Is homosexuality, like left-handedness, a merely normal variation in a rainbow of good possibilities? Society used to think of left-handedness as bad. To call someone sinister or gauche is far from a compliment. (Those are the Latin and French for left-handed.) Pro-gays would have us believe that homosexuality merely proves that God loves variety.

Is homosexuality like blindness, a clearly biological issue? Like alcoholism, a mixture of biological and environmental issues? Like kleptomania, a sin with deep emotional roots, and so a psychological matter? All of these are scientific explanations.

Even within these few possibilities there are many facets of homosexuality: from attractions to attitudes to activities to affirmations. There is a difference between homosexuality in men and women. For men, the sexual is usually more important than the emotional at first, faithfulness is harder, and change is harder. For women, the emotional is usually more important than the sexual at first, faithfulness is frequent, and change is easier. What kind of homosexuality is it that Christians are in fact proscribing, gays beg to ask?

The medical "sickness" model of homosexuality has only appeared in print since 1869 (Richard Kraft-Ebing, who coined the word homosexualität). Prior to this, Jews and Christians (not to mention Moslems, Taoists, Confucianists --those of all major world religions except Buddhists[1]) have viewed homosexual behavior as ethically wrong. Even among minor world religions that have a place for homosexual behavior, most view the behavior as a temporary phase.

We are going to examine here a Christian psychological explanation for homosexuality. Christians have given what we would today call psychological explanations for homosexuality since the early days of the Church. I can summarize them in two words: envy and fear.

Athenagoras of Athens in 125 AD (Plea for the Christians) argued that homosexuality was like cannibalism. Cannibals eat their prey in order to acquire their good qualities, a kind of envy -- they have something I don't, but that I want. In the same way, a man's homosexual drive is an attempt to acquire the good qualities of another man, or so Athenagoras argues. Is there any Scripture to support his view?

Bitterness and envy give rise to sex sin in at least three places in Scripture.

• Job 36:13-14 NIV: bitterness led righteous men (v7!) to seek out male prostitutes of the shrine
• Heb 12:15-16 bitterness led some Christians (v7 "sons"!) to defilement and porneia (sex sin)
• Rom 1:21-29 no thanking (envy) &arrow; idols that look like men &arrow; homosexuality (and envy again)

I am sobered to realize that a sin like envy has the power to shape my whole life! The seven deadly sins don't even mention behaviors, so important has the church traditionally considered such interior sins as envy. The world--by way of contrast--values envy, considering it essential to getting ahead.

In Exodus International circles we call homosexuality a "reparative drive." It is an attempt to meet a legitimate need, to "repair" what should have been appropriate bonding--first with the same sex, and then with the opposite sex. The term "reparative therapy" is Elizabeth Moberly's.[2] In reparative therapy, those same-sex love needs are met in healthy ways. According to this model, a homosexual needs more, not less, love from significant same-sex persons.

Did David and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship? "Jonathan's love for David was more than the love of a woman," according to David (II Sam. 1:26). Jonathan's father Saul did indeed do everything wrong as a father if he hoped to raise an emotionally healthy son. (Given that Saul threw a sword at Jonathan once, I might add "to raise a son at all.") Nonetheless, I doubt that David and Jonathan had a homosexual relationship for two reasons. First, from David's point of view, his sex-sin problem seemed to be with Bathsheeba. Second, from Jonathan's point of view, he seems to have had no envy toward David. Jonathan was eager to see David ascend to the throne even though, by rights as Saul's oldest son, he would be next in line. So on the "envy model" of same-sex deficit that I have been describing, I don't think Jonathan was dealing with same-sex attractions. Even if Jonathan was sexually attracted to David, there is no evidence that he acted on that beyond the kissing that was normal among men for his culture. And even if he acted on his attractions, there is no evidence of God's approval in any case.

This "envy model" doesn't fit everyone. For some folks, fear is a more important root. A woman usually seeks out another women not because she envies another woman. She has been hurt by a man, so she comes to learn never to trust a man again. A man seeks out another man because he was taken from his mother at birth, so he comes to learn never to trust a woman.

Both St. Paul and St. John have good news about fear in relationship to sex sin. Paul says that relating to God as our perfect Father Who adopts us will take away fear (Rom 8:15). John says the same thing: a perfect love will cast out fear (I Jn 4:18). Relationships with significant adults may have been fractured by sin. We do not ask in a fallen world, Who is to blame? We offer love.

The most hopeful passage of Scripture we have about help for those wanting to overcome homosexuality is I Cor. 6:9-11. "Some of you were like that, but now you are washed, you are sanctified, you are justified." Be encouraged that these are all passive verbs. They are things that are done to a Christian. Who is the one who does them? The Triune God Himself! The Holy Spirit acts on Jesus' authority ("in Jesus' name"). Since Jesus equates mental activities and physical activities related to sex sin (Matt. 5:28), his authority reaches much more deeply than merely visible behaviors. Unlike the Pharisees of His day, he "washes the inside of the cup too."

Yet as we see from Jesus' healing ministry, the timing is His.