Shame is a lot like the First Law of Thermodynamics. It is neither created nor destroyed; it is simply transferred from one object to another.
Shame is one of the consequences of sin, but it is also a useful tool. It is a lot like pain when you touch a hot stove. Pain warns you that something is wrong and protects you from further harm. In the same way, when shame is attached to the right objects, it warns us away from things that destroy us.
This is one reason why we must work to put shame back on homosexual activity. In one sense, the shame can never truly be removed from it, which is why there is such an effort to parade it, celebrate it, normalize it, and demand approval of it.
Recently I saw a video where an unbelieving commentator was reacting to a New Year’s celebration. As the camera showed various couples kissing, two men appeared on the screen kissing, and the commentator immediately had a gag reflex. Nobody had to tell him what to think. The shame was already there. It was instinctive.
This is also why, whenever I speak out against homosexuality, people rush to transfer the shame elsewhere. They don’t actually answer the argument. Instead, they try to redirect the shame.
They will say, “What about pastors who have done X, Y, and Z?” As though the sins of other people somehow make homosexuality righteous.
Or they will say, “You’re just secretly gay.” I’ve never understood that argument. If I thought someone was attacking my position, I wouldn’t accuse him of secretly being on my side. But that’s not the point. The point is to move the shame off the sin and onto the person exposing it.
Another tactic is to say “why are so obsessed with this?” If I were talking about lgbt in a way that was positive, they wouldn’t say that. Instead they don’t like that I put the shame back on the right object.
That is what so much of our cultural debate has become. People are desperately trying to remove shame from things that ought to be shameful and place shame upon those who dare tell the truth.
But Christians have nothing to be ashamed of. We do not need to apologize for saying what God has said. We do not need to retreat because the crowd rages.
You cannot cancel the truth. You cannot shame the truth. And no amount of celebration can make sin righteous before God.