Suppose science proves tomorrow that same-sex attraction is written into our biology from birth. For many Christians that feels like it should settle everything. I think it settles less than we assume.

What We Do With Desires We Didn’t Choose

Why a biological cause for homosexuality wouldn’t settle what the Bible teaches

If, or more likely when, a clear biological basis for same-sex attraction was established, it would likely be viewed as a major scientific development. Theologically, though, it would not be nearly as disruptive as people often assume.

The question the church would still face is not “What causes desire?” but “What do we believe God calls us to do with our desires?”

 In this blog I suggest this could unfold within historic Christian frameworks.

A word on where I stand: I hold the conviction, shared across almost all Christian history, that sexual intimacy is God’s good gift for the marriage of one man and one woman and is not His design outside of it. This historic Christian view aligns with the mainstream traditional teaching of several other major religions.[1] What follows is written from inside that conviction, not above it.

Causation is not the same as moral permission

A biological influence would answer “why,” not “whether it should be acted on.” Christian theology has long held that many human desires have deep, even innate roots and still require discernment:

• Anger, envy, pride, fear, and lust arise spontaneously.
• Many inclinations carry strong biological or temperamental components.
• Scripture consistently evaluates actions and intentions, not merely origins.[2]

So even if same-sex attraction were shown to have a biological basis, historic Christian teaching would still hold that a desire can be deeply rooted and still not be morally normative. Albert Mohler, for one, has argued that even a clearly demonstrated biological cause would not overturn the church’s understanding of what sexuality is for.

It would reinforce a doctrine most Christians already hold

The idea that we experience desires we did not choose is not new. It is central to historic teaching about the Fall. A biological basis could actually strengthen that framework by showing that desires are not simply “chosen behaviors,” and that people experience real, persistent inclinations they did not create. Historic Christian theology has long called them “disordered,”[3] all of them, not just this one.

That recognition would likely push the church further toward humility, compassion, and realism about the difficulty of discipleship for those navigating persistent, unchosen desires. This shift from theoretical theology to practical realism is already visibly altering the landscape of modern ministry.

Pastoral tone would (and should) continue to shift

Even now, many faithful pastors and writers have moved away from assuming attraction is easily changed or promising orientation change. We can see this most clearly in believers who hold historic Christian ethics while speaking honestly about their own experience.

Wesley Hill has written extensively about navigating enduring same-sex attraction while embracing celibacy and historic teaching. Rachel Gilson tells her own story without offering it as a formula others must replicate. Preston Sprinkle has pressed churches toward conviction and compassion together, rather than treating the two as rivals.

Catholic theologian Christopher West at the Theology of the Body Institute has deeply popularized a framework showing that disordered or misdirected desires are not meant to be brutally repressed, but rather redirected toward their true, ultimate fulfillment in the divine plan.

A confirmed biological component would likely accelerate these trends toward:

• honesty (“this may not go away”)
• long-term discipleship support rather than quick fixes
• a recovery of celibate singleness as a serious vocation, not a consolation prize

4. It would challenge shallow or harmful responses

Some approaches would become even harder to defend:

• “Just pray it away” simplifications
• guaranteeing orientation change
• treating same-sex attraction as uniquely chosen or uniquely sinful

It would press churches to think more carefully about embodiment, to build deeper communities for those called to celibacy, and to stop isolating people who experience same-sex attraction.

It would also expose a quiet inconsistency in how we apply all of this. We are often quick to name this one desire while extending easy grace to the disordered desires the rest of us carry, our pride, our greed, our gluttony, our gossip, our quick tempers.[4] An unchosen desire is not a special category of failure reserved for some people. It is the common inheritance of every heart, and the grace that meets one meets them all.

It would not settle the theological debate

Even with clear biology, Christians would still disagree, because the real divide is not scientific. It is interpretive. Today that divide falls roughly into three positions:

• Affirming Christians conclude that same-sex relationships may be blessed.
• Historic, or “Side B,” Christians hold that attraction may persist while sexual expression belongs within marriage between a man and a woman.
• Older reparative models tend to minimize biology and expect complete orientation change.

A biological finding would not resolve that disagreement. It would simply make clearer what is actually being argued, which is not “Is biology involved?” but “What moral conclusions follow from it?”

What the church should do, in practical terms

Putting all of that together, a thoughtful response would likely include:

• holding convictions carefully and clearly, whatever those convictions are
• increasing compassion for people carrying unchosen, persistent desires
• refusing to overpromise change
• building robust community: friendship, belonging, spiritual family
• teaching a fuller theology of the body and of desire
• refusing to reduce any person to a single category of struggle

Bottom line

A biological explanation would change the conversation, but not the core theological task.

It is worth remembering that this is not an abstraction. Across the church there are people who love the Lord deeply, who are years or even decades into committed same-sex relationships, and who ask sincere, searching questions about how to follow God faithfully. Historic conviction does not hand us a tidy formula to recite to them. What it asks of us is harder, and better: honesty, humility, and the willingness to keep walking alongside.

The church has always had to help people follow Christ with desires they did not choose and cannot easily change.

That would not be new. It would just be clearer.

[1] This historic Christian view aligns with the mainstream traditional teaching of several other major faiths. Orthodox Judaism, traditional Islamic law, the Sikh code of conduct (Rahit Maryada), and the classical Hindu dharma tradition have each generally regarded marriage between a man and a woman as the proper context for sexual intimacy.

[2] Scripture repeatedly weighs the inner life alongside the deed. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus traces judgment inward to anger and lust while still holding both answerable (Matthew 5:21-28).

[3] The term “disordered” reflects the classic Christian account of desire, above all Augustine’s teaching on rightly and wrongly ordered loves. That desire itself, and not only action, can be disordered also runs through Scripture, notably James 1:14-15 and Romans 7:15-20.

[4] Scripture gathers these ordinary sins together as the common works of the flesh (Galatians 5:19-21, Colossians 3:5-8)

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