Defined.
So I've been thinking... And I don't even think I can fully articulate it yet... But I have been thinking.
Why is it that people who struggle with same sex attraction define themselves as homosexuals? Before you get your backs up, let's expand on this. Ok, scratch that. You can get your backs up all you want, I'm going to keep going. I hope you'll join me:
Say I feel tempted to slip earrings in my pocket when I'm at the mall. Does this make me a thief? Say I feel tempted to do it every single solitary time I go to a store. Does this make me a thief?
No.
So why then does someone who is tempted with attraction to someone of the same sex feel that it is necessary to define themselves as gay, and defend that definition with zeal?
My thoughts are most specifically focused on people who exhibit three specific characteristics:
1) They believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the Living God.
2) They believe that a homosexual lifestyle/homosexual behavior is sin.
3) They struggle with same sex attraction.
I'm talking about Christians who struggle to pull themselves out of or avoid the homosexual lifestyle, people for whom this is a real and difficult struggle, people who desperately want to live the life that God has for them. And yet... they consistently and aggressively define themselves as gay. And they defend themselves as gay with gays for gays by gays, etc etc etc. They identify only with the typical gay culture, from what I see--however they or I see it... And it baffles me. It really truly baffles me.
There is a difference between struggling with sin and temptation, struggling against your fleshly desires... and just giving in to it all and living in open rebellion against God. And yet, from the way they come across to me, these men and women are aligning themselves with those very people by definition. Even if they have "given in" before, even if they have "fallen down" or "backslid" or whatever... I've commited adultery, but I don't define myself as an adulteress... like some sort of label that seals my fate, and I just have to accept it and can never rise above it. I just don't understand. It seems like it's completely defeatist to me.
I guess the burning question in my mind is: if you don't want that for yourself, then why, intellectually, do you cling so fiercely to it? I don't mean emotionally or physically--as from personal experience I know that we often cling--emotionally and/or physically to things that are bad for us... but intellectually? I don't understand...
-Jack-
