Christian rap artist, author, and speaker Jackie Hill Perry gave her thoughts on whether God created all sexual orientations during a session at Theology in the Raw’s “Exiles in Babylon” conference last week in Boise, Idaho.
Theology in the Raw is a podcast hosted by Dr. Preston Sprinkle and aims to create a space for “Christian exiles” to think Christianly about all areas of life. According to their website, the podcast started out as a 15-minute radio show and grew into a popular program that now includes a conference, a Patreon account, personnel, and merchandise.
Sprinkle is also the co-founder and president of The Center for Faith, Sexuality & Gender and a New York Times bestselling author, biblical scholar, and speaker.
The Center describes itself as “a collective of churched and de-churched Christian contrarians who resist the echo chamber, love Jesus, are addicted to grace, and seek to live authentically and counterculturally as exiles in Babylon.”
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Perry once struggled with same-sex attraction, and she shares her story in her book “Gay Girl, Good God: The Story of Who I was, and Who God Has Always Been.” God broke into her life at the age of nineteen and “turned her life towards Him in repentance and faith,” Perry says in her testimony.
During a question and answer session at the “Exiles in Babylon” conference, Sprinkle asked Perry if all sexual orientations were created by God.
“First off, we are image bearers. We’re made in the image of God, which also makes us very complex and complicated,” she said
Perry continued her answer by telling Sprinkle, “We’re born with feelings. We’re born with affections. We’re born with desires. And then, because we are born after Adam, I believe that it orientates us towards sinfulness—if we want to talk about any orientation, I think it would be the orientation towards wickedness and how that kind of colors the way we feel.”
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“As far as orientation—I don’t like the idea of orientation because it’s so new,” Perry said. The idea was created in the 1800’s she explained, adding, “I don’t like how it frames our personhood, where like you are gay and you are straight instead of you being human with a variety of different ways to feel.”
“That would be my argument,” Perry said. “That we’re born in the image of God made for Him, from Him, but because of sin our affections are affected. And therefore we need to be born again so that we are empowered to always choose God despite how we feel.”
