Denny Burk on Lady Gaga's "Born This Way"

Denny Burk has an article on the Grammy's ("Grammy Malaise").  The whole thing is worth reading.  Below is an excerpt that I think is very helpful in thinking about Lady Gaga's new song "Born This Way."  The song attempts to put the arguments being put forward for homosexuality into pop form.  In other words, these are common beliefs in our culture, and you will probably hear them more often as they are spread via pop music.  We would do well to pay attention and be ready with responses that are biblical and full of mercy.  Perhaps a good response is to pray for Lady Gaga.  

Ironically, this song and Lady Gaga’s performance was perhaps the program’s best attempt at profundity. “Born This Way” is making a theological point. It contends that sexual orientation is an innate and immutable quality of the human condition—a trait that we are “born” with. Whether you are gay, straight, or whatever, God made you this way, and for that reason you should embrace it. Or as Gaga herself puts it, “I’m beautiful in my way ’cause God makes no mistakes. I’m on the right track baby. I was born this way.”

The message of the song drinks deeply of the “is-ought” fallacy—the idea that we can determine what ought to be by observing what is. The song’s message also flies in the face of the Bible’s depiction of a fallen creation. It is true that God created human beings in His own image and that as a result every single human has intrinsic value and worth (Genesis 1:26-27). It is not true, however, that God endorses every thought and intention of the human heart. We live in a Genesis 3 world in which humanity and the cosmos are fallen and compromised by sin. That means that some of our desires are misdirected—even some of the ones that we are born with. That we desire sin from birth is not a cause for celebratory anthems but an indication of just how desperate the human condition really is (Psalm 51:5; 58:3; Jeremiah 17:9).