Daniel:   I believe that sexuality is a gift from God … I believe that holy matrimony is for two people of the opposite sex who desire to be united and walk in the same yolk with God.  That is the commitment that I desired when asking for God’s blessing in marrying my wife … I have asked for forgiveness for participating in sexual immorality prior to marriage.  It was not gay sex but it did violate God’s law … The question at hand is whether you or I believe that homosexuality is wrong.  In that way you have to determine whether or not you need to seek forgiveness and abstain from any sex that is not right in the eyes of God … You also have to determine if Jesus is the authority in your life.   I believe that a man lying with a man and women laying with women is a part of Scripture that Jesus declares as wrong … God is the moral law giver, otherwise no person would have the ability to differentiate between right or wrong.

 

I love my family with all my heart.  Some of them are living outside of what I believe is acceptable sexual activity confined by the laws of biblical marriage.  You obviously don’t agree … The point is that I still love them … It is up to them to seek God’s forgiveness; not in what they think is necessary, but in what God actually desires … Please consider that if you or I love people we would warn them as to what we believe is impending danger.  God loves people in that way … I could be wrong, but I don’t believe the Bible is … God is never wrong.  The apostle Paul said, “Let God be true and every man a liar ; that I may be found justified by the word of God.” (Romans 3:4) … That means that even if I thought that your 60% number were accurate, I would still think that God speaks differently to the issue of men laying with men.

 

Scaughdt:   Hmmm … You say that, “I believe that man lying with man and women laying with women is a part of Scripture that Jesus declares as wrong”, and yet I’m not finding that anywhere in my Bible.  Can you point me to where it says this? (Don’t waste too much of your time looking – Such a passage doesn’t exist anywhere in the Scriptures!)
You also said that, “God is the moral law giver or no person would have the ability to differentiate between right or wrong”, a statement which has – of course – been thoroughly disproven by literally MILLIONS of highly moral atheists and even more BILLIONS of highly moral non-Christians throughout human history.  In fact, many of the greatest moral thinkers and many of the greatest moral Doers of all time did not have any belief in God whatsoever or engage in any religious practice at all!

And besides, if God did implant every sentient being – Christians & non-Christians alike – with his or her moral conscience, then God is the one who also implanted the vase majority of humanity (essentially all non-sociopaths) with the ability to understand that damning anyone to Hell for eternity for any offense committed over a single human lifetime is per se patently unjust; with the ability to see that demanding subservience in any form from any person is patently petty; and with the ability to understand that creating humans fallible and then demanding that we become “well” (via essentially a lucky guess – if born in a non-Christian community, or simply good fortune – if born in a Christian one) is patently unfair … I find that pretty ironic, don’t you?
In closing, like you I happen to believe that warning others of impending danger is a deed of Kindness … Indeed (ironically), that is precisely what I am doing for you (and Bart, and Lucy, and Diana – and anyone else reading along) in this thread! … That does not, however, mean that I am to judge other people if they continue to turn away from my warnings, and that does not mean that will I hide my condemnations behind worshiping a God who will damn those “sinners” (or allow them to damn themselves) for turning away from the same.

 

Jesus didn’t come to force people to follow his teachings, Dan … He came to gently offer his Way, his Truth & his Life as a gift.  And even though he did point out that people would suffer if they didn’t adhere to his Way, he never damned them for not doing so (see John 12:47) … And he certainly never once advocated worshiping a Father of less than perfect Love (see Matthew 5:48 + Matthew 18:21-22 + Luke 6:36 + John 5:22) who would allow them to be damned either!

Filed under: Burnishing Bigotry by Scaughdt