Gay Christians

Great Debates
1

I don’t see why homosexuality is considered so wrong by such huge chunks of the church when there’s less scriptural basis for this than for allowing divorce - or at least, it’s mentioned less.
I don’t want to sound biased, because I certainly am not. As far as I’m concerned my whole life goes under God, whether I understand what He says or not. But seriously, many people whose beliefs and hearts I respect do not accept the homosexual lifestyle as valid, and I want to know why. I just want to know what God thinks about it - and what you think. It’s really help me if we could all set aside personal interests, too. What are the arguments, people?

2

There are several answers here, and it would depend on how you adjudge things:

  1. Many Christians are, like everyone else, inclined to be judgmental, and fearful and condemnatory of anyone who is not just like them. Unfortunate, and the best of them recognize this and fight it in themselves. But it is the case in the real world.

  2. Since the media focus on the controversial and unusual, what one sees is not the committed couple that has been together 30 years and successfully raised children, but the guy dancing down Fifth Avenue in a Pride Parade dressed in a leather thong, glitter across his otherwise-nude body, with wraparound shades with ostrich plumes attached. And Joe Familyman is, understandably, shocked by this. But which is more real: “My So-Called Life” or “Queer as Folk”? Or does the question admit of an answer?

  3. Most Christians put a lot of store in the Bible. And there are pronouncements apparently condemniing gay sex in Leviticus, First Corinthians, and by implication in Romans and Jude. Precisely how to read these is a question for the individual to make his own decision on.

  4. In their desire for doctrinal orthodoxy, most Christians fail to pay close enough attention to the core message that Jesus emphasized, of total commitment and radical love of God and showing this through love of one’s fellow man, avoiding legalism and judgmentalism in favor of compassion. (This is of course IMHO – I know somebody will be along to post What God Said And How We Must Behave To Be Saved very shortly.)

I hope the above is helpful.

There are at least two gay Christians on this board. Their reconciliation of their orientation and their faith should be much more valuable than my opinions.

BTW – “homosexual lifestyle” is in itself offensive to most gay people – because there is no more one single homosexual lifestyle than there is one single heterosexual one. The singles bar crowd and the faithful couple, the celibate single person, and all the rest of the possible descriptions of people flow across the gay/straight divide.

3

Thanks Polycarp, and thanks for the btw: the last thing I want to do is offend good people without meaning to.

4

Ross,

Check out these two threads:

Refuting Scripture and Why is Homosexuality Considered a Sin

Also check out Esprix’s Ask the Gay Guy Threads. Good reading.

5

Many thanks, Freyr.

Esprix

6

Emphasis mine.

If all Christians did follow Christ’s teachings the same way you could refer to the Christian church but that’s not the case. We don’t all agree on what parts of the bible or hiss lessons were most important.

Many demominations like the Evangelical Luteran Church of Americal (ELCA) do not shun people based on orientation. I’m proud to be part of a congregation that is out front on the issue of welcoming and affirming everyone who comes regardless of sexual orientation, marital status, etc. This is important to me because of the pain caused to my family by a certain fundimentalist southern denimination (that starts with a “B”) when my brother came out as a teenager.

7

That’s why I referred to CHUNKS of “the church” rather than just “the church”. That was my intention, anyway. I’m assuming people who may be getting one bit of doctrine wrong might yet be considered part of Christ’s body. Otherwise we’re all in for the long drop.