On Homosexuality

In 2004 the the parishioners of the Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire elected Gene Robinson, a homosexual, as Bishop. An uproar occurred in some theologically conservative Dioceses. The question: Is homosexuality immoral?  My untutored conclusion: I think not.

There are two streams of argument on the point: theologic and philosophic, to the extent that the two can be separated.  The Episcopal Church rests on three strong supports: scripture, reason and tradition.  A defining tradition of the Episcopal way is tolerating differences as we come to the communion rail.

Of the theologic argument, I am not a scriptural literalist.  The only thing I take literally is Mathew 22:37-40:

³⁷ Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. ³⁸ This is the first and great commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. ⁴⁰ On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

Love God; love thy neighbor. That’s it. Jesus said nothing of homosexuality; nor do the Ten Commandments.  I leave these arguments to others; they are not necessary support for my conviction.

I am more secure with non-theologic argument.  The key issue: Is homosexuality a condition of birth or a matter of choice?  Morality does not attach to status—persons born with Down syndrome cannot be called to account for it.  Everything I know about human behavior and about biology and medicine suggests to me that homosexuality is not a matter of choice and therefore is not subject to moral judgment.  However, I admit that there is not proof on the point either way.

But even were I to concede that homosexuality is a matter of choice I find no immorality in it.  What consenting adults do in the privacy of the bedroom is nobody else’s business.  The counter argument is that homosexual acts are unnatural (unnatural = not influenced by human behavior).  Earthquakes and hurricanes are natural phenomena; neither desirable.  Erecting earthquake- and flood-proof buildings of glass and steel is unnatural and desirable.  Humans find something to like and dislike in both natural and unnatural phenomena.  

However, I find alien some expressions of homosexual culture.  I was Chairman of the Dallas County HIV Health Services Council for three years in the early 1990s.  Too often for my comfort homosexual culture seems self-absorbed and garish.  But I’d feel alien, too, in the culture of Afghanistan.  

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Note added Nov. 28, 2021 Recent reading on evolution and behavior (Scientist, The Life of EO Wilson, Richard Rhodes) makes me aware that there is very solid evidence that much of human behavior is subject to strong genetic influences.