At this time when those who refer to themselves as "gays" are seeking social and legal recognition of their life style, the following is offered with the hope that it will stimulate reason and encourage those called homosexuals who express a love for God to turn and actively seek God's help in overcoming homosexual tendencies.
In order for a consideration of this subject to accomplish its purpose, it needs to be open and explicit and have a basis for its reasoning. The basis in this instance will be the Bible account of creation. In the book of Genesis we read: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness .... So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; .... And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good."Gen. 1:26, 27, 31; This account is the scriptural authority for the Christian Science teaching that man, as the image and likeness of God, or Spirit, was created by Him, wholly good and spiritual—perfect.
Man's perfection in God, as God's spiritual idea or image, is a scientific fact and is the premise that needs to be accepted for reason to be brought to bear on the problem of homosexuality. In Christian Science there is no mingling of good and evil. In practical demonstration the understanding of this results in normalcy—no mingling of the normal and the abnormal. Truth destroys abnormality, because Truth includes no abnormality. Mrs. Eddy says in Science and Health, "Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in premise or conclusion."Science and Health, p. 129;
However deeply convinced some homosexuals may be that their tendencies should be accepted by society because their traits are said to have been with them since birth, still their willingness to reason on the problem can help to free them from this false sense of heritage. "Reason," says Mrs. Eddy, "is the most active human faculty."ibid., p. 327; Reason must tell anyone that homosexuality is not just of his physical body, but of his mind. Reason will also tell the thoughtful one that all bodily functions have a normalcy of action. Normalcy is recognized for these actions and uses of the human body. So, abnormality in matters of sex is a delusive aberration, while, humanly speaking, normalcy is natural.
Observation and reason prove this to be true. They make plain that the physical structure of male and female bodies indicates what is humanly normal in matters of sexual relationships. In the human sense of life the multiplication or generation of man takes place through sexual activity. This is the normal outcome of the sex act, however degraded that act has become with some—even with many who abhor homosexuality. Abnormality, indulged, distorts the values of the human mind. It is like a dark cloud obscuring the sun. It obscures spiritual light. It blurs reason and perpetuates confusion. The same can be said of any lustful practice. Our spiritual progress is gained when we let every aspect of our lives conform to the moral demands that lift us above animal tendencies. Such tendencies, practices, and their effects can be made to yield and disappear as one gains increased spiritual light and understanding.
Christian Science is compassionate toward homosexuals. It teaches one to be understanding of their struggles with the harsh attitudes of the past toward them and history's rejection of them. But Science decries sexual deviation and offers Christly healing of it, just as with any other affliction. Christ Jesus didn't condemn the adulterous woman nor condone her life style. He healed her. He said, "Go, and sin no more."John 8:ll; He healed the man born blind, and Peter and John healed the man lame from his birth.See 9:1-7; Acts 3:1-8; They didn't look on any affliction as incurable. Their purpose was to heal, and in doing so to bring to light man's upright and perfect God-given nature. That, too, is the purpose of Christian Science.
For Christian Science to accept homosexuality as a legitimate and permanent state would be a great disservice to those afflicted by it, and inconsistent with the Christian Science teachings of healing and redemption. This is indeed the most loving and compassionate position anyone can take toward those facing this problem—a position in keeping with the teachings of Christianity as set forth in the New Testament.
When homosexuals come to grips with the problem and do not seek to legitimize perversion, they can be helped to understand their true natures as children of God and be freed of this aberration. Christian Science rejects the imputation that God, the only creator, is capable of creating an individual subject to perversion. When man's perfection is understood in Science, it can be proved that one is not condemned by birth to be second-class, a deviate, or an outcast from society.
God also made man to have a purpose. That purpose is to glorify and serve Him. In this present sense of life, we best serve and glorify Him with normalcy—for normalcy in the human, rather than deviant tendencies, more nearly tends to pattern the fact of spiritual perfection.
We are all battling human frailties. Our purpose is to be healed of them and to help each other to spiritually outgrow mortal tendencies of every kind. Prayerfully contending for the fact of perfect God and perfect man and rejecting any sense of an abnormal heritage regenerate human thought and free it from any sense of an imposed affliction or of one's being separated and alone. Regeneration is the entire mission of Christian Science. This mission encompasses all mankind. It offers comfort and complete healing to any and all.
Everyone has a responsibility to society and an obligation to aid in the betterment of the human race. But homosexuality leaves to the institution of the human family no legacy of improvement, tending toward a higher and more spiritual life. It is sometimes argued that men and men, and women and women, can be in love with one another just as men and women are, and that this love justifies their sexual practices. Men and women both can indeed have great love and admiration for those of their own sex, and this can be quite normal and natural. But when sexual indulgence enters into a male-and-male or a female-and-female relationship, it ceases to be normal and natural; it then becomes perversion. Such relationships have no reasonable defense but are delusive, because they are not natural or normal. The false desire to indulge sexual deviations can be healed through an awakened spiritual comprehension of the true nature of the male and female God created.
"Marriage should improve the human species," says Mrs. Eddy, "becoming a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to man, and a centre for the affections." This is the standard for Christian Scientists as stated in that magnificent chapter "Marriage" in Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy further says: "An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciating concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true happiness of being, places it on a false basis. Science will correct the discord, and teach us life's sweeter harmonies."Science and Health, p. 60.
Some homosexuals do admit their way of life to be unacceptable and yearn for acceptance and healing. This natural inclination for normal associations gains strength from one's innate spiritual sense. This admission of need and yearning for a better way is fully answered by divine Love's compassionate provision for filling every human need and for answering every prayer of earnest, right desire.
To be freed from the degrading practices of sexual perversion of any kind, those indulging them would do well to consider where their present practices are leading them—to an unfulfilled, isolated existence or to higher spiritual development and a satisfying sense of belonging. Here a clear understanding of God and of man as His pure likeness can be their saving grace and lead them into the path of spiritual attainment and a rewarding human experience.
To summarize: Christian Science insists that homosexuality is healable, because it has no more validity than any other erroneous state. It is no more a fixed fact of anyone's true nature than is any other mortal trait or characteristic. All such errors must sooner or later yield to the regenerating power of God. Through reason and the prayerful desire for purity, the conviction will come that the real man and the real woman are without spot or blemish; in fact, there is only one kind of man—perfect, normal in every way, the beloved of God.
