This coming week will see the appointment of Leo Varadkar as Taoiseach.
At age 38 he will be the youngest in that office and with Indian/Irish parents reflects the current multi-ethnic Ireland.
But there is a further way in which Leo stretches the culture in that he is the first openly gay person to hold this office. This poses a dilemma for the Bible believer as scripture names gayness as a sin while the law of the land has recently given legitimacy to the gay lifestyle in sanctioning same-sex marriage.
Amongst heterosexuals it is not uncommon for married men in high office to engage a mistress and whilst the Bible condemns adultery, society and the judiciary have become increasingly more tolerant of what is known as “extra-marital” sex.
I am not suggesting that the two sins are coterminous but simply that in a fallen world these offences will occur. A major difference here lies in that one is covert while the other is proclaimed openly. The confidence to do the latter comes partly from the notion that gayness is inborn. However, God cannot be understood as having created what His revealed Word defines as sinful (Leviticus Chapter 18 verse 22).
Nowhere is there evidence that God designed and created a percentage of the population to be gay. The resistance to give in to gay behaviour, may require as much willpower as the resistance heterosexuals are required to exercise to remain pure in a licentious society. It’s not that gays have been dealt a bad hand. They are not unique when it comes to resisting sinful sexual attraction.
The practice of co-habiting, for whatever reason, puts what must be an almost unbearable pressure on self-control. It avoids the responsibilities of a life-long covenant which marriage is and substitutes a counterfeit lifestyle which, however faithful, abrogates what God intended from the beginning (Genesis Chapter 2 verse 24).
But your life-style does not present God with an insuperable barrier any more than it did for the Israelite’s in Moses day (Deuteronomy Chapter 7 verses 7/8).
His love, reiterated by St John, is a redeeming love (John Chapter 3 verse 16).
It saves the repentant sinner but does not leave him there. He receives the Holy Spirit whose power brings you into the family of believers and provides you with the strength to live godly.
As St Paul wrote to Titus; “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age” (Chapter 2 verses 11/12). Jesus is “the grace of God” and no one can say “I belong to an excluded group of people”. Salvation is for all. Trust Jesus