Jesus is the Word of God — God’s definitive revelation. Jesus commanded His disciples to share the Gospel everywhere to everyone, teaching what He taught. This has been passed on in two ways: in written form (sacred Scripture) and through the preaching and teaching of the Apostles and their successors (sacred tradition). Together these contain and convey the truths about God and humanity that are necessary for us to experience the Salvation Christ won for us.

We cannot ignore those truths and believe that somehow we are able to live as God intends. Together these two fonts form the one voice of God speaking to every generation of Christians. The Church is tasked with preserving and interpreting these truths of revelation — including moral truths. She doesn’t have the authority to invent or change them, but rather exists to hand them on faithfully, even when doing so means she will be opposed or rejected by society.

One such example is the Church’s instruction regarding the morality of homosexual behavior. It is good to remember that this teaching deals with the morality of the acts themselves, not the worth of the persons involved.    

Scripture is abundantly clear regarding the morality of homosexual acts. They are seen as sinful and never approved of. This is consistent in both the Old and New Testaments. There are several examples which show this.

In the Old Testament two examples would be Leviticus 18:22, and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 19 (from which comes the term ‘sodomy’ as one way of describing homosexual acts).

In the New Testament we can look at Romans 1:27 and 1 Corinthians 6:9. Others tell the same story.

Together with the testimony of Scripture, early Christian writers taught the same regarding the immorality of homosexual acts (for example St. Justin Martyr, St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom).

It should be remembered that Christianity in its infancy found itself in a world where homosexual activity was not only tolerated but commonplace. Rather than conform to what society saw as acceptable, Christianity defined itself as being incompatible with many things that were prevalent in society, including homosexual activity. Why? Because such behavior was incompatible with God’s revelation in Scripture and the Apostles’ teaching.

In recent years, several Christian denominations have decided to stop teaching that homosexual behavior is wrong, completely departing from clear biblical teaching and 2,000 years of consistent Christian moral instruction.

The justification for doing so seems to come simply from ignoring certain passages while focusing exclusively on others. Passages dealing with homosexual behavior are set aside as no longer relevant. Such decisions may be politically advantageous, but present serious theological and biblical problems.

Some argue that Jesus wouldn’t care so long as people loved each other or claim that Jesus Himself never forbade it (He never actually mentions it). However, these are extremely short-sighted arguments since not mentioning something does not mean approval, nor does Jesus claim that love ever entails setting aside God’s moral instruction.

Besides, Jesus was very clear about marriage between a man and woman being God’s intention and design from the beginning (Mt 19:4-6), as were His chosen disciples after Him.

As Christians today, we must ask some basic questions. Does Scripture or sacred tradition matter? Do they reveal God’s truth?  If we answer yes, then the morality of homosexual behavior is clear.  If we say no, then who is the authority? Our feelings? Society? An opinion survey? A court? Our answer says a great deal about “whom” our “god,” our source of ultimate truth, is.

Do we choose to belong to Jesus and strive to live His truth, or decide to live by another so-called “truth,” maybe even trying to “invent” our own?

The God who loves us and wants to spend eternity with us hopes we choose His Son, the source of all Truth, but leaves that choice to us.