HS YOUTH: Talk About Homosexuality

Most people about my age remember a time when homosexuality was something that wasn't spoken of in public. Kids these days, however, have quite a different experience. Teenagers today have grown up in a society where homosexual behavior is considered just another option... or more like a gay or lesbian person is just another variety of person. On top of that they don't read the Bible and have allowed other people to tell them what it says or means and/or many have been told that there are parts of the Bible that are no longer relevant. Considering their life experience, the world in which they've grown up, and the fact that they may have gay friends, the topic of homosexuality needs to be approached from a different perspective than just "it's wrong." It needs to be discussed within the context of all sexual sins and all sins as well as God's design for sexual/intimate relationships.  It also needs to be a discussion where the kids get to talk more than the adult(s). Let them struggle with it, provide them with information along the way and guide them to a conclusion.

Question Jar
One of the greatest tips I give when talking about a sensitive topic like this is to have time at the beginning of class for kids to write down questions anonymously to be put in a question jar. Put some questions you want to be sure to answer in first so nobody knows who wrote which question. The key is to make sure the kids feel completely comfortable so they actually ask the questions they want to ask so give the same size paper to everyone and have them fold them the same way and tell them that if it makes them more comfortable they can write down anything and just put it in the jar. They may say you'll know their handwriting but they shouldn't care as much that you know they wrote the question as they would about their peers knowing they wrote it.

I've created a basic Homosexuality Discussion Outline that has a number of questions you can use to help organize your discussion or at least get the ball rolling. It is only one way of discussing the issue but it is certainly an issue that should be discussed.

Key Thoughts on Popular Arguments

• Marriage is a label not a behavior. God doesn't care what it's called or whether or not society agrees with it. He hates the behavior so having homosexuals be "married" is not the problem. Homosexual behavior is the problem.  Unrepented sin is the problem.
• You can't expect people who don't know God to understand His plan.
• The Bible is not a book about perfect people. It's a book about a perfect God saving His imperfect people so because people in the Bible sinned doesn't mean God is okay with it.
• God CLEARLY shows us His plan for intimate relationships right at the beginning of the Bible.
• Homosexuality is a sin like all other sexual sins and all other sins.  It's no different than watching people have sex in movies and on tv, having random sex with anybody anywhere, living together without being married, reading about sex in romance novels, looking at pornography in magazines or online, lying, cheating at school, stealing a pencil from a friend, speaking poorly of somebody, etc.
• God IS love but that love is not about accepting our sinful behavior without repentance. He does NOT love that. There is a reason we do confession before absolution. 
• You should not expect non-Christians to accept God's rules. They don't know God.