Born This Way is a song by Lady Gaga and the lead single from her second album of the same name released in February 2011.
The song has sold more than 10.49 million copies worldwide. Lyrics in the song include the following:
“I’m beautiful in my way,
‘Cause God makes no mistakes.
I’m on the right track, baby,
I was born this way.
Don’t hide yourself in regret,
Just love yourself, and your set.
I’m on the right track, baby,
I was born this way.” —Lady Gaga and Jeppe Laursen
The song champions issues like sexual orientation, gender identity and intersectionality. It has become an anthem for the LGBTQIA+ community. In fact, one writer in the Washington Post, Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons, went so far as to write that the song has become “…the hymn for LGBT Christians that is sorely missing from your average church hymnal.” [1]
Fitzsimmons goes on to write: “[Lady Gaga’s] prayer is the same as countless progressive Christians who recoil at the hypocritical judgment of fundamentalism yet still seek to follow Jesus. She prays to an affirming God with expansive love, not a narrow-minded magician in the sky who damns non-believers…”
Fitzsimmons is a “fellow with the Faith and Progressive Policy Initiative at American Progress” whose work focuses on several issues related to religion in American life, including “promoting a progressive vision of religious liberty that champions LGBTQ rights and how faith communities empower social and economic justice.” [2]
In the WAPO article, Fitzsimmons writes that Lady Gaga “prays to an affirming God with expansive love, not a narrow-minded magician in the sky…”
Unfortunately, there is the god we want, and there is the God who is, and the two aren’t necessarily the same. [3]
There is the god we want and there is the God who is,
and the two aren’t necessarily the same.
While God is affirming, after all He calls us His children, and while God’s love is expansive, “God so loved the world” (Jn 3:16), a thorough reading of Scripture will indicate that God’s love is just one aspect of His character and nature.
Yes, God is love. But He is also holy and He is also just. “Holy” means that God is absolutely pure, flawless and sinless (1 Peter 1:15-16). “Just” means that He’s a good and perfect judge. 2 Thessalonians 1:6 says, “God is just: He will pay back trouble to those who trouble you.”
Not only does God’s holiness expose and reject anything impure or sinful, but His justice has to deal with it. Because God is just, He has to punish rebellion, sin, and imperfection because a good judge can’t just wink and let lawbreakers walk. The damage caused by our sin is too great! It has to be paid for and dealt with.
Again, there is the god we want, and there is the God who is, and the two aren’t necessarily the same.
Lady Gaga is doubtlessly a talented musician, gifted singer and songwriter, who happens to be a practicing Catholic. My desire in this series of posts is not to dissect her song or her faith, but to simply ask the question, “Do the lyrics and message of her song jive with historic, biblical Christianity?”
In order to do that, I’ll share a framework for working through the LGBTQIA+ issues that are making headlines on a daily basis.
My goal is not to offend, but to attempt to share God’s truth in a way that honors Him, challenges you and provides guidance for living a life that glorifies God and leads to personal transformation, human flourishing and radical life-change.
On a pastoral note, I’m aware that this is a “live” issue for people who read this blog and are either a part of or connected to the church family I happen to lead. Further, I’m also aware that behind all of the headlines and hoopla are the stories of real people with real hearts and real hurts who have concerns and questions.
If you’re one of these people, please know that while you may not agree with everything or anything I write in this series, at the outset I want you to know that I really do love you — even though I may not know you — I love you. I truly want what’s best for you.
Further, you have the “right” to live your life the way you see fit. I don’t have or feel any judgement towards you related to these issues. In fact, I have gay friends. I have met with transgender people. In all of these interactions, I always attempt to be kind, loving and caring. Further, the sexuality of these individuals is never the first, second, third or tenth thing I think about when I interact with them. I simply think of these individuals as people deeply loved by God and people that I want to know, interact with and learn from.
Finally, hopefully it’s obvious that I do not consider myself an “expert” on any of these matters. I’m simply a pastor who really wants to love and honor God and serve people well. That’s it.
With that in mind, here are a few thoughts that I believe provide a framework for thinking about issues related to sex and sexuality.
A Framework for Thinking About Sex and Sexuality:
- People matter to God and ought to matter to you and me.
John 3:16 describes God’s heart for people.
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. —John 3:16 NIV
Please read this carefully. God loves people. Straight, gay and trans. Rich and poor. Black and white. God loves people, period.
Furthermore, God loves us even when our attitudes and actions break His heart. Romans 5:8 makes an amazing statement:
But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. —Rom 5:8 NIV
The MSG reads, “God put His love on the line for us by offering His Son…while we were of no use to Him whatever.”
That’s love! It’s what the Bible calls, “grace.”
Years ago, I read this description of grace. I haven’t forgotten it:
“Grace is love that seeks you out when you have nothing to give in return. Grace is love coming at you that has nothing to do with you. Grace is being loved when you are unlovable…”
“Grace… refuses to play it safe… Grace is recklessly generous… [Grace]…doesn’t keep score… It has nothing to do with earning, merit, or deservedness… It doesn’t expect a return on investments. It is a liberating contradiction between what we deserve and what we get. Grace is unconditional acceptance given to an undeserving person by an unobligated giver.
“[Grace] is one-way love.” —Tullian Tchividjian [4]
I love that! It’s a great description of the way God loves us!
On top of that, when it comes to the basics of Christianity — to what matters most — Jesus didn’t hesitate to tell us what is most important. When He was asked the question He responded with two essentials: “Love God. Love people. Love God. Love people” (Matthew 22:36-40).
The second essential is actually a quotation from Leviticus — yeah, that book — the one that is an instant cure for insomnia — that book. It reads like this:
Love your neighbor as yourself. —Matt 22:39 (Cf Lev 19:18)
No qualifiers. No exceptions. No prerequisites. No asterisk that indicates, “Love your neighbor as yourself…except those who are gay or transgender.” It was simple and straightforward.
“Love your neighbor…”
In other words…
Love your straight, gay, transgender neighbor.
Love your black, white, brown, Asian, Latin, Indian, Jewish, Middle-Eastern neighbor.
Love your Christian, Muslim, Jewish, atheist and agnostic neighbor.
Love your male and female neighbor.
Love your liberal, conservative, far right, left wing, progressive and regressive neighbor.
Love your rich, poor, lower class, middle class, upper class, blue collar, white collar, no collar neighbor.
Love your immigrant or foreign neighbor.
Love your homeless, imprisoned or incarcerated neighbor.
Love your addicted neighbor.
Love your old, young and middle-aged neighbor.
Love your loud and obnoxious neighbor.
Love your quiet, shy and timid neighbor.
Love your lonely, depressed or disabled neighbor.
Love your neighbor.
Tim Keller in his book, Generous Justice, reminds us,
“Jesus refuses to let us limit not only how we love, but who we love. It is typical for us to think of our neighbors as people of the same social class and means… [But in the parable of the Good Samaritan] by depicting a Samaritan helping a Jew, Jesus could not have found a more forceful way to say that anyone at all in need — regardless of race, politics, class, and religion — is your neighbor. Not everyone is your brother or sister in the faith, but everyone is your neighbor, and you must love your neighbor.”
—Tim Keller [5]
We’ve thought about this since the inception of A2 Church. In fact, one of our CORE VALUES at A2 reads as follows:
An A2 Church CORE Value
“People: are our priority — People matter to God and they ought to matter to us. Just like Jesus, we love and accept people unconditionally, right where they are.” (Luke 15; 19:10; Romans 5:8; 15:7; 1 Jn 4:19)
That includes people who call themselves gay or transgender or any other person in the LGBTQIA+ alphabet. If it’s a scandal to love people who are made in the image of God, then that’s a scandal A2 Church is willing to take on…
We believe this simple truth:
You’ve never locked eyes with a person that doesn’t matter to the heart of God. Ever.
People matter to God and they ought to matter to you and me!
That brings us to the second part of this framework:
2. Every human being was created in the image of God and should be treated with honor, dignity and decency.
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. —Gen 1:27 NIV
Christopher Yuan in his excellent book, Holy Sexuality, describes why every human being should be treated with honor, dignity and respect. Yuan writes:
“When we say that every person should be treated with dignity and respect, it’s not because of our commitment to human rights but because we’re all created in the image of God. Every person is endowed with inestimable value and should be treated with dignity and respect. The imago Dei is the only true foundation of human rights.” —Christopher Yuan [6]
This idea is so important. The fact that we were originally created in the “image of God” means that we are worthy of honor and respect, regardless of gender, ethnicity, social status, sexuality and the list goes on.
C.S. Lewis describes the staggering implications of this reality in his book, The Weight of Glory. Lewis writes:
“It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations—these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit—immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” —C.S. Lewis [7]
What do I mean when I write that “every human being was created in the image of God and should be treated with honor, dignity and decency?”
The best definition for honor I’ve ran across was written by Gary Smalley several years ago. Smalley wrote:
“Honor means deciding to place high value, worth and importance on another person by viewing him or her as a priceless gift… It’s a way of accurately seeing the immense value of a person made in the image of God. It means to value another person highly as extremely important and of great worth. Honor is not earned. It is a gift and a decision we make daily…” — Gary Smalley [8]
Creating a culture of honor is so important to us that it is another value at A2 Church. We call it one of our “FOR Values.” It reads as follows:
An A2 Church FOR Value
Honor. It’s our gift… We honor up, honor down and honor all around.
(Rom 12:10; 13:7; 1 Tim 5:17; 1 Pet 2:17; Heb 13:17; 1 Thes 5:12-13)
Honor fuels you with the energy to keep loving, despite the cost. We believe that every person should be treated with honor. By the way, every person means EVERY person — people who believe like us, and people who don’t. People who behave like us, and people who don’t.
3. Love and acceptance aren’t synonymous with agreement or approval.
This is so important for this current cultural moment. Acceptance isn’t synonymous with approval and love doesn’t require an endorsement of everything a person believes, says or does.
For some reason, our culture has bought the lie that if we disagree on something, we can’t be friends or even worse, we ought to be enemies. We’ve bought the idea that to love someone means you agree with everything they believe, think or do, and that’s just not the case.
We know this isn’t true because many of us have kids! After raising three children, I can tell you from personal experience, that there have been different moments when I deeply loved my kids, but I didn’t agree with their decisions or actions at all. I bet they would say the same thing about me.
When Jesus walked this planet, He was an “acceptance magnet.” The thing that scandalized Him in the eyes of the religious crowd was how He would love, accept, welcome and embrace anyone and everyone who came to Him. Regardless of background, ethnicity, personal history, previous sin(s), you name it. Jesus loved and accepted people right where they were.
His love and acceptance were so radical that the religious crowd leveled this accusation against Him.
“This man welcomes sinners and eats with them…” —Luke 15:2
That was not intended as a compliment by the religious crowd. No self-respecting rabbi would do what Jesus did. But He did it anyway! It was almost like He walked around with a huge sign on his neck that read: You matter to me, regardless!
But don’t make the mistake of thinking that Jesus extravagant love and unconditional acceptance meant that He approved of everything the people He hung out with or shared dinner with did and said. Absolutely not. In fact, on another occasion when Jesus was eating dinner with another group of “sinners,” the religious crowd once again objected. Jesus read their mail and in front of His dinner companions made this statement:
“Healthy people don’t need a doctor—sick people do. I have not come to call those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners” —Luke 5:31
Don’t miss that. So much is jammed into that verse. Jesus called the people He was hanging out with “sick” and “sinners”. Neither are a compliment. By the way, the people He was eating dinner with heard what He said, but somehow they weren’t turned off by it. In fact, the combination of grace and truth was so compelling in the life and love of Jesus that people who were nothing like Jesus actually liked Jesus.
People who were nothing like Jesus liked Jesus.
Maybe it would help us to define what we mean when we talk about love and acceptance.
A definition I’ve been using for love for a few years now reads as follows:
“Love is willing self-sacrifice for the good of another person that doesn’t depend on the person deserving it or ever repaying it.” [9]
Love gets expressed through our actions, not just our intentions. It’s about the actions we sow, not just the words we say. You can love someone selflessly and sacrificially without agreeing with them on a variety of things.
Acceptance means that you are valuable just as you are. You can talk about how you feel and why you feel that way and someone actually cares.
You can do both of those things while holding different points of view on a variety of issues, even very personal issues.
As you read this series of posts and the remainder of the framework, you might disagree with some of the things you read. That’s okay. Please keep reading. We can still like each other. More importantly, we can still love each other. It really is possible. By the way, if I were reading something you had written, it’s possible I might even disagree with you. But despite our differences, we could still like and love each other.
Let’s keep that in mind as we work to create a framework for this very sensitive topic.
Once again, here are the first three aspects of the framework:
- People matter to God and ought to matter to you and me.
- Every human being was created in the image of God and should be treated with honor, dignity and decency.
- Love and acceptance aren’t synonymous with agreement or approval.
In our next post, we’ll continue describing this important framework. In the meantime, think through the first three aspects of the framework. How are you doing in terms of living out these important realities?
[1] The Provocative Faith of Lady Gaga, February 5, 2017, The Washington Post, https://web.archive.org/web/20170206165201/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/02/05/the-gospel-according-to-lady-gaga/
[2] https://www.americanprogress.org/person/graves-fitzsimmons-guthrie/
[3] Inspired by quote from Ligon Duncan in his msg, We Know God, But Don’t Glorify Him, https://rts.edu/resources/we-know-god-but-dont-glorify-him/
[4]Tchividjian, Tullian (2013-10-01). One Way Love: Inexhaustible Grace for an Exhausted World (Kindle Location 206 and 213). David C. Cook. Kindle Edition.
[5] Timothy Keller, Generous Justice, page 67, Kindle Edition
[6] Christopher Yuan. Holy Sexuality and the Gospel (p. 19). The Crown Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.
[7] Lewis, C. S.. Weight of Glory (Collected Letters of C.S. Lewis) (pp. 46-47). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
[8] Gary Smalley, I Promise, pgs 28-29, Kindle Edition and Gary Smalley, Making Love Last Forever, pgs 114-115, Kindle Edition
[9] Inspired by Paul Tripp in his book, What Did You Expect?