Dear Editor,
As someone who isn’t gay or bi but has had many friends who are, I want to express strong support for what Andy Robinson wrote in the last issue of en about temptation to homosexual practice (as well as for the good work he and Living Out do).
It’s surely self-evident Biblically (classically Genesis 3 and Matthew 4, and elsewhere) that temptation includes an external dimension, an impulse from outside. To be tempted is to hear that external temptation.
Orientation to homosexual practice means we are so built that we hear that specific temptation from outside that others would not; and let’s be clear, I and all of us have (as fallen people) particular personal orientations that make us (maybe more than others) susceptible to temptations toward specific things God does not want for us (pride, etc).
Sin comes, surely, not when we hear an external temptation, but as we give it mental space, tolerate it, accept it. (Vitally, Matthew Roberts didn’t seem to distinguish between being prone to particular temptations and fostering them.) Luther said that it’s not possible to stop birds flying over your head, but by God’s power you can stop them nesting in your hair.
Yours sincerely,
Pete Lowman
By email
