SpiralStairs wrote:
Mini Ditka wrote:
Just because Jesus didn't mention homosexuality in the Bible doesn't mean that the other places where the Bible specifically forbids that behavior are null and void. He did say that if you look lustfully at a woman you commit adultery in your heart. The same could be said for *** after a man. The Old Testament specifically forbids homosexually and the Apostle Paul says that homosexuals will not inherit the kingdom of heaven.
Here's a question that never gets answered. For all the people that point to the Old Testament to condemn gays why do they conveniently ignore all that
other stuff that's forbidden and allowed? Why is gayness the main sticking point? Why aren't more people *** that people wear clothing with mixed fibers, eat shellfish, and are no longer legally allowed to own slaves? Why does it always come back to the gays?
The Old Testament Law was given to show people that they are sinful and in need of Jesus.
Romans 3:20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.
Christians are not under the Jewish Law. They are justified by faith in the sacrifice of Jesus. That is why Christians do not have to be circumcised or abstain from eating certain types of food or even observe the Sabbath on Saturday.
Sex outside of marriage is idolatry according to the Bible. In fact for the Israelites much of their worship of foreign gods involved sex with male and female temple prostitutes. Some of these false religions also practiced child sacrifice.
Galatians 5:16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
19 The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; 20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions 21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Being justified by faith and not observing the Jewish Law does not mean that everything that the Law forbid is now okay. It means living a life according to the Spirit and not according to the flesh. It means instead of stoning the gay man or adulterous man or woman, God's grace is extended to them if they are willing to repent.
A lot of people say, "Well just have to love gay people" and their definition of love is just accepting all these positions as true. But do you really love someone if you are not honest with them? The Bible calls homosexuality sin and says that people who do that will not be in heaven if they don't repent. It says the same thing for everyone who is sexually immoral (i.e. going to strip clubs, hiring hookers, cheating on your wife, looking at porn, etc.).
I think what needs to be said is that people like Boers and Bernstein paint with a large broad brush. Certainly there are people who hate homosexuals and wish they would all just die or disappear. But those people don't speak for all Christians in the same way that all terrorists don't speak for all Muslims.
For Catholics and other Christians, really the hope is that they would be set free from the bondage of sexual sin just like everyone who is bondage to other sins. But because a pastor or any other Christian dares to say that behavior is against his religion his character must be assassinated. The fact is that people like Boers and Bernstein think its their job to mock, call names or demean people who disagree with their position. Long gone is the concept of respectfully disagreeing.