Born That Way

There is quite a discussion going on in the Christian community (and society in general) about a certain type of lifestyle. Some people feel this lifestyle should not be condoned; it shouldn’t be accepted or recognized. They feel that these people certainly shouldn’t have certain jobs like schoolteachers where, by accepting this behavior, we legitimize it. On the other hand, a large segment of society says it’s none of our business what these people do, we should at the very least leave them alone, and many think these people deserve special protection to make sure they aren’t discriminated against.

One argument that the latter group often uses is that these people did not choose to be how they are, but rather that they were “born that way.” And if that is the case, society has no business judging their behavior, restricting their behavior, and by extension, this behavior should certainly not be challenged in any way by legal means. Maybe you are one of the people who feel that if people are “born that way” you should just look the other way and let them live like they want to live.

Now, of course, the people that I am talking about are serial killers like John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer. There is a lot of evidence to support the contention that psychopaths and sociopaths are not products of their environment, but products of their genetics – they were “born that way.” Serial killers often show similar anti-social and violent behavior even at a very young age so these qualities may be innate instead of learned.

But if you believe in “born that way, so look the other way,” then why wouldn’t you treat serial killers the same way you want to treat a certain other group of people? If this is what you really believe, then you would never judge serial killers, you wouldn’t try to restrict their behavior, and you certainly wouldn’t arrest them for what was basically “in their genes.” Why not have a serial killer as an elementary school teacher and when he kills and eats some of the students, you can say, “Oh well, he was born that way. There’s really nothing we can do about it.” I know that such an idea is ridiculous and absurd. But, hey, I’m not the one who started the “born that way” movement.

I can give you another example. I know, from direct observation as well as personal experience, that most teenagers have what could be described as “raging hormones.” Based on the frequency of this condition, we might assume that we were “born that way.” But most people, and certainly most Christians, don’t subscribe to the notion that teenagers should have sex with whoever they want, whenever they want, and as often as they want. As Christians, we have this sinful nature (we are “born that way”), but our response should be to turn away from sin, not to embrace it. It doesn’t matter if it’s a sin that we learned how to do or if we are programmed that way, part of being a Christian is trying not to sin, no matter what is causing you to want to do it.

The point of this exercise is to point out that there are right and wrong answers to these questions. They are found in the Bible – in the Word of God. Is it OK to kill people if you were born as a sociopath? The Bible says that it isn’t ok to do this – it doesn’t make an exception for your genetic composition. Maybe you think that lying is OK if it’s just for convenience and everything works out in the end. The Bible disagrees with that. It will be more difficult to discern the answers to some questions than others, but there is an answer. And if you are a Christian (and I would hope that most reasonable people would fit here too), being “born that way” is not an answer or an excuse that will hold up to even the slightest scrutiny.