LGBTQ activists have appropriated the animal kingdom for their cause.
During the month of June, NBCUniversal’s streaming outlet Peacock TV is airing a documentary called “Queer Planet” to showcase “gay, lesbian, and transgender animals.” The “documentary” claims to focus on “LGBTQI+ tolerance” in the animal kingdom.
According to the trailer, the program investigates the sexuality of “gay penguins, bisexual lions [and] sex-changing clown fish.” The “experts” on the promo gush that “this has always been a queer planet,” implying that the animal kingdom is joyfully bubbling with sexual experimentation and that many species happily participate in multiple sexual relationships.
The narrator explains, “The idea of having two fixed sexes is clearly out of style” and that when it comes to amoral sexual behavior, “it’s only in humans that we have had such a stigma about it.”
What’s the problem?
The program echoes a continuing claim by homosexual activists that gay behavior in the animal kingdom is evidence that such behavior is normative and moral, and so humans should embrace it as well. But even the most ardent activists should see the problem here.
When human beings impose gender ideologies on nature, they end up being wrong about both human beings and nature. The “documentary” elevates animals to more than they are and reduces humans to less than they are.
And you don’t have to be a Christian to see it. One secular critic warned of the reductionistic nature of the program. The documentary “anthropomorphizes animals,” trying to make them more like humans than they actually are. In doing so, the documentary reduces human beings to no more than animals, motivated to act by their sexuality.
We’ll come back to that. But first, are animals gay?
Why is Fido so frisky?
If you have a male pet, especially a dog, you’ve no doubt cringed and maybe blushed a bit when your Fido becomes way too friendly with the neighbor’s male canine.
What’s up with that? Is your Fido gay or bisexual? Transgender and headed toward self-discovery? Nope. He’s just a dog.
Male animals frequently dominate other male animals with sexual aggression. When people do it, it’s criminal. But when animals do it, it’s a common act in our fallen creation.
What about gay penguins?
Now, in fairness, the “documentary” relies on previous work which purportedly claims that our “heteronormative” scientific establishment has covered up the homosexuality of the animal kingdom. For example, LGBTQ activists argue that evidence of “gay penguins” has been recorded since the turn of the 20th century.
They claim that scientists buried such findings because it didn’t fit the narrative of heteronormative biology.
Activists point to zoos that have paired male penguins as proof. These pairs, you’ll hear, even nurtured eggs until they hatched. Left-wing publications and journalists, from the Washington Post to the New York Times, embrace these examples and promote them as indisputable proof. Ah ha! Penguins are gay!
However, they quietly ignore what transpired after these pairings. Penguins are highly social animals. The truth is, the guys were just lonely, and they would rather pair with another male than be alone. Furthermore, the zoos usually withheld a female to demonstrate that the males would pair together. But once a female is reintroduced, one of the males bonds with her.
Does that make him bisexual? Nope. It just makes him a penguin.
What does the Bible say?
A biblical worldview gives us a balanced, healthy, and realistic perspective on both human beings and the animal kingdom. And, as with everything in the Bible, it starts with creation.
The Genesis creation account rises upward, from formation to vegetation to biological creatures, with the early phases of creation preparing for the conclusion.
God’s act of creation is like a symphony, finally culminating in the crescendo of his created order—human beings. Far from crafting a creation to emphasize the sameness of people and animals, God’s act of creation intentionally shows how human beings are different from their animal counterparts.
Alike and yet not alike at all
We are exactly like the animals in some respects. We are not gods. We are created beings. Our material nature is biological. We live, we suffer, we die. We think, we plan, we act. We are conscious, and we have certain instincts that help us live, thrive, and survive.
So, in some ways, we are like animals. But we don’t define humanity by our similarities with the animal kingdom. We define humanity by the ways we differ from the animal kingdom.
- Unlike the animals, we are created in the image of God (Gen. 1:27).
This is our primary distinction. God created human beings in His image, with attributes that we share with Him, such as self-awareness, free will, rationality, morality, language, and personality.
- Unlike the animals, we are stewards of God’s creation (Gen. 1:26-30)
We are responsible to be stewards of the Creator’s world. He has entrusted it to us in His absence, and how we care for the world should reflect His priorities and His instructions. That means we oversee the animal kingdom as well.
- Unlike the animals, we are responsible for the condition of creation (Gen. 3:17).
Our purpose in creation brings consequences, and so does our sin. Creation itself is fallen, struck by the impact of human sin on the world we inhabit.
And our salvation includes the restoration of the created order. Our redemption brings redemption to the world that we inhabit and manage for the Creator (Rom. 8:22-23).
- Unlike the animals, we are motivated by our choices, not by our impulses (1 Thess. 4:3-5).
We are more than our sexuality, our biological impulses, our appetites, and our instincts. We can choose to have sex or not, to consent and to refuse. It is not a matter of impulse, instinct, or habit. Any “documentary,” textbook, or “scientific” study that reduces human beings to mammals that are solely motivated by sexual instincts diminishes human nature itself. And all people with it.
- Unlike the animals, we will be held accountable for our behavior (Rom. 14:12).
God expects people to behave ethically, morally, and justly. He gives human beings ethical and moral commands and principles that are not applicable to the animal kingdom.
When we try to justify our behavior, sexual or otherwise, by reducing human nature to nothing more than animal instincts, we overlook a crucial fact. One day God will hold us accountable for our choices, and claiming we were just behaving like the animals won’t justify our treason against His created purpose.
One more thing
The Peacock documentary doesn’t confirm homosexuality in animals. Instead, it reminds us of the inclination of human beings to justify whatever sin we desire to commit. And sadly, we seek to justify a variety of sins by denying who God created us to be. Sin always reduces us to less than His intention.
But in Christ, we become fully human.
Accept nothing less.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!
2 Cor. 5:17
Amen, Brother Bob. Unfortunately, children are some principal viewers of this program, without the benefit of counter-discussion points of view for them to consider!
So true! Thanks Mike!