Gay Christianity is a post-Freudian category mistake that rejects the 7th and 10th commandments as it advances its anti-biblical anthropology. It asserts that sexual orientation is a true and, in most cases, a permanent feature of a person’s life. Gay Christianity rejects the Bible’s witness that homosexuality is found in the flesh, forbidden in the law, and overcome by the Savior. Gay Christianity is false teaching, and like other heresies, is unstable and contradictory. In modern lingua franca, gay Christianity has, like a 1970s vinyl record, two sides: Side A boasts the greatest hits and Side B collects the minor dirges and bloopers.
Side A believes that homosexual orientation is ontological and good. It asserts that the Bible has been misinterpreting those “clobber” verses that condemn it (Gen. 19; Lev. 18:22, 20:13; Rom. 1; 1 Cor. 6:9–10; 1 Tim. 1:10). Matthew Vines of The Reformation Project vociferously defends Side A and is its most well-known advocate. In his book, God and the Gay Christian, Vines twists the Bible into gargoyles and claims things like “[Condemnations of homosexuality] is not of central importance to Paul’s message in Romans”1 and “Given that same-sex orientation is consistent with God’s image, affirming those relationships is the only way to defend those truths.”2 One reads Vines’ book and comes away with the sense that he is not only unregenerate, but if he believes that “same-sex orientation is consistent with God’s image,” he must have a reading comprehension disability to boot.
1. Matthew Vines, God and the Gay Christian: The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships (Convergent Books, 2014), 98.
Side B believes that homosexual orientation is a morally-neutral disability caused by the fall of Adam. Advocates of Side B replace the adjective “Gay” with the paregoric phrase “Same Sex Attraction.” Side B maintains that homosexual sex is sinful, but homosexual desires are mere temptations morally exempt from repentance and therefore not categorizable as sin. To the Side B “SSA Christian,” homosexuality is an unchosen and victimizing disability, requiring from the rest of us celebration of the victim’s “costly sacrifice of celibacy” and defying any whiff that we all must repent of unholy desires. Those who claim this moniker see themselves as noble missionaries who sacrificially steward their homosexuality through lifelong celibacy. The Side B gay Christian is like the fictional 19th-century character Mrs. Gummidge, the sniveling whiner from Charles Dickens’ David Copperfield. Cranky Mrs. Gummidge reminds the reader that she “feels things more than other people” and even acknowledges “if I felt less, I could do more.”3 A larger manure pile of heretical maudlinism cannot be found in the modern church than Side B Gay Christianity and their self-serving advocates, such as Preston Sprinkle, editor of the first (and let’s pray, only) Side B Gay Christian Study Bible, The Upside-Down Kingdom Bible, published by Zondervan.4
2. Vines, God and the Gay Christian, 166.
The theological errors of Gay Christianity are many, with countless shipwrecked Christian lives to prove it. But my concern in this short essay is to examine the Commandment violations of Gay Christianity, and for that mission, we turn now to the Westminster Larger Catechism.
The 7th Commandment
3. Charles Dickens, David Copperfield (1850; Project Gutenberg, 1996), chap. 3.
The Westminster Larger Catechism, produced between 1646 and 1648, was intended to help ministers and congregants understand the means of God’s grace and their application. One of the gems of this historic confession is its section on the positive (commended) and negative (forbidden) aspects of each commandment.
The Seventh Commandment says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exod. 20: 14, KJV). The asks, “What are the sins forbidden in the seventh commandment?” Its answer reveals that Gay Christianity, Side A and Side B, is forbidden under the seventh commandment. Some of the sins listed in the breaking of the seventh commandment include:
4. Preston Sprinkle, ed., NIV Upside-Down Kingdom Bible (Zondervan, 2024).
- adultery,
- fornication,
- rape,
- incest,
- sodomy, and all unnatural lusts;
- all unclean imaginations, thoughts, purposes, and affections;
- all corrupt or filthy communications, or listening thereunto;
- Entangling vows of single life;
- Undue delay of marriage
Side A breaks the seventh commandment by its practice of sodomy. Side B breaks the seventh commandment by its commitment to lifelong celibacy. Both break the seventh commandment by the undue delay of marriage. Huh? Because there is no such thing as a gay man, biblically speaking, the creation mandate call to marriage is universal. A “gay man” is merely a man with a sin pattern from which Jesus offers rescue. A gay man is a man refusing to repent of sin and cultivate biblical affections, affections which often result in biblical marriage.
The 10th Commandment
The Tenth Commandment says, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his man-servant, nor his maid-servant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s (Exod. 20:17). The says, “The sins forbidden in the tenth commandment are, discontentment with our own estate; envying, and grieving at the good of our neighbor, together with all inordinate motions and affections to anything that is his.” The supporting verses are: 1 Kings 21:4, Esther 5:13, 1 Corinthians. 10:10, Galatians 5:26, James 3:14, 16, Psalm 112:9–10, Nehemiah 2:10, Romans 7:7–8, Romans 13:9, Colossians 3:5, and Deuteronomy 5:21.
Both Side A and Side B Gay Christianity are also violations of the Tenth Commandment. Desiring that which God has denied does not make you a victim of feelings you can’t control; it makes you a sinner. The line of prohibition drawn by the Tenth Commandment is the line of desire—not physical action. And if homosexuality isn’t an “inordinate motion,” (i.e., unholy desire) I don’t know what is.
A “notorious” sin is a sin with notoriety—it spreads throughout the known world. A notorious sin flaunts its sin as sinless and defies both the law, which forbids it, and the gospel, which forgives it. To confess sin is to agree with God’s word about the meaning, nature, scope, and defilement of that sin. The root word “confess” means “agree’. Neither Side A nor Side B agree with God’s word about the meaning of homosexuality. Side A rejects both law and gospel. Side B rewrites both law and gospel.
Repentance And Hope for Sinners
So what is the hope of the gospel for those with the besetting sin of homosexuality? First, be a Christian, the kind who says “Let God be true but every men a liar” (Rom. 3:4). Do not hearken to the narcissism of your homosexuality.
Second, stop boxing air (1 Cor. 9: 26) and start training your hands for war (Ps. 144:1). You need to mortify the sin of homosexuality and vivify the reality of being a new creature in Christ.
Third, pray that you would grow to see, appreciate, recognize, relate to, and love members of the opposite sex as a Christian reflection of the creation ordinance (Gen. 1:26–28). Men, your homosexuality is preventing you from protecting women. Women, your homosexuality is preventing you from respecting men. Men, you need to cultivate God’s affections—you need to learn how to defend and protect women. Women, you need to cultivate God’s affections—you need to receive the protection and guidance of Christian men as you grow in godliness.
Finally, as Dr. Jared Moore says in his stellar book, The Lust of the Flesh, put yourself in the company and friendship of the most godly and potentially marriageable member of the opposite sex you know, and become Christian friends.5
5. Jared H. Moore, The Lust of the Flesh: Thinking Biblically about “Sexual Orientation,” Attraction, and Temptation (Free Grace Press, 2023).
Gay Christianity despises the law of God. Christians must confess and cling to God’s law in the face of popular oppostion to what God commands. When we do that, we find a level path for our feet and a nurturing stream by which we can build fruitful lives. Don’t be blown about by different doctrines, and don’t be seduced by the popular pragmatist “triage” paradigm that relegates all matters of controversy to a “second tier” matter; instead, cling to the trustworthy Word of God. When we walk in God’s ways with our sexual desires, we find life and peace and communion with God.
