Church and homosexuality: is dialogue possible?

The active European integration of Ukraine and the events of the last few months related to the popularization of the LGBT ideology make the Church pay close attention to what is happening around. On June 18, representatives of the so-called sex minority again intend to hold their "gay pride parade". His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry urged Kiev city authorities to listen to the opinion of the faith community of the capital and prevent it from being held. Assessing the event, His Beatitude emphasized that "Christians should clearly and unequivocally speak out against the propaganda of sin and disregard for Christian virtues".

We all know the indestructible principle of Christianity: to love a sinner and to hate sin. "God’s is to love the haters. Devil’s is to hate and insult the lovers. Human – to love the lovers and hate the haters," said Fr. Alexander Yelchaninov. The divine-human nature of the Orthodox Church is manifested precisely in this golden middle: to maintain the necessary distance, neither moving further away permanently nor coming close to such issues. In the Church, there is not and should not be a place for intolerance getting personal. We must not use force, humiliation and aggression against minorities. We do not pursue a person – we eradicate the problem. This is the basic and indestructible principle of the Christian life.

The problem of the Church’s attitude towards homosexuality should be considered in three main directions: 1) distortion of the natural drive, 2) personality and 3) propaganda. We have already dealt with the person: the sinner – and the Church will always support the fact that any unnatural deviation is a sin – fall into a kind of "the caste of untouchables". No one has the right to humiliate the honor and dignity of the image and likeness of God. The relationship of a personality, "came at a great cost" (1 Corinthians 6:20) Blood of the Savior with God is a matter of conscience. The very word "co(n)-science" ("со-весть" – Rus.) already implies the presence of two participants: the man and the All-Knowing God.

The Church calls for the repentance of sinners in general, but not individuals. The question of such a court is a matter of the spiritual life and competence of the confessor, if any, of course. Does a homosexual have the right to come to the Church and talk to a priest? Certainly. "He that cometh to me I will not cast out" (John 6: 37), says the Savior. First of all, the priest is deprived of the right to intolerance towards the person, and, following his example, so is the whole assembly of the faithful.

The main thing here is that this kind of spiritual nourishment should be based on the principle of repentance and the desire to change. The modern man, and especially the youth, seeks to cut off any restriction and avoid any moralizing. We are tired of being taught. "Let us live" – this is the idea that revolves in the careless brain of people and, unfortunately, not only unchurched. The distortion of a natural desire is, in fact, a sin.

There are more than enough Biblical grounds for this, "If a man lies with a male as with a women, both of them shall be put to death for their abominable deed; they have forfeited their lives." (Leviticus 20: 13), "Do not be deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor malachias, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor covetous people, nor drunkards, nor predators – the Kingdom of God will not inherit" (1 Cor. 6: 9), "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error" (Romans 1: 26-27).

Recently, in the sensational TV series "The Secret Code of Faith", the problem of the attitude of the Church towards homosexuality was raised. Then Fr. George Kovalenko turned to a cleric of the so-called "Kiev Patriarchate" for advice, and we heard that the Bible's arguments are "not as unambiguous as it seemed." This is rather strange for a number of reasons: 1) the interviewed cleric is not a biblical scholar and cannot talk in principle about the unambiguity / ambiguity of the biblical text, 2) what prevented Fr. George from asking for advice a representative of orthodox Judaism, who, based on the original text of the Torah, would undoubtedly give a very interesting comment, though, most likely, undesirable for the program?

On a related matter, let us just note that for the first time speculations about the "ambiguity" of the biblical text in this context began after the translation of the Bible by Luther (16th century), who, instead of direct indication of homosexuality, considered that Leviticus speaks of pedophilia. The non-authority of Tradition for Luther played an important role as well here ... Besides, there is a whole queer-theology (queer stands for gay) that seeks to rehabilitate the rights of sexual minorities so that they no longer consider this deviation as a sin.

One of the main arguments in favor of such rehabilitation is the question of biology and psychology. The arguments of the apologists for homosexuality boil down to the fact that people are born gay. And if so, then innate quality cannot be considered a deviation, because such people do not cause discomfort to others and themselves and to some extent do not go beyond the norms of behavior generally accepted in society.

The main drawback of this argument is its ambiguity. Known studies of the sexual orientation of identical twins of both genders have shown that the probability of homosexual preferences of one of the brothers / sisters varies from 48% to 52%, which, in terms of basic probability theory, is a matter of chance.

The second nuance is the so-called Geschwind-Galaburd theory. The main idea of this theory is that the differences in the development level of brain hemispheres are determined by the testosterone level in the blood of the child’s mother during pregnancy. In other words, the left-handedness of a male with a high degree of probability can be caused by a greater presence of a female hormone estrogen in the blood. The same concerns mental abilities. Above the average intelligence in the vast majority of cases is caused by hormonal features. This is akin to the concepts of genius and insanity, where both concepts are often like two sides of the same coin.

It is interesting that a large number of homosexuals are people with a high coefficient of intellectual development: writers, artists, politicians, etc. But even if we admit that this is indeed the case, the probability of a natural innate manifestation of homosexuality is extremely small. For example, the number of left-handers equals 15% of the total number of people in the world, while not all left-handers are homosexual, but only slightly more than half. This figure is higher than the number of all homosexuals in the world, which suggests that most of the homosexuals have become due to upbringing or of their own free will, yielded to their lust.

In addition, thanks to Freudianism, we learned about a phenomenon such as latent (i.e. hidden) homosexuality, when a person can be homosexual at a subconscious level, while at the same time leading a full family life. The latency of homosexuality is also acquired in the overwhelming majority of cases and manifests itself primarily as a sharp aggression towards gay people, and not to the problem of homosexuality in general (subconscious self-justification). Whatever it is, the ambiguity of the problem of homosexuality in the biological and psychological aspects leaves the doors of prejudice open, and not only in the social, but also in the church plan.

And, finally, the third point is propaganda. Loving the sinner and hating the sin, the Church is categorically against the propaganda of homosexuality in any form. The rejection should not be encouraged at the level of social approval. The state should not impose on people anything contrary to their beliefs. For the Ukrainian nation, the ideal and the very concept of the family are heterosexual. A homosexual couple, incapable of child-bearing a priori, cannot be an example for imitation or a subject of public approval. The fruit of family life and love of spouses is a common child, who will possess the features of both parents at the genetic level.

As for heterosexual childless couples, their childlessness is a test and subject of Divine providence, when the couple stays together, despite the hypothetical possibility of going to another person and creating a full family with a common child. In the light of this logic, a homosexual couple is often poor people, who have gross distorted eroticism in common. Rather carnal than spiritual union. It is the propaganda of homosexuality that Church condemnation will always be irreconcilably turned against. The Church accepts and loves the sinner but hates the sin, under whatever guise it is offered to society.

We conclude with the words of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry, "The organizers of this "march" have no moral right to impose their worldview on others. Our Ukrainian people have lived for centuries, observing Christian moral standards and traditional family values, which are the basis for the formation of a healthy society and a strong state. Therefore, a general strong protest of believers of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church against such actions is quite understandable."