Letter to the Editor: Matt Young

Dear Editor,

Last Friday the Chapel speaker was Dr. Wesley Hill, a gay, celibate, Christian. He advocated that Christians who are gay, should live a life of celibacy. He summed up his stance by saying, “I gave up marriage as a commitment to Christ.” He, along with with many members of the Houghton community, believe that God requires celibacy for all who are not hetroxexual. And this is what I have a problem with.

My problem is with belief in a God who supports this view of giving up marriage for Christ.What kind of God creates someone with a sexual attraction that they can NEVER act on? What kind of God expects his children to give up the possibility for the intimate relationship that only a marriage can provide, to abandon and alienate ourselves from a fundamental part of who we are? An evil one! A God not worthy of believing in, let alone following. This is not the God of the Christian narrative. Thankfully, there is another way of relating to that God.

Dr. Hill and others want LGBT people to give up marriage as a commitment to Christ. And I agree that we do need to give up something as a commitment to Christ. But it’s not marriage that needs to go. No, we need to give up God as a commitment to Christ. In order to commit to the loving, graceful, accepting, expansive, humanity-embracing way of Christ, we need to give up that former view of God. The God that creates people with an attraction they can never act on, that expects us to give up the benefits of marriage, that wants us to forsake a fundamental aspect of what makes us human, he has got to go! Thankfully there are other ways of interpreting Scripture, other ways of viewing God. The God who is oppressive, demanding, and asks us to forsake our humanity is not worth our time. So join me in giving him up. Give up God as a commitment to Christ.

Matt Young – Radical Theology Advocate,  Philosophy Major, Class of 2018