The safest road to hell is the gradual one – the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.’ How will you view this statement in light of your life?

The ancient Greeks commonly held that it was a Daemon who was responsible for inspiring the thoughts and ideas in the head. Socrates had a daemon that stirred him – it told him what was right and what was wrong. It even convinced him that there are not several gods but one God and that God is love and love is no god. Artists and poets each believed that it was a Daemon who gave life to their creations. The Romans later referred to these spirits as “genius”. The Christians separated good daemons from bad daemons and named them “angels” and “demons”.

The artists, poets, politicians, orators, philosophers and musicians alike back then knew that they were not totally responsible for the success of their creation and it was partially the responsibility of the daemon who “whispered” the idea to them. It is only in the modern era that man, taking himself too seriously, refers to himself as the “genius” – thinking the voice he hears is his own. Since then he has been struggling to cope with the pressure thereby making himself a little crazy.

Interestingly, these voices have persisted in prompting us – self indulgent people – even to kill ourselves and others, either literally or with what we create. I guess they not only prompt us, but as we give them more room in our heads, they possess us. Jimmy Hendrix – a famous guitarist – once shared a similar experience where he said it was no longer him playing, but something that gripped him as he held his guitar. This “bad daemon” would haunt him and make his life miserable.

We all hear many kinds of voices prompting us to act in certain ways. The ancient Greeks were incapable of distinguishing between good and bad daemons. The Christian realizes that good and bad are not like the yin yang principle; the two are very different and from different sources altogether.

These “bad” daemons wrecked havoc with some of their lives and their creations too. As a result, their creations turned out either beautiful and full of life – inspired by an angel – or ugly and depressing – inspired by a demon. Today, are we able to decipher the good voice from the bad? Are we able to recognize what or who it is that inspires us?  

“If you do this you will experience God’s peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will keep your thoughts and your hearts quiet and at rest as you trust is Christ Jesus… Fix your thoughts on what is true and good and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely, and dwell on the fine, good things in others.”

Which voice are you listening to? That will explain why your life and everything you create is either beautiful or depressing!

 -          Bobby Thejus.

Through the years though there have been many attempts to deny Jesus Christ as Messiah he has withstood all such criticisms and has emerged unscathed. One such attempt was the alleged usage of the word ‘almâ’ in Isaiah 7:14 rather than the word “betula”. ‘Almâ’, they say, does not mean virgin it rather implies young woman.

John Walton, professor of Old Testament, Wheaton College, has brought to our notice that the usage of the word ‘almâ’ is fitting and it does imply virgin. He says the etymological meaning of ‘almâ’ is “one who has not yet borne a child and as an abstraction refers to the adolescent expectation of motherhood.” And the word ‘betula’ suggests “social status indicating that a young girl is under the guardianship of her father, with all the age and sexual inferences that accompany that status.” Likewise there have been many instances in the Old Testament where the usage of ‘almâ’ implied virgin. Thus the usage of either words ‘almâ’ or ‘betula’ will not change the meaning of text and its fulfillment drastically.

Even if otherwise, it is implicit that a young unmarried woman of those times was a virgin. What can one do if the times have changed now?

- Bobby Thejus

They stormed in suddenly. It was embarrassing.  I was frightened that my long kept secret had become public. I was drenched to the bone with sneering stares. I hated them – though I was taught never to hate myself. The choice I had made was unusual. I’m not sure if I was born this way or if I chose this myself. Let me make this clear to you – I was different!  But are we not expected to accept each other despite our diverse lifestyles? Friends stopped calling. Some had been warned to strictly steer clear of my path. Even at home the dynamics had been seriously altered. They called me – queer. From then on I bore the days of misfortune… until when I was almost stoned to death; I heard someone say, ‘He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone.’  What?!? And then I heard, I mean I could literally hear their jaws drop. It was like rain falling on parched land. You should have been there, it was awesome. He was awesome! I have looked into the eyes of many men, but when my eyes met his it was different – my heart didn’t melt nor was it afraid it became stronger and was filled with fear. Here was someone – a big brother – who stood up and flexed his muscles for me. Just when I was beginning to revel in that splendid moment, as I was coming to terms with what he had said and how my enemies in a breathtaking stroke were now embarrassed to the bone, I heard him quietly say to me, ‘Go and  sin no more.’ My exhilarating thought process came to a screeching halt, go and sin no more?

Questions for further thought:

1.       What does this mean to you?

2.       Who are some of the people that come to your mind while reading this?

3.       How have you treated them?

4.       ‘God loves you the way you are, but he loves you too much to leave you as you are.’  How can we        sensitively communicate that it is one thing to love the person and another to tolerate their “sin”?

5.       What choices have you made with regards to the way you live your life?

6.       How different do you think the response will be to your lifestyle?

7.      What is sin? And to what areas of your life can you extend this idea of sin?

- Bobby Thejus

It is very disheartening to hear, read and be on the receiving end again. This insecurity from the other isn’t new to the Christian. The poorly informed extremists lacking sufficient information have been plaguing the Christian with such maddening reactions to the faith, regardless of which he has clung onto it. Beginning with the early church fathers, through the dark ages and to this very day, Christians have borne persecution for what they believe, and what they do as a result of this, despite the services they have rendered to society.

In India, Mother Teresa was stoned and criticized for helping the poor in the streets of Calcutta, because, they believed, she was interfering with the Karma of the person suffering, while she believed that they were all created in God’s image. Amy Carmichael was stoned, chased and given death threats because she rescued children from being used as temple prostitutes. William Carrey along with Raja Ram Mohan Roy pushed for bringing a ban on Sati. Pandita Ramabai started a home for orphaned children and widows. All this gleaning from verses in the bible like Matthew 25:35-40, which urged them to see Christ in every human.

Guided by the love of Christ towards humanity and by the equality of the Bible, missionaries have come and established schools and hospitals for people of all castes and financial backgrounds: not to say that education and medicine were new concepts – India was very much aware of these – but benefits of advances were restricted stringently to certain castes alone. In a country where only 2% of the population is Christian, almost 40% of its institutions (medical, educational and social) have been established and are run by the people who claim this name (The state in which it is today is something for Christians to seriously think about). In not recognizing the good Christianity has done to this vast land, there is a tendency towards taking much of the progress the country has experienced for granted. In the western world, the new atheists have taken Christian virtue for granted. Even Nietzsche, the greatest atheist of the 20th century acknowledged the impact of Christian virtues like compassion and forgiveness.

What the fanatic’s don’t realise while they are busy slaughtering and antagonizing missionaries, is that sooner or later they will have to bow to the sword and resurgence of the caste system. If action is not taken and if these militant Hindu fundamentalist groups are not banned, we will see history repeat itself. Hitler used such means to desensitize and play on the sentiments of the German population which resulted in slaughtering of millions of Jews.

This no doubt highlights the importance of what one believes in, as it has direct consequences on actions. John Mayer says:

“Everyone believes, from emptiness to everything.

Everyone believes, and no one’s going quietly.”

And, as we are painfully aware, what the Hindu fundamentalists believe in has had drastic consequences. In situations like these John Mayer’s song rings true:

What puts a hundred thousand children in the sand?

Belief can

Belief can

What puts the folded flag inside his mother’s hand?

Belief can

Belief can

The solution however, is not to throw belief out: this then becomes another belief in itself, worse than every other. If we throw God out we make ourselves god, ending up like Stalin who imagined himself a god while denying God’s existence. The logical mind no doubt figures that the solution is to very carefully choose what one does believe in and why.

 All religions have tried to answer the questions of origin, meaning, morality and destiny. But to identify which one has answered these in a way that is logically consistent with itself: non-contradictory, it must be able to sustain all the relevant facts and data available in reality, and it must be livable and able to give meaning to our experiences. This, I believe Christianity offers. Christianity is not merely about making bad people good, but about making dead people alive; it renews our hearts and minds. And that is where it offers acceptance to all who care to accept it – that is why we are able to say, “In Christ’s family there can be no division into Jew and non-Jew, slave and free, male and female. Among us all are equal.” So if this is what the Hindu fundamentalists call conversion, I wonder what is wrong with it!

Lastly, Christianity does not come with a political agenda; a secret conspiracy to wield a baton of power and increase its strength. If one takes the time to understand the intentions of Christianity, it would be plain that the purpose of speaking about this religion is to open up the marvelous treasures of being made in the image of God, of being worth the death of His Son, of being free of guilt and shame, of discovering the joy of a relationship with the creator himself and with his people, and of having the assurance of a salvation and eternal life that no other can offer. This greatest assurance can be taken away by none – not even the Hindu fundamentalist. 

-          Bobby Thejus

Why is it that we humans are so hung up with morality? No other species is so preoccupied with this notion of morality – or right and wrong. We seem to share a lot with the animal kingdom; our DNA structures bear outrageous similarities, not to mention common instincts and behavior. So what is it that makes us – humans – different, or may I say, special? When we call a man an animal we are not trying to say that animals are bad – but that where he was expected to behave morally, like a man, he failed and behaved like an animal. When we say to the dog, ‘bad dog!’ and he curls his tail and finds a corner to sulk in, realizing he’s made us angry, this is merely us enforcing our moral standards on the dog after hours of what we call training. The dog has to be trained to feel bad (he feels emotion though) – he doesn’t live by those categories in and of himself. Dinesh D’souza in his book, What’s so great about Christianity, quotes primatologist Frans de Waal who says:

“It is hard to believe that animals weigh their own interests against the rights of others, that they develop a vision of the greater good of society, or that they feel lifelong guilt about something that they should not have done.”

Animals don’t sit around and discuss the possibility of a moral state. Likewise with elephants that paint a circle and cycle around it. No other species apart from the human species is able to appreciate art; in the words of the great G.K. Chesterton: “Art”, is indeed, “the signature of man”. Darwinists, promoting atheism, still struggle to give us an explanation for our sense of morality, our origins, our meaning and our destiny. When God breathed into man, he breathed a soul into him – a moral conscience, a creative mind and a desire & longing to seek after Him. C. S. Lewis in his book The Problem of Pain says,

“For long centuries God perfected the animal form which was to become the vehicle of humanity and the image of Himself. He gave it hands whose thumb could be applied to each of the fingers, and jaws and teeth and throat capable of articulation, and a brain sufficiently complex to execute all the material motions whereby rational thought is incarnated. The creature may have existed for ages in this state before it became man: it may even have been clever enough to make things which a modern archaeologist would accept as proof of its humanity. But it was only an animal because all physical and psychical processes were directed to purely material and natural ends. Then, in the fullness of time, God caused to descend upon this organism, both on its psychology and physiology, a new kind of consciousness which could say ‘I’ and ‘me,’ which could look upon itself as an object, which knew God, which could make judgments of truth, beauty, and goodness, and which was so far above time that it could perceive time flowing past. This new consciousness ruled and illuminated the whole organism, flooding every part of it with light, and was not, like ours, limited to a selection of the movements going on in one part of the organism, namely the brain. Man was then all consciousness… but sooner or later they fell. Someone or something whispered that they could become as gods… they wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, “This is our business, not yours.” But there is no such corner. They wanted to be nouns, but they were, and eternally must be, mere adjectives”.

So then, how do we understand morality? It is when we understand right and wrong – when we learn to differentiate between the right and the wrong way to live. Fashioned in God’s image, that image has been marred. We have been created to live in community to reflect how God lives in community – the Trinity. But this, our human community, is also marred. To live in community involves different types of relationships; relationship with our parents and siblings, our friends, our lover, and our God. And wherever relationships are concerned a standard of morality has to come into play to govern our lives. That standard of morality, Jesus says: is to love your neighbor as yourself and to love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul. Most religions tell us to love our neighbors. But in order to love our neighbor we need to love ourselves. If we are to take a closer look at ourselves we doubtless discover the unlovable things we protect and hide from others so carefully. In order to truly love ourselves we need someone who is in himself lovable, and Christ, who is love personified, through the cross, has loved us!

-          Bobby Thejus