(if that song is now stuck in your head, go here)
(WARNING: This post contains links that lead to explicit material that may not be suitable for everyone.)
Given the above, I’m going to try and keep my commentary short and spare a lot of details. A couple of articles recently caught my attention and that I feel are worth viewing through a Biblical Worldview. First, two weeks ago Mark Morford, a columnist at the San Francisco Gate wrote an article speculating that “God is slightly gay“. Then last Thursday there was an article at Slate describing the masturbation habits of animals.
What both of these have in common is the justification that if animals do it, then it’s ok for us to do it. If animals exhibit homosexual behavior, then it must be natural and therefore should be socially acceptable. Likewise, if animals masturbate, then there’s less reason to consider “onanism” a social vice. Both articles go further implying that God must be gay (since if his creation has ‘natural’ homosexual behavior, then that must reflect part of God’s character) in the former case, and that masturbation can be defended from a pro-life standpoint in the latter.
If you’re read this far, your brain has probably already come to some conclusions without my pointing out the false equivalencies and mutual exclusiveness. But those are exercises in logic. I want to also look at this from the viewpoint of the Bible.
First logic, casting aside the false equivalencies and mutual exclusiveness from the above arguments. Animals also resort to violence, or in some cases murder, to impress possible mates, seldom practice monogamy, practice infanticide and cannibalism. Ok, maybe we’re not too far from that ourselves, so let me offer a different illustration (and forgive the vulgarity, but I need it to make my point). A dog wants to hump my leg, does that make it socially permissible for you to do so? I could give other extreme examples, but I think you see the point.
As for the Bible, it is clear that we are different than the “beasts of the field”. “Then God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’
“So God created man in his own image,
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.”
(Gen 1:26-27)
Of course, Genesis 1 and 2 are easily disposed of today. But I’m not talking science, I’m talking theology. We are created in God’s image. The Bible does not say the same for any animals. So animals do not possess characteristics of God (unless you’re Buddhist, in which case that homosexual, masturbating horse might be your late grandmother) other than their diversity reflects God’s creativity. There is no covenant with the animals (remember as a child being told your favorite pet went to heaven? Sorry, not going to happen), no expectation for holiness (“be holy because I [God] am holy” 1 Peter 1:16), no Law, no grace. Humankind is unique in God’s eyes. We should be holding ourselves to a higher standard. Instead of looking to the animal kingdom to justify our sinful nature, we should instead focus on the heavenly kingdom to “live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” (Eph 4:1ff)