Ken Chumbley
When I was growing up, there was a perfectly good word that was used regularly. It was used in songs, in plays, and indeed every day conversation. However, that perfectly good word has been hijacked by those who would engage in an immoral lifestyle. Now, just about every time that the word is used it is used by those engaged in this immoral lifestyle or those politically correct individuals who support and promote that lifestyle. Sadly, at times, because of the fact that it has become accepted in many areas, even Christians resort to using that word when describing that immoral lifestyle. That hijacked word is gay. It has been in the news again recently following the announcement that the Episcopal Church was politically correct and those involved in that lifestyle want to portray the situation. They do not want to call it what it really is. When one looks to the dictionary to see the primary meaning of the word, it has reference to being merry or bright in appearance and brilliant in color.
A third meaning of the word is given as being given to social pleasures or indulgence, hence loose or licentious. However, even with that third meaning it did not have reference to the sodomite lifestyle. When I was young, a song having the words, “I’m glad God made me gay” would not have caused a stir as people would have understood that the singer was referring to himself as a merry individual. However, I remember a few years ago hearing this same song being played on the radio and the disc jockey feeling compelled to say that this song was written at a time when the word had a different meaning. How much this good word has been hijacked and made to mean something that it had never meant is clearly seen in what happened at a Christian camp a few years ago. I was teaching a class of teenagers on the topic of morals and morality. I told the class that I was gay. You should have seen the looks on their faces! To them, because of the way the word has been hijacked, it meant only one thing, thus their shock. However, when I told them to consider my age and that the word’s real meaning was something else, then they were able to see that I was referring to myself as a merry individual, but they had been conditioned by society to thinking that the word had reference to one thing, and one thing only.
I refuse to go along with the politically correct meaning of the word. I do not believe as Christians we should give any credence to the idea that the sodomite lifestyle is gay. Sodomy is an abomination before God (Lev. 18:22; 20:13). Furthermore, when one considers the physical consequences of this lifestyle, then it is anything but gay. Indeed, although it has now spread into the heterosexual community as a result of those who would practice both heterosexual and sodomite sex, AIDS, was spread by the sodomite community.
As Christians, may we always be willing to speak out against this abominable lifestyle and call it what it is, sinful and not in any sense gay.
