Gays and Immoral Goo

In my experience, Christians seem to be frequently bothered by the “immoral” things that the people around them do, including homosexuality, blasphemy (which can be as simple as being an atheist), and the use of contraception. I bring this up is because I do not understand Christians’ reactions to these “immoral” people.

A recent example of such a reaction is Diana Medley, the Indiana teacher who supported a “straight people only” prom because homosexuality is immoral according to the Bible (which is actually a debatable topic, and I don’t agree that the Bible condemns homosexuality for Christians).

From a theological standpoint, I really don’t understand why Christians get so uneasy and go to such great lengths to isolate themselves from these “immoral” people, and my confusion stems from what the Bible’s definition of “immoral” is.

In any conversation about morality, you always need to define what you mean by “immoral”, or “that which you ought not do”. When I say “X is immoral”, and that “you ought not do X”, I mean, roughly, that, “X causes unnecessary suffering”; it’s a fairly utilitarian principle. The Bible, however, does not define “immoral” as “that which causes unnecessary suffering”. Rather, going by example, “immoral”, according to the Bible, simply and ultimately means, “that which will land you in Hell.”

You may argue that this is not correct, and that “immoral” actually means, “that which violates God’s commands”, but the two are one in the same: violating God’s commands will land you in Hell. And I don’t know about you, but my concern is not about breaking rules, it’s about the consequences of my actions.

So if we take this Biblical definition of “immoral” (doing X will land you in Hell) back to the case of Diana Medley, what she is essentially saying is, “We should isolate gay people because they are unintentionally making bad investments in their future.” I’m sorry, but what the Hell? That’s like if I refused to speak to my dad because he kept buying stock in a company that he thought would prosper, and which I thought would fail.

Christians like Diana Medley act as if people who act immorally have some kind of “evil goo” floating around them, and if they get too close, that goo will stick to them, and then they’ll go to Hell along with the “immoral” person whose goo it is. Now I’m sure they don’t actually believe this, but they act as if they think this is what’s going on.

The key question is, "Okay, the Bible has labeled being gay as "wrong". So what? What are the consequences of this? Does it affect you in any way? No? Well then what's your problem?" If I could, I'd ask this girl that very same question.

It's also interesting to note that Jews in this country almost never have this kind of aversion toward people who don't follow their morality. E.g. they don't try to avoid uncircumcised men or people who don't keep Kosher. This seems to be a uniquely Christian phenomenon. 

An immoral “aura”, if you will.

And many Christians don’t leave it at that: many Christians go one step further in their irrational reactions to immorality. Rather than simply avoiding people who they think are Hell bound, they actively ridicule and demonize these people. They ridicule gays and marriage equality, they demonize blasphemers, and they protest the legality of contraception, but why?

As an analogy, think about this: If you see a man walking toward a patch of land that you think is a sinkhole, but which he sees as harmless (Christians see homosexual activity as a ticket to Hell, whereas sexually active gays do not), what would you do? Would you…

A. Run away from the man.

B. Insult him, tell him that he deserves it, or get offended by his actions.

C. Ignore his actions.
D. Do everything you could to keep him from falling into the pit, even if it means tackling him.

Option A makes absolutely no sense unless the “immoral goo” scenario is correct.

Option B also makes no sense, but it seems to be fairly ubiquitous, depending on where you live, of course.

Option C seems to be the most common choice of Christians where I live, which seems to indicate a lack of conviction in the reality of the sinkhole (Hell).

Option D is, of course, the rational one, and it seems to be out of favor with many Christians where I live.

Now this situation is not fully analogous with Christianity and Hell because the sinkhole is an immediate threat that has little chance of being mitigated, whereas Hell is a long term threat that may well disappear for a person as time goes on and as they change. So it should not be said that Christians should “tackle” immoral people off the road to Hell, but that they should strongly and frequently try to convince people their behavior is unsafe. Unfortunately, even this milder course of action is sorely lacking in my experience.

Ultimately, I don’t understand Christians’ behavior with regard to Hell and morality: some act as if there is this “immoral goo” floating around, others ridicule people uselessly, and others simply ignore the danger that their friends are in. The only course of action that makes sense to me (actively and passionately trying to save people) seems to have fallen by the wayside.