'sexual identity' is B-S

‘Who I am with’ does not define ‘who I am’.

The feverish debate tends to paint a different picture - our culture wants to corner us into the belief that our sexuality is the prime ingredient to our identity.

This is not so.

'Who I am' cannot be found in my marriage, my extra-marital conduct, my online habits, my orientation.

'Who I am' is a spirituality question, not a sexuality question.

I've discovered that who I am is a child of the everlasting God. That's it.

My identity is forged in the heart of God through the binding nature of covenant - and my priorities, my vocation, my relationships, my sexuality, my service ... all flow from this covenant.

And this loving Father invites me to reflect who He is - to express the covenant He has entered into with His child.

His identity is somehow woven into the fabric of covenant.

And so is ours.

Who we are will not be displayed through the expression of our sexuality, but through our participation in the unrelenting promise of this relational divinity - who goes by the name "I AM".

I take the personal posture of an open heart to those who long for 'marriage equality', and a firm conviction that what's actually being asked for is 'marriage redefinition'.

My posture is informed by the observation that few of us who are caught up in this debate pause long enough to consider the implications of covenant.

Covenant is the steadfast undertaking of a God who longs to permanently unite us to Himself, and He has initially (and I would say, enduringly) chosen to communicate that through the marriage covenant between a man and a woman.

That's why a re-definition of marriage is so controversial - it messes with an original expression of how God's Story reveals the heart of who God is.

But in the meantime...

A homosexual person's identity is not found in their homosexuality, but in the truth that God has irreversibly pursued them.

A heterosexual person's identity is not found in their heterosexuality, but in the truth that God has irreversibly pursued them.

What this means is that the notion and pursuit of 'sexual identity' is built on the false premise that identity can be found in our sexuality.  Our culture longs for this to be true, but it is not.