No one should have to employ his or her sexual behavior as the overriding description of one’s identity. Sexual proclivities are such a small part of what makes a person a person that it is a simple, and inaccurate, synecdoche to have one small part define the whole. It is neither accurate nor adequately descriptive for either the straight or the gay person. Even the gay culture has seen the paucity of such an identification as they have added so many permutations onto sexual perversion that they must use a series of letters (LGBTQ) to categorize the growing number of subsets of sexual perversion.

Sexuality is insufficient to determine who I am and what my view of the world might be. It is no more informative than to say that I am a left-handed, Triumph-motorcycle rider. These descriptions are not sufficient, just as heterosexual does not describe me sufficiently. I am more than that! And so is the gay or lesbian individual.

One’s identity should be an innate characteristic that informs and defines every belief about oneself and one’s behaviors. Sexuality (or gender, if you would rather) is not sufficient, or shouldn't be, to inform all of the facets that make up personhood.

For those of you who are interested, here is my true identity: “In Christ.” This identifier expresses (or should express) everything I am and every value I hold. Being in Christ should dictate my behavior as well as providing me with an all-encompassing identity.

If one claims to be in Christ and also adds the subset of gay, then there is some clear disconnect with the identity, since that should rule over all the lesser categories of being.

This short diatribe is not only a rejection of the practice of same-sex behavior and the criticism of those who promote such practice; it also applies to those who claim to be in Christ and watch pornography, cheat on their wives, take illicit drugs, and so forth. If one is going to be in Christ, then all subsets of life must fit within the single category that one uses as a description.

If there is an identity that is in Christ, then, by necessity, there is an identity that is not in Christ.As a Christian, this is my determination: not that I should oppose homosexuals, but that I should speak words of life to those who are not in Christ. And isn’t this the real problem?

#gayandlesbian #LGBT