Pray for Prince George to marry a man? Two thoughts

Reverend Kelvin Holdsworth, a minister in the Scottish Episcopal Church, is in the news after arguing that Christians who want to see the Church of England embrace a more open view toward the LGBT community should pray that Prince George, England’s four-year-old future king, grows up to marry a man. The post originally ran in January of this year but regained notice following the engagement of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle. It has since been deleted, but that hasn’t stopped news sources such as Time and The Guardian from offering their two cents.

While the statement was far from Holdsworth’s only suggestion, it has generated the most headlines. And it’s not difficult to understand why. After all, very few on either side of the LGBT debate support the notion of using prayer to try and sway the sexuality of a four-year-old. While the reasons behind that belief may differ, a bit of common ground is seldom a bad thing.

And while I imagine that most of us stand in opposition to Holdsworth’s petition to prayer, it’s worthy of closer examination as it reveals two important insights on the host of issues the reverend attempts to address.

What determines our beliefs?

First, if Holdsworth is right and a gay king would truly change the beliefs of some Christians on the sinfulness of living out a homosexual lifestyle, then it says more about us than the teachings of Scripture. As Tim Keller writes, “When I see people discarding their older beliefs that homosexuality is sinful after engaging with loving, wise, gay people, I’m inclined to agree that those earlier views were likely defective. In fact, they must have been essentially a form of bigotry.” The reason why, as Keller then explains, lies in the fact that our personal experiences do not change the truth of Scripture (Romans 1, 1 Corinthians 6, 1 Timothy 1).

If our views on homosexuality shift after meeting someone living out the LGBT lifestyle, then they were never really based on the…