The covert and surreptitious practice of homosexuality in the church.
For the truly believing Christian, there can be no doubt that homosexuality is a grave sin in the eye of God. Apostle Paul, in his letter addressed to the Romans, reflects on homosexuality and condemns it: “Their women have exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and their men in turn, giving up natural relations with women, burn with lust for one another; males behave indecently with males, and are paid in their own persons the fitting wage of such perversion. Thus, because they have not seen fit to acknowledge God, He has given them up to their own depraved reason. This leads them to break all rules of conduct. They are filled with every kind of injustice, mischief, rapacity, and malice; they are one mass of envy, murder, rivalry, treachery, and malevolence; whisperers, and scandal-mongers, hateful to God, insolent, arrogant, and boastful; they invent new kinds of mischief, they show no loyalty to parents, no conscience, no fidelity to their plighted word; they are without natural affection, and without pity.” (Romans 1:27-31).
The Old Testament, starting from Genesis, is full of condemnation of homosexuality, and there is no reason to believe that God has changed His views on homosexuals since then. According to the Gospel, homosexuality is essentially an unnatural behavior, rather than an ordinary human activity and cannot have a place in the House of God. Regardless of what modern proponents of “gay liberation rights” might wish to believe, sexual perversions are not inherited genetically but rather are learned behaviors and willful acts. In fact, if we examine nature and procreation in the animal kingdom, we cannot find an instance of such behavior in any species, other than human beings. Much to the chagrin of LGBT activists, their claim of an innate disposition or proclivity to homosexuality is simply unsustainable and nowhere else present in nature.
The Apostle Paul in his first letter addressed to Corinthians declares that homosexuality is not a hopeless case: “Do you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionist will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (I Corinth. 6:9-11).
In spite of the considerable campaign today from the liberal media to get homosexuality recognized as an acceptable life style, the Bible makes it plain that it is unnatural and a sinful activity that must be rejected by true Christians.
At the same time, we cannot forget that Christ died for everyone’s sins. As such, we are all subjects of His sanctifying love, and we should earnestly seek to encourage those who have strayed from the righteous path to seek the remission of their sins from God and to bring them to Him for deliverance.
Incredibly, some clergymen, who have been given the charge to steer their congregations in the righteous path, have, themselves, fallen into this ungodly lifestyle and practice any number of perverse acts such as adultery, sodomy, and pedophilia. It is incomprehensible that such behavior continues to mire the confines of our church and religious institutions. We have recently witnessed the extent to which these activities permeate the Catholic Church and everyone has rightfully expressed their outrage.
Conversely, the Armenian Church is not immune to such behavior, as some of our clergy still persist in engaging in this abnormal lifestyle. Catholicos Kevork V with his official decree in 1919 ordered the prodigal monks, within three days to remove all their servants and teenage boys from the compounds of monasteries. (Benik Vartabed, My Response to My Slanderers, 1920, Etchmiadzin).
Those who are obliged to live a celibate life end up living a secret life—undertaking reprehensible steps to fulfill their physical urges—and thereby causing alarming scandals among the faithful. Admittedly, it is difficult to fight against the urges of human needs. However, abstinence is a display of devotion to God and commitment to His work. Not being able to withstand the need to procreate, some clergy have resorted to fulfill their needs in the most aberrant and perverse manner possible.
This is certainly not a condemnation of everyone in the Church. However, those who are responsible for upholding the virtuous status among the clergy and seminarians must not turn a blind eye to such unacceptable behavior and cast out those who are in breach of their holiest of vows. The Church must be cleansed of impure and immoral entities in order for it to have credibility and legitimacy among the ranks of the faithful.
It is our obligation to raise awareness in this matter and compel those who will attend the next Synod Council in St. Etchmiadzin in 2014 to address this issue in earnest and expunge those who persist in besmirching the good name of the Church—otherwise all those who remain silent, indifferent, or reluctant to cleanse the Church of sin shall themselves be liable to be judged.
VOSGAN MEKHITARIAN
March 9, 2014
