I often quote Lady Gaga; “I was born this way.” I’m usually referring to total depravity: the biblical reality that all of us are born dead in sin. We’re not as sinful as we can be, but we’re sinful in every aspect of our being: totally. But that’s not what Lady Gaga is talking about, though she does invoke God: “’Cause God makes no mistakes, I’m on the right track, baby I was born this way.” She’s right about God not making mistakes, and she’s right about being born this way, but she’s wrong about being on the right track. And she’s wrong about what it means to be on the right track – essentially loving yourself for who you are. And who are you? “No matter gay, straight, or bi, Lesbian, transgender life,” says she. Lot’s of confusion.

Dr. Lisa Albright is Professor and Chief of the Division of Genetic Epidemiology in the Department of Medicine at the University of Utah School of Medicine and is a researcher in the areas, among others, of cancer and predisposition gene identification. She and her team discovered a statistical correlation between certain genetic markers and risk for breast cancer and developed the BRCA Test. A number of years ago, she told me there is no such thing as a gay gene, nor could there be. Of course, Lady Gaga and many in the gay and lesbian community believe otherwise. That’s what they mean when they say “born this way.” They can’t help being who they are. A lot of people assert that something is universal, objective truth based on how they feel or what they personally experience with no scientific or theological basis for such assertions. Such is the nature of being born totally depraved.

The reality is that slew of factors play in to why people are the way they are. On one side of my town most of the folk like country music and pick-up trucks, while those on the other side of town like BMW’s and preppy clothes. While there is no pick-up truck gene, and while some might argue they were born to love F-150s, they just can’t help themselves, it’s fairly obvious to most that one’s preference for F-150s has more to do with where you’re born than how you’re born. Katy Perry said a mouthful when she announced that she kissed a girl and liked it. As our culture drifts from God, more people are willing to try things because of that culture than persons in previous generations. Depravity produces openness to sinful ideas and behaviors, and that same depravity allows some to enjoy those behaviors once experienced. Some girls like F-150s and some girls like kissing girls. But neither were born that way in the Lady Gaga sense.

Darrow Miller notes, “Now science has said that there is no merit in the LGBT claim that sexual orientation is rooted in biology. A 143-page report published by two John Hopkins University scholars, Lawrence Meyers and Paul McHugh, asserts that ‘The belief that sexual orientation is an innate, biologically fixed human property — that people are ‘born that way’ — is not supported by scientific evidence. … Likewise, the belief that gender identity is an innate, fixed human property independent of biological sex — so that a person might be a ‘man trapped in a woman’s body’ or a ‘woman trapped in a man’s body’ — is not supported by scientific evidence.’” Further, “The largest study to look for the ‘gay gene’ drew a similar conclusion. The research, published in the August 29,, 2019 edition of the esteemed journal Science, was performed on almost half a million people. A large ‘international consortium’ cooperated for this comprehensive project. The study’s lead author, Andrea Ganna, a geneticist at the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts, concluded: “There is no ‘gay gene.’”

Aside from the science, we’re all born dead in sin, and we all have differing tendencies when it comes to sin. It’s no surprise that while some are born with tendencies toward murder or greed, others are born with tendencies toward same-sex attraction. That doesn’t mean there is a gay gene or they can’t change. And, even if there is a gay gene, God says they’re responsible to change. He provides the way of change through the gospel.

There’s a move in evangelical circles to adopt the world’s stance on these issues, at least to some degree. But we have the word of God, the ultimate authority on the subject. “9 Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, 10 nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:9-11). It’s the gospel that overcomes our sin. It’s the grace and power of God. May we love others enough to tell them the truth and point them to Christ. And remember, the real question is not whether you were born this way or that, but whether you’ve been born again (Jn. 3:1f).