The Gay Lifestyle: It’s Time for Christians to Speak Up

As a Christian who knows what the Bible says about gay relations, it’s time I came out of the closet. I’m looking for a few more believers to join me.

The U.S. Olympic Trials held in June 2024 portends a three-year anniversary. I’ll never forget it.

I’d sensed the low sizzle around me like a steak grilling on the Fourth of July, but I hadn’t realized the meat was no longer red. The drift of American culture from its Christian roots had apparently become an all-out sprint. As a Christ follower, I’m still grieving.

I’d tuned in to watch the “2020 Olympics” in the summer of 2021, a year deferred due to Covid.

The games offer a unique forum to bridge gaps among races, cultures, and politics. I love them! For seventeen days, diverse people cast aside their differences to celebrate excellence in sport and sportsmanship. I’m hopeful this ideal pervades future games because it doesn’t always—thanks to the lens through which we view them.

Three years ago in Tokyo was a prime example. Traditional Christian values on marriage were dissed in front of the entire nation. After the games, I Googled: “Olympics NBC gay marriage.”

No relevant hits appeared. Zero.

Apparently, either dissenting voices were quashed or there were none.

I’ve been part of the voiceless multitude of onlookers, and it’s time I repented for my silence.

The Open

The games were rolled like a Shakespearean play to an arena full of exuberant sports fans thirsting for a competition fix. Did you see it?

With millions of eyeballs glued to screens, primetime coverage of the Tokyo Olympics opened with synchronized diving. But that wasn’t the main event.

NBC inserted a pre-produced story about Tom Daley, a British diver who had come out as gay, married a man, and now raises an infant son with him. Meanwhile, viewers waited, starved for Olympic competition after a one-year hiatus.

After the feature, the commentators crowed about Daley’s newfound “balance” in life. They attributed it to his same-sex marriage and his role as a parent.

What qualifies them to weigh in on the quality of his life, let alone how it came about?

After multiple references to Daley’s “husband,” I felt like a toddler who’d had enough to eat but whose parent crammed in more slop. The commentators were either promoting a gay agenda or had nothing else to say.

The Brits won well-deserved gold medals, but only Daley was interviewed. His teammate stood silent, an awkward prop in a spotlight reserved exclusively for Daley, seemingly the chosen protagonist.

When Daley competed solo from the ten-meter platform, he and his lifestyle became the obsession of the American broadcasters again, unusual given his British affiliation.

The Close

I also Googled “Megan Rapinoe and Sue Bird.” Up came no shortage of coverage on “the power couple’s” engagement. The purple-haired Rapinoe was a star and captain of the U.S. women’s soccer team, which finished with a bronze medal. Bird became a five-time gold medalist for U.S. women’s basketball.

As the Olympics concluded, a lengthy NBC interview of Rapinoe preempted play-by-play coverage of the women’s basketball finale.

That’s strange, I thought. I tuned in to watch the gold-medal game, not to learn about the personal affairs of one of the players.

After the U.S. victory, the camera captured the two women in an extended lip lock, seen by millions, including impressionable youth across the globe. Mother would’ve rolled in her grave—had she been in it. It’d been nearly a decade since her death. Who knew how fast a steak would cook on an open grill?

The Bigger Issue

Heterosexual Olympians received no such coverage, grossly disproportionate to the straight versus gay population at large. But I get it—it’s the age of minority rights, and society has rewritten the rules of right and wrong based not on the Bible but on majority rule, where relativism trumps absolute truth. The world will hate Christians for what they stand for. Jesus told us so.

But can you blame non-Christians? We Christians, who often stand to condemn others rather than minister to them, would be right there with the masses were it not for the immeasurable love and mercy of the Father and His gift of the Son.

So if we’re not with them, then where are we? In the closet?

Why the lack of outcry from the faith community? Where are you, people who fear God? Has the promotion of same-sex marriage become acceptable to you? We may be censored in some venues but not in the local square or the church.

God’s word regarding gay relations is unequivocal—as it is on adultery. But no one trumpets the latter because of its shame. Has our silence condoned homosexuality?

“If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them” (Leviticus 20:13 ESV).

“Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God” (I Corinthians 6:9b-10 ESV).

If you believe the Bible, acting out on homosexual urges is wrong. How can those two passages be interpreted any other way? If those aren’t convincing enough, read Romans 1:18-32. It’s bone-chilling. And it describes much of what we see going on around us today.

I realize we live in a fallen world, and sin abounds. It’s popular to call sin something—anything—it is not. And, yes, I have my own sin, though I hope not to flaunt it or seek validation for it. None of us are clean before a holy God, me included, without relying on the blood of Jesus to cover our sins.

But I wonder: Does our failure to proclaim God’s word about homosexuality render us as guilty as those who fall victim to it? Legalizing gay marriage doesn’t make it right any more than the end of prohibition made drunkenness okay. Do we care enough about our gay neighbors to tell them the truth? Or are we too timid to get involved?

Jeremiah faced a similar crisis. God said, “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you. Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you” (Jeremiah 1:7b-8 NIV). “Get yourself ready! Stand up and say to them whatever I command you. Do not be terrified by them, or I will terrify you before them” (Jeremiah 1:17 NIV).

Time Is Ticking

I sat on an earlier version of this article for over two years, fearing an attack when I thrust myself into the hornet’s nest. I repent. It’s no longer for me to decide. My soul aches with sorrow for what is happening on our watch.

Can God’s church do something before our once-well-respected nation morally implodes, the downward spiral flushing away more unsuspecting souls? With God’s help, of course we can. Regardless, we’ll need to give an account.

Whether we choose to use it, we all have a voice. And a sphere of influence no matter the size. Let’s allow God to use us as not only His hands and feet but also His mouthpiece. You may already know someone—a relative, neighbor, or friend—who needs loving correction and a little support rather than a snub or a stiff rebuke. If you have influence at church, it’s time to uphold all standards of Scripture, not just those without controversy.

The first step is to acknowledge that we’re part of the moral crisis. The second is to realize that we can do something about it, one act of obedience at a time. But we can’t if we remain in the closet.

Fellow Christian, souls are at stake. Is the Spirit prompting you? There’s still time to speak the truth in love, come what may, before the eternal consequences of disobedience cast our fate and the fate of those around us. Will you take a stand?

Copyright © 2024 Tim Bishop