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| Isaac Feinn ('19) |
With the recent confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, evangelicals hope that the new conservative majority will forward their ideal interpretation of law. As a member of these groups, I understand what most of the issues and desired outcomes are, and would like to contribute to the discussion about LGBTQ+ policy. Put candidly, I think Christian support for anti-LGBTQ+ policy hurts both the church’s mission to evangelize to non-believers and places an impossible task on those in the LGBTQ+ community.
Before I discuss why, I would like to acknowledge the sensitivity of the subject. If you are a Christian reading this, understand that my goal is to help strengthen the church and expand its outreach. If you are a member of the LGBTQ+ community, regardless of your faith, know that Christians properly living out their faith love you just as Christ loves them. Theological arguments exist both for and against homosexuality being considered a sin, but this blog will not touch on that debate.
Instead, my argument is that the primary responsibility of a Christian is to spread the hope of the Gospel to those who are lost, so that the Holy Spirit may then work to sanctify their hearts. That order matters. When Christians undertake the work of the Holy Spirit as their own, especially while legislating laws, non-believers have their rights infringed and possibly their hearts hardened toward the Gospel.
To begin, Christians believe that winning the struggle against sin is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is also only present in those who have accepted Jesus as their savior. Within this Christian framework, it follows that a person who has not yet accepted Jesus cannot experience sanctification of their sins (the process by which Christians slowly abandon their sins and act more like Christ). This is because they do not have the power of the Holy Spirit.
When Christians support anti-LGBTQ+ policies, they ask the government to enact laws that deter homosexual behavior. Those laws are redundant for people dedicated to the church, and thus mostly impact people outside the church framework. This presents an issue: people outside the church framework do not have the Holy Spirit to empower them to deny their homosexual inclinations. In effect, Christians are imposing a biblical standard on those who do not have the spiritual empowerment to achieve it, and then are criminalizing them when they fall short.
This dynamic puts the LGBTQ+ community and its members in a difficult position. Their perception of Christians could easily become that they care more about a legalistic adherence to biblical standards than reaching the hearts of the lost. By attempting to change non-religious peoples’ behavior on a religious issue via forcing them to adhere to federal laws, their compliance will result not out of a personal desire to glorify God, but from fear of punishment. This sort of motivation does not sustain long-term change, and teaches incorrect messages about why salvation through Jesus matters. Additionally, even if they were to change their behavior, it is faith that saves souls, not behavior.
Unfortunately, these problems do more harm than simply the aforementioned consequences: they also make it harder to evangelize. Imagine being in the restrained position of an LGBTQ+ community member and being told that Christians love you. Setting an impossible standard that they do not even believe in and punishing their noncompliance does not feel loving. Instead, religiously motivated anti-LGBTQ+ laws increase the likelihood that a member of that community will not want to partake in the religion causing their disenfranchisement.
When Christians support these laws, they take the intimate work of the Holy Spirit and give it to the government – cold and distant in nature – to complete. And in so doing, they reduce their own ability to accomplish their most important calling: evangelization.
To those who say this argument could be stretched to then include removing all laws, I am strictly speaking about anti-LGBTQ+ laws that arise out of religious support. Because we live in a free society where adherence to religious doctrine is not mandatory, it is only just to legislate laws that develop out of reason, not religious text. It is fine to justify support for legislation with a religious argument so long as that supporter can also make just as strong a case without using their religion. Otherwise, there would be no way to deny religious laws that contradict Christianity, as justification for religious laws stops at “My religion says so.”
Allow me to reiterate that Christ first calls us to spread the good news of his salvation, and then to continue a relationship of kindness and wisdom to help a new Christian through sanctification. Laws do not change hearts for Christ. The Church, the Holy Spirit, and Christians do.
Isaac Feinn, of Louisville, Ky., is a member of the McConnell Scholar Class of 2019. He studies biology and political science at the University of Louisville.