Another argument against homosexuality is the "teleological argument" or the argument from nature. It is alleged that since God initially made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve, that God's only intent for human marriage relationships/sexuality was heterosexual. However, this is an assumption based on silence, since the language used to describe marriage/sex as male and female can be archetypal in nature, and is not necessarily a precise definition. For example, Scripture clearly mentions breaking of bread and wine for the communion ritual. However, modern churches take this as an archetype and represent this symbol in different ways (wafers, grape juice, etc). Similarly, there is no reason to think that the singular representation of male-female unions is similarly not archetypal, as will be expounded more below (see also the discussion in Addendum 1: Marriage). 

 One of the key issues in the discussion of sex and marriage is the question of what are the primary components of the marriage relationship. Traditionally, procreation has been one of the most important aspects of marriage/sex. It is my contention that procreation is only a minor component of the marriage relationship, and that much more important are the components of intimacy, security, exclusivity, fidelity, mutual commitment and faithfulness. Moreover, even if procreation is at some level in integral component of the intention for the marriage relationship, that metaphor for that function can be satisfied by other ways other than just biological reproduction, i.e., community service, foster parenting/adoption, etc. 

 There are several ways that appropriate sexual behavior is expressed in Scripture, other than mere procreation. Take Song of Solomon, for example. The whole book is (from a literalist perspective), a celebration of the love between a man and a woman, with a strong emphasis on sexuality. This emphasis on sexuality is not depicted as a means to produce offspring, but as a means to solidify the couple's love for each other. The sexuality described in this book is a very sensuous type of behavior, filled with passion and desire for the other person, not as a means for having children. Even in the first few verses of the book we see a celebration of sex as an apparent end to itself, or as a means to deepened intimacy : 

Song of Solomon 1:2-4 (NIV)  2 Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth-- for your love is more delightful than wine. 3 Pleasing is the fragrance of your perfumes; your name is like perfume poured out. No wonder the maidens love you! 4 Take me away with you--let us hurry! Let the king bring me into his chambers. We rejoice and delight in you; we will praise your love more than wine. How right they are to adore you!

In the Prophets we see an aspect of marriage in the metaphors that God uses to express His anger at His people. In the book of Hosea, Hosea is commanded to marry a prostitute to symbolize through his marriage the adulterous relationship Israel has shown to God. Similarly, many times in Jeremiah we see God calling Israel an adulterer for forsaking God for idols. 

 

Hosea 3:1 (NIV)  The LORD said to me, "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes."   Jeremiah 3:8 (NIV)   I gave faithless Israel her certificate of divorce and sent her away because of all her adulteries. Yet I saw that her unfaithful sister Judah had no fear; she also went out and committed adultery.

And again, we see in Jeremiah the significance of devotion in the marriage relationship: 

 

Jeremiah 2:2 (NIV)  "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: "`I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown.

Creation, Procreation and Marriage

This aspect of human nature, to "Be fruitful and increase in number," is related to humanity as creatures, not humanity as image of God. There are two crucial points to understand in this regards. First, the contention that God's primary intention for marriage was procreation is not supportable from Scripture. Second, while a case can be made from the Old Testament that marriage and procreation was an assumed part of adult relationships, that assumption is overturned in the New Testament. Regarding the first allegation, that God's intention for human marriage relationships was primarily procreation, the only passages that are capable of sustaining such a belief is the Gen 1:28 verse, be fruitful and multiply. However, given that this command is also spoken to the animals, it does little to support the relationship of humans to God. This description of sexuality colors it with a very primal feel, one that is instinctual in all animals and humans, and is one thing that strongly relates humans to the rest of creation: our procreative capacities, and our gender separation. However, it is by no means a reflection of our relationship to God. God is not gender separated. He is neither male nor female. While we have many texts in which God describes Himself as He, and Father, and as masculine, one can also not deny the aspect of the divine feminine, such as in Proverbs 8, where Wisdom is personified as a woman, and in texts where God is nurturer and pro-creator (as in Genesis 1-2). Human male and femaleness does not personify Imago Dei, but rather our likeness to creation. Rather, what personifies Imago Dei is, our capacity to relate to one another, and to God, just as God, in His Divine Trinity, is self-relational, and desires relationship with us. Just as God is faithful and loving to us, human Imago Dei is characterized by our capacity to be faithful and loving back to God, as well as faithful and loving to other people. There is never a time when God calls Israel an adulterer for not producing offspring. Rather, Israel is called an adulterer for breaking relationship with God, and joining herself to other gods/nations. Neither is there a time when God condones or encourages a man to divorce his wife for not producing offspring--only for adultery. What we see of the marriage/sex relationship when God first created it in Genesis 2:23-24(NIV) is the statement that "this is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh . . . a man will leave his mother and father and be united to his wife and they will become one flesh." What we see as the definition of the relationship is one of joining two people together, with no rationale for procreation. Again, in Gen 2:18 (NIV) we read about God's intention for creating Eve for Adam: "The LORD God said, 'It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.' " God doesn't say, "I will make the man a person with whom to make children." One cannot deny the reproductive capacities that God did inherently make in the female, and my intent is not to dismiss the reproductive aspect of human nature. However, God's verbal description of the marriage relationship is of someone to alleviate Adam's alone-ness, not as somebody with whom to make babies. The primacy of the initial act of creating a partner for Adam was to produce relationship. 

One cannot deny that procreation is inherent in the nature of the male-female sexual relationship. However, the very nature of the marriage relationship seems to allow for an alternative for procreation, while the primary characteristics of marriage have no counterparts. For example, a couple that cannot produce children are capable of multiple ways of pro-creating. By engaging in community service, parenting neighborhood children when the needs arise, even adopting children, the couple can produce life from their marriage that becomes the metaphor for the life produced by biological reproduction. While they may have no children of their own, their capacity to mother/father can be expressed in many other ways than giving birth and raising their own biological offspring as they relate to, and nurture other people in their community. On the other hand, the characteristics of marriage that we actually see as foundational have no similar parallels. For example fidelity. If one fails to be capable of fidelity within the marriage, one has no "alternatives." One is either faithful or one isn't. The characteristic of love, while it can be expressed in many ways, cannot be substituted. There is no "proximate expression" (Matzko) of the primary characteristics of marriage as there is the secondary characteristic of procreation. 

 One might venture to ask why God created procreation at all if it such an insignificant part of God's intention for the marriage relationship. The answer, as we all know, is to propagate the species. For the solution to the practical problem of where to get more people (just as He did for the animals), God created the capacity for the species to self-propagate. However, the question of whether or not the initial creation of male-female was for the purpose of demonstrating the only normative unions between humans, or whether it was simply a utilitarian act to have a method of producing the human race seems somewhat self-evident. On one hand, the latter proposal is clearly true: God did create them male and female to fill the earth. If God had made Adam and Steve rather than Adam and Eve, then there would be no human race, because biological reproduction would have been impossible. However, the first proposal may or may not be true--whether the male-female sexual union is the only sexual union intended by God is a question that we cannot answer definitively. One clue is that while we have been given the capacity for self-propagation, this by no means obligates every creature to self-propagate. If it did, then Paul would be sinning in 1 Cor 7:1 when he encourages us not to marry (therefore denying us the capacity to propagate the species). Somewhere between Genesis 1-2, when God commands Adam and Eve to be fruitful and fill the earth, and 1 Corinthians 7:1 where Paul discourages marriage, either God changed His mind about wanting more humans wandering around on the earth, or the Genesis 1-2 passage has been mis-applied when it is used to support the idea that humans "should" have children, and that God's intention for marriage is for producing children. 

This leads us to our second point, that while traditional theology has assumed that marrying and having children is the obvious order of nature, this theology is mistaken. While in the Old Testament, we see little discussion of singleness (other than the mention of eunuchs, like Daniel and his cohorts), we have singleness mentioned and encouraged several times in the New Testament. So while in the Old Testament marriage and procreation may or may not be normative and encouraged, they are certainly neither normative, nor encouraged in the New Testament. 
 

Matthew 19:10-12 (NIV)  10 The disciples said to him, "If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry." 11 Jesus replied, "Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. 12 For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it."   1 Corinthians 7:1-9 (NIV)  1 Now for the matters you wrote about: It is good for a man not to marry. 2 But since there is so much immorality, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. 3 The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. 4 The wife's body does not belong to her alone but also to her husband. In the same way, the husband's body does not belong to him alone but also to his wife. 5 Do not deprive each other except by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. 6 I say this as a concession, not as a command. 7 I wish that all men were as I am. But each man has his own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that. 8 Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. 9 But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

Here we see both Jesus and Paul discouraging marriage. Paul goes on to express his acceptance of marriage, but not joyfully--he merely tolerates it, as Moses merely tolerated divorce in the Old Testament. Moreover, in Paul's acceptance of marriage, we see absolutely no mention of the procreative aspect of marriage. We see clearly that Paul views marriage as a means for sexual release. As the chapter progresses, as well as in Colossians 3 and Ephesians 5 we see other aspects of Paul's view of marriage (concern, respect, love, etc), but in these immediate verses we see primarily Paul's acceptance that marriage is a means to an end: "it is better to marry than to burn with passion." All of Paul's language in this passage points to a very physical, sexual nature of the marriage relationship: the reciprocal fulfilling of "marital duties" by each spouse (v. 3), which is clarified in the following verses, discussing that a wife's body is her husband's, and vice-versa, and that they should not deprive each other other than briefly for prayer. There is no hint that Paul's view of marriage is one of producing children. One certainly cannot presume that Paul condemned procreation, but he apparently didn't believe that humans still retain the duty to "be fruitful and fill the earth," otherwise he could not have discouraged marriage. What Paul does command within the marriage relationship is love (Eph 5:28 and Col 3:19), and similarly Peter commands love and respect within the marriage (1 Peter 3:7). 

Summary of the Teleological Argument