Same-Sex Adoption

For those of you who read my blog, I'm publishing this post as a response to a video I posted to my Facebook and the conversation that ensued. Here are my thoughts, and here is the video:

Lesbians raising a child

Here's the video someone posted in response:

A lady talks about her homosexual father

While I appreciate the video response that this lady offers, her personal testimony addresses a homosexual father with multiple partners. I think most would agree that a heterosexual parent with multiple partners creates just as much confusion and instability for a child. Because of that, her personal experience neither validates nor refutes the issue of committed, same-sex partners raising a child.

My guess is most of us don't know a same sex couple raising a child. But here's a hypothetical situation. A same-sex couple shows up to your church having raised a child for several years, which they consider their own and who loves mom & mom (or dad & dad) very much. Is it really the loving thing to do to split that family apart because they are "living in sin?" I don't think so. That seems pretty contrary to a God who came to restore wholeness and demonstrate love.

Further, which of the 5 biblical passages do you want to use to condemn homosexuality?

The one where Jesus talks about it? Oh wait, he didn’t.

The one in Leviticus where homosexuality is called an abomination? That same book also says eating swine and shellfish and wearing multi-material fabric are an abomination (same Hebrew word). So if someone can't participate in a loving, committed, homosexual relationship, I suppose we also need to change our wardrobe and stop eating bacon and shrimp.

Or how about the one that condemns a grown man forcing himself on a young boy? Again, that has nothing to do with committed same-sex marriages. And the list goes on.

To grab onto something Tom said in the Facebook thread, an orphan (or a child living in an abusive, heterosexual home) would do well in the hands of any committed, loving family (or individual) who desired to pour into him/her as opposed to living on the street. Anything lost by not having a male/female mentor in the home can be picked up through the Church, a place where the community, not the parents alone, should assist in raising the child anyway. Individualism is causing more grief and harm to our nation's kids than same-sex adoption (which, frankly, causes nothing that a heterosexual adoption doesn't).

Jesus came to liberate people from an unjust social system, to bring love, and to restore wholeness. He met people where they were, and operated within his context to do the work that he did. Our context is changing, whether Christians like it or not. From within that new context, we must learn how to best demonstrate the Gospel of love and wholeness to people who still need it.

Whether you believe homosexuals should marry or not is irrelevant. Jesus says that Christians should not divorce (whereas he says nothing about homosexuality), but we've long come to terms with that. We now have divorce ministries, counseling, and pastors in their second marriages. It's not the ideal, but it's reality. In 10-20 years, gay marriage will be nationally legal. President Obama has already confessed, "America is no longer a Christian nation." We need to stop pretending that it still is. I think we would bring a lot of glory to the name of Jesus if we spent less time arguing right or wrong and more time figuring out how the Church will operate as an agent of love and transformation from within this new context.