We Were Born Broken
This then leads us to say something about our personhood that is not beautiful: We are broken image-bearers. There is a profound truth in the statement, “I was born this way,” but not in the sense that Lady Gaga means. In myriad ways, we were all born broken (Romans 1:29–31). We are not “on the right track, baby,” we are off the tracks.
Our sexuality is a particular witness against us that something is wrong with us (Romans 1:26–27).
But they are said. And done. We are reminded daily that all the sexual practices in times ancient are practiced today. This sexual brokenness is not beautiful. Our brokenness is not beautiful and none of our manifestos can make it so. Calling our brokenness wholeness does not make it whole. It only affirms the disintegration of our true personhood.
For our brokenness is part of the curse from the fall and fueled by our indwelling sin (Genesis 3:16–19).
We were born this way: broken. What we need is to be born again (John 3:3).
God Makes No Mistakes
This is where we have abundant hope to offer. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son” who came “into the world [not] to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:16–17). He came to save us from the way we were born and give us new life.
“God makes no mistakes,” that is true. Not one of us is a mistaken creation (Acts 17:26). But it is a mistake to infer from this, as Lady Gaga does, that all our various sexual inclinations are gifts from God. For that’s not what God says. God makes no mistakes, so we must listen to him.
That is the path of life. That’s what a Christian does: We listen to God the Father who says of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son; listen to him” (Mark 9:7).
Whoever really wants to be on the right track, whoever wants to be truly beautiful, whoever wants to be born into a “newness of life” (Romans 6:4) must believe in the God who makes no mistakes. We must trust his promises to redeem us and make us happy more than we trust the promises that our sexual preferences, orientations or imaginations make to us.
Better Than the Way We Were Born
Jesus does not promise that if we believe in him all our broken inclinations will disappear in this age (though he promises this in the age to come). But he does promise that if we will deny ourselves, pick up our cross and follow him, we will save our lives (Luke 9.23–24″>Luke 9:23–24).
This was not a popular invitation when it was offered, and it is not popular now. Lady Gaga’s manifesto is. But not all ways that seem right lead to life (Proverbs 14:12).
Though our biblical convictions might sound like unloving rejection to a loved one, they are not. What’s not love is to simply let a loved one gain the world and lose his soul (Luke 9:25). There is a better way to live than the way we were born.
