Dear Christians: Please Stop Calling People Gay

Written by Dr. Everett Piper

Note to reader: The following is for the church. If you’re not a Christian and would like to listen in, you’re welcome to do so; however, please note that any criticism is intended for the household of believers more than for you.

Dear Christians, please stop calling people gay.

Don’t you realize that by doing so, you are parroting the lie that our desires define us and that people can be pigeonholed into categories of appetites, proclivities, drives and desires?

Don’t you see that your labels consign your neighbors to little more than the status of animals who are driven insatiably by their inclinations and instincts?

When you accept the definition of a man or woman as “being gay” (or lesbian, transgender, queer, homosexual or even heterosexual, for that matter), you are admitting that you believe people are nothing more than what they are inclined to do. You are stating that if someone wants to do something, “that’s just who they are,” and they can’t do anything about it. You are implying their personhood is nothing more than the sum total of their proclivities and passions.

Could anything be more insulting to those around you? Believers in Christ, of all people, should know that people are made in the image of God. We are not dogs. We are human beings. We have free will in choosing our behaviors (sexual or otherwise), and thus, we are defined by our Lord, not our libido. How could any professing Christian ever suggest otherwise?

Don’t you see that today’s LGBTQ nomenclature explicitly embraces a broken ontology and anthropology and dumbs down the definition of what it means to be human? Are we the imago Dei, or are we little more than the imago dog? Isn’t our identity more than our inclinations? Are we “behavioral adjectives,” or are we human beings?

Are we defined by their desires, or can we rise above them? If we want to cheat, does that make us a cheater? If I want to lie, does that make me a liar? If you want to steal, does that make you a thief? Can’t we all choose to do otherwise and, in doing so, avoid the label and the judgment?

Do you no longer believe in 2 Corinthians 5:17, that we can become a new creation, that the old has passed away, that behold, the new has come? Do we no longer believe that in Christ, every human being can die to self and be transformed into his likeness? Have we given up this hope? Have we actually come to the point where we think it is edifying to define people by their sins?

Peter D. Beaulieu rightly warned us that “the lie is biggest … when we lie to ourselves.” He went on to say that the lie of what it means to be human is the “Big Lie and probably ranks first … precisely because it opens the door to all other capital sins: pride, avarice, anger … and that kind of sloth that includes mental laziness.” Christians, please stop lying and please stop being lazy mentally, spiritually, scripturally and otherwise. Remember that, as pastor Jim Garlow said,

“no persons should ultimately define themselves by their sin or proclivities. We are not homosexuals or heterosexuals. We are the creation of God. We are ALL to be defined by the image of God, and ones for whom Jesus died.”

Remember that, as author and speaker Glenn Stanton said,

“to identify people principally by their sexuality is to reduce [them]” and that “we should all reject this with great force. A person’s inherent and undeniable value is rooted in his membership in humanity, not his particularity, sexual or otherwise. Full stop.”

Finally, never forget that, of all people, we should be the first to declare, “It is a mistake for anyone to say that he is gay, lesbian, or any other sexual identity label currently in vogue today,” as author Daniel C. Mattson said. It is “graffiti painted on the side of the Holy of Holies, which defaces human dignity and mocks the image of God.”

Please, Christians, stop calling people gay. Men and women can be defined by their savior rather than their sins. Everyone can be born again and rise above what they are inclined to do. No one needs to admit the defeat of just being “born that way.” Your neighbors are not animals. They are human beings.

This article was originally published by The Washington Times.