It's mailbag time! Today I'm responding to one of my critics who says I'm wrong to support same-sex marriage because the Adam and Eve story makes the right answer "simple." Is he right? To support more videos like this: / geekyjustin
So I’m not sure if this is what most people are thinking about when they make an “Adam and Steve” argument, but one way that I’ve thought about and struggled with this argument basically boils down to the question of why did God create biological sex in the first place. This variant of the Adam and Steve argument basically goes, “Well if a gay couple and a straight couple are equally valid in the eyes of God, then why aren’t gay couples blessed with the opportunity to bear children the way straight couples are? After all God didn’t have to create biological sex. Instead of creating Adam and Eve (man and woman) he could have created Adam and Steve (hermaphrodite and hermaphrodite) and then any two adults could be blessed with the ability to bear children. Shouldn’t then our creation as man and woman dictate how we view sexuality and marriage (i.e as strictly between a man and a woman?” And for a long time I really struggled with this kind of argument. I realized though that this argument has some problems, namely that there are several good reasons why God created us male and female, or more aptly there are several good reasons why God didn’t make us hermaphrodites. The first one being that of self fertilization. Practically speaking it would be almost impossible to keep a hermaphrodite from being capable of self fertilizing itself. This is not only a problem from a genetic diversity perspective, but more importantly could have serious impacts on society. I mean, just think about it, we as humans already struggle enough with tribalism. Could you imagine how much worse that would be if one could create entire colonies of genetic clones? I don’t think God would want that as part of his good design for human sexuality. The second problem is even worse though and that is that hermaphrodites are often characterized by a high level of sexual violence. After all the biological incentive for hermaphrodites is essentially to impregnate without getting impregnated and thus sex is often forceful and violent; a fight to see which partner can rape the other first. Again I don’t think God would want that as part of his good design for human sexuality. This then explains why God created biological sex. Because biological sex is important to loving procreation, and loving procreation is important to the formation of communities. Thus it makes sense why God created Adam and Eve and not Adam and Steve, but that doesn’t necessarily mean gay couples aren’t also blessed by God, they just aren’t capable of procreation. And last time I checked, most Christians don’t view straight marriages as less valid if they are incapable of bearing kids. Not sure if that is helpful to anyone else or not, but it was helpful to me at least to realize that there are reasons God created biological sex other than to keep me from having biological children with a potential future husband.
Great Video! I'm happy to see you making more videos like these addressing these questions. I like hearing things from your compassionate, empathetic perspective. It's honestly different than what I hear elsewhere. Moreover, videos like these are so accessible. So thank you. Also I greatly appreciate that shirt, do you recall where you got it from?
Justin - met you at GCN conf - Houston a few years back. Was a first time for me. Some things good and some things made me feel uncomfortable. I parted ways with GCN after your departure because I came to GCN because of you. I agree more than not with your discussions and perspective on being gay and Christian and came to trust your leadership. Just discovered your website the other day and glad to see you back on the radar. God Bless.
Thanks for another good video! I know when you say you have no attraction to women you mean sexually and/or romantically, not as friends or in other types of relationships (e.g. respecting women as leaders). Just wanted to clarify for people since that part of the video kind of came off the wrong way I think. Looking forward to the next video!
I absolutely agree with you about delivering that (possibly incorrect) message with tears of empathy. It's the least that should be expected from a brother/sister in the Lord.
