Just my opinion, it won't change anyones mind; however, during WWII queers were given section 8's, unfit for duty. People can use all the eloquent arguments, cherry pick "facts" to arrive at preconceived conclusions, substantiate their lifestyle so it is "impossible" to disagree with their flawless logic.
Either homosexuality is right or wrong, either God (Jesus Christ) exists or does not. There are absolutes in life. Life and death, no middle ground, right?
I think homosexuality is wrong, a sin, (yes, I am a sinner too), queer marriage is wrong as is adoption. That's it. I could give you my reasons, but would they change your mind or do you really care? I think not.
There are degrees of sin as far as I understand it, just as crimes in our world have dgrees so do sins in the world of God. All sin denies us entry to Heaven, but I think that Gods judgement will be based on the severeity of our sins, those who are not saved by the Sacrfice of Jesus Christ.
To me it is just plain common sense that being homosexual is wrong. Sadly there is a severe shortage of common sense. It does state that in the "last days" wrong will be called right and right called wrong; look around you it is happening right now. Of course I must be wrong! [/b]

__________________
Christian, moderate conservative, willing to consider other points of view and compromise when appropriate.

I've gotta tell you... the most important thing you said in this entire spiel is:

BINGO!

Man, if you caught it before you finished writing, you could have prevented yourself from hitting the "Submit" button. What happened??

__________________
-----------------------------------------------
Blind acceptance is a dangerous practice.

rwking, you are right. I should have stopped at the "common sense part" and saved my fingers from wasted effort. Good to see you've some common sense too. Take care!

__________________
Christian, moderate conservative, willing to consider other points of view and compromise when appropriate.

This is a largely opinionated sentence that refers to Judgment Day from the Bible. The Bible is clear that there will be a Judgment Day, and Revelations does an exciting job of describing what events will take place, however it fails to mention just exactly "how" God will judge us. It also fails to address which sins are worse than others.

This is where common sense kicks in, friend. The Decalogue is considered to be "the list" to live by. They were supposedly written by God himself, then given to Moses. Wouldn't you presume that breaking any of these 10 laws would be "more severe" than homosexuality since they are the only part of the Bible that was transcribed directly from "God's handwriting?" What makes you assume that homosexuality is any more severe than breaking one of the Commandments? That's a pretty big assumption. And if it's so bad, then why isn't it one of the Commandments?

Yet another example of people allowing their emotions to delude their interpretation of the Bible....

If you equate being gay to murder, theft, and infidelity, then I propose your "sin severity" scale is a little off-kilter.

__________________
-----------------------------------------------
Blind acceptance is a dangerous practice.

X, thou shalt not covet thy neighbors manservant. I suppose that could be understood to deal with this issue although it is a stretch. Bottom line is that God created man and woman for a reason, you think? God also gave instructions that laying with a man as a man lays with a woman is an abomination, this applies to animals and women on women as well.
New Testement, Old Testement, all inspired by God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit; One God. Do you believe that Jesus (God) accepts homosexuality as a wonderful creation and act that he want His creation to do?
Look in Genesis, I recall that God mentions to mankind, be fruitful and multiply. Now we both know that lesbians and homosexuals cannot do this, so I content that being queer, homosexual, whatever you want to call it is wrong.
As far as if sins have degrees, I do not know for certain; however it does seem to make sense, does it not. Say, theft compared to murder.

__________________
Christian, moderate conservative, willing to consider other points of view and compromise when appropriate.

I don't recall this commandment from my Bible, could you give a source?

God didn't create JUST men and women. Now that we know that there are 9 different chromosome patterns found in human beings (not just the XX and XY that we learned about in school) and now that science has discovered how many overlaps there are between men and women they can no longer assign gender, instead they are looking at 8 markers and then assigning a "probabilility" of gender.

Actually, those prohibitions were not put in there by God, they were taken from earlier religious and secular works like the Code of Hammurabi.
There isn't really any evidence to suggest that any supernatural power was involved in the compiling of the Bible. All of the stories and ideas in it are easily found in much earlier works and myths. As far as sex goes, since more than 1500 species of animals also include homosexual members it would seem reasonable that it is a naturally occuring variation in higher animals. There is no "sin" involved in it now anymore than there was "sin" involved in interracial marriage when that was a big no-no with Christians during the first 70 years of the last century. Before that Chistians claimed that oral sex was a sin, masturbation was a sin, birth control was a sin, it's just whatever happens to be the popular "sin" at the time. Personally, I suspect Jesus would be a lot happier with men loving each other than killing each other.

In the days when humans were quite rare perhaps it made sense to focus on reproduction, but we have more than 6,000,000,000 people now so it's not really an issue. Part of the problem with living your life according to things that people wrote thousands of years ago is that you can't change with the times.

Check out the Law of Moses, no law is more important than another, breaking any of them is the same as breaking all of them. That's why we need to go back to stoning women who are not virgins on their marriage beds.

Whenever I read things like you have written, I want to suggest that you start reading about the history of your religion. Find out where the stories came from instead of simply accepting that the stuff you've been taught is the truth.

__________________
Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.

Bingo. Exactly. You got it! You're twisting the interpretation to be inclusive of something it was never meant to address. You're wielding it as a weapon of intolerance.

Also, you really should understand the definition of the word covet.

covet - to wish, long, or crave for (something, especially the property of another person)

This was meant to address desire of someone else's property. You are misinterpreting to try and prove your point. Your credibility is suffering.

This is a loaded question. It assumes that the person you're asking actually believes in your God, or any god for that matter. Don't ever make that assumption. You will likely make an ass of yourself.

That passage came from Leviticus, which was authored by a man. Also, Leviticus states the rules for dealing with slaves and outlaws wearing clothing that is made of blended fibers. Do you also follow these rules? If not, then you're a hypocrite. You are picking and choosing which verses to follow. Normally, that's fine, but it's not fine if you use the book to support your views, because obviously it does not support all of them. You lack logical consistency.


This statement cannot be proven. That is the problem with using the Bible as your defense.

I personally believe that if a creator made homosexuals, then there is nothing wrong with them. Otherwise, why would they have been created?

Do not even think about claiming that being gay is a choice. That is a ridiculous side that many fundamentalists take. If that is how you feel, then when did you decide to be straight?

I have no interest in looking in the Bible. I have read it before and once was enough.

What the Bible says about reproduction is moot in this debate.

As is casting judgment and not loving thy neighbor. See what I mean about picking and choosing from the Bible?

This is just your opinion, which is based on the opinions of other men. You should consider forming your own opinion. Life is much more interesting when you think for yourself.


No. It does not. In Christianity, theft and murder are both mentioned in one of the Ten Commandments. So they are both equal in severity according to the Bible. If you claim that murder comes before theft, then also realize that dishonoring your mother and father comes before murder.

__________________
-----------------------------------------------
Blind acceptance is a dangerous practice.

You are my new favorite person.

__________________
-----------------------------------------------
Blind acceptance is a dangerous practice.

I won't even bother reading your post, but if you're going to resort to name-calling homosexuals "queers" which is obviously very negative and insulting, why can't someone call you a Christer? Name-calling people is pretty ridiculous and just shows how intellectual your arguments are when they resort to insulting terminology.