By Paul Sullins

Editor’s Note: Dr. Paul Sullins considers recent research by a team of MIT and Harvard scientists who published a landmark study of the genetic basis for sexual orientation in the journal Science. Sulllin’s writes, “The logic of these two results—low heritability and high polygenicity—clearly demonstrate that the dominant cultural narrative about sexual orientation—which sees homosexual persons as a distinctly bounded biological class of people who were “born that way”—simply cannot be true.” This report corresponds to what the Bible states as normative for the human heart and depravity. Let me suggest a few key biblical principles regarding the heart and then will provide you his article.

  1. The heart is active. Essentially, the biblical category for the human heart describes an active versus a passive heart. This simply means that a person’s choices reflect what the heart actively pursues or desires (Matt 12:34; Luke 6:45). Although many things influence the heart (i.e., culture, biology, history, et.al.), one chooses to do what is consistent with what one desires, worships, or treasures. The heart does not passively respond to these influences; instead, the heart actively chooses in light of one’s affections and desires. Therefore, the influences on the human heart do not determine what a person does. What one treasures most determines what one does, or, in other words, what one worships determines what one does.
  2. Whatever you desire the most functionally rules the heart. Paul Tripp calls this the “Principle of Inescapable Influence” (cf., see Ezek 14:1-8 as it relates to idolatry). The principle simply states that whatever a person wants the most becomes the driving force for behavior. In a limited sense, you might compare it to a pair of glasses. If your glasses are amber colored, then everything you see reflects the influence of the amber lens. In a similar way, whatever a person wants or desires influences how that individual behaves or for what that individual lives.
  3. Therefore, the controlling factor in a person’s choices is located in the heart. Whatever a person wants, loves, or treasures – whatever that is – determines what a person does.
  4. Prior to a relationship with Christ when one becomes new (2 Cor 5:17), the heart is dominated by the desires of the flesh. However as a follower of Jesus Christ, the heart can choose, can treasure, can desire, can love Jesus more than anything else, since the new heart is no longer a slave to the flesh (Eph 2:1-3, 8-10; 4:17-24). As a new person in Christ, the Holy Spirit provides the individual the ability to say “no” to the desires of the flesh and “yes” to the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:13-24).
  5. Related to homosexuality or same-sex desire, this desire is influenced by many aspects of living (i.e., culture, biology, experience, spiritual condition, et.al.). The desire for a homosexual relationship reflects how all these influences intermingle in the heart and are not determined by biology alone.
  6. In the case of this study, we absolutely expect biology to exert some influence on what a person wants, but ultimately, whatever rules the heart will determine one’s behavior. Therefore, this new study seemingly agrees with the biblical conclusion that many different factors influence one’s choice for same-sex attraction; however, biology alone does not determine homosexuality. In other words, a person is no more biologically bound to be homosexual as they are bound to any other desire or work of the flesh.

“Born That Way” No More: The New Science of Sexual Orientation

A new study adds to a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the dominant narrative about sexual orientation—that it is genetically determined—simply cannot be true. Instead, the science shows that a person’s sexual orientation and choice of partners depends heavily on the development and expression of personal autonomy regarding one’s own sexual possibilities. People with same-sex attractions should be legally and culturally free not to identify with or act on them.

Late last month, a team of MIT and Harvard scientists published a landmark study of the genetic basis for sexual orientation in the journal Science. The study, which was based on an examination of the genetic material of almost half a million individuals, definitively refutes the idea that being gay is an innate condition that is controlled or largely compelled by one’s genetic makeup.

The study contained two key findings. First, it found that the effect of the genes we inherit from our parents (known as “heritability”) on same-sex orientation was very weak, at only .32 on a scale from 0 (none) to 1 (total) heritability. This means that a person’s developmental environment—which includes diet, family, friends, neighborhood, religion, and a host of other life conditions—is twice as influential on the probability of developing same-sex behavior or orientation as a person’s genes are.

Second, rebutting decades of widespread belief, the study established that “there is certainly no single genetic determinant (sometimes referred to as the ‘gay gene’ in the media)” that causes same-sex sexual behavior. On the contrary, “the variants involved are numerous and spread across the genome.” Each of these genetic variants increases a person’s propensity for same-sex behavior by an infinitesimally small amount. In scientific terms, same-sex orientation and behavior are highly polygenetic.

The logic of these two results—low heritability and high polygenicity—clearly demonstrate that the dominant cultural narrative about sexual orientation—which sees homosexual persons as a distinctly bounded biological class of people who were “born that way”—simply cannot be true.

Low heritability, a consistent finding of prior genetic studies, has always suggested that determinism may not be true. But high polygenicity does much more: it affirmatively precludes the possibility of determinism. A genetic arrangement based on dozens of markers across the genome means that virtually all human beings have this arrangement, or large portions of it. In other words, gay people have a perfectly normal human genotype; they are not genetically distinct from all other human beings in any meaningful sense. Consequently, the development of sexual orientation and choice of partners cannot consist primarily in the elaboration of some controlling genetic disposition but, to a much greater degree, consist instead in the development and expression of personal autonomy regarding one’s own sexual possibilities.

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Thank you to the Aquilla Report for making me aware of this new research.

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