Christianity and homosexuality

Cross-posting this from my response to a request to comment on this topic at Masson's Blog...

Homosexual conduct is one of many potential sins and temptations within Christian sexual ethics.

Homosexual conduct within the Church is to be dealt with as any other pre-meditated or repeated sins-- through various forms of accountability and "church discipline". The strongest of the latter is "ex-communication" until the sin has been dealt with.

Homosexual conduct in the world cannot be condoned, but is simply one of the many ways in which "all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God".

The injunction of Christ with "the woman caught in adultery" applies nicely here: don't throw stones (to her accusers), but (to her) "go and leave your life of sin".

Homosexual orientation or "identity" is one of many potential pre-Christian identities-- as opposed to Christians who might struggle with homosexual urges.

This passage is not meant to provide a complete list of such identities, but is still instructive:

"Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God."

Bottom line: Whatever your sins, have you accepted the washing or not?


And then, from later in the thread-- on getting rid of Paul:

X and Y are saying, in essence, “I don’t use Paul…” This means you take yourself as a greater authority than the Bible, picking and choosing what you like. OK… Good luck with that.

Since you both seem to respect the moral teachings of Jesus Christ, where do we find Him re-labeling homosexual conduct as righteous?

And then in response to this reply:

since eric decries “picking and choosing what you like” from the bible, i take that to mean that he regards eating shellfish to be an abomination, avoids spending time with women who are menstruating, and so on.

if not… good luck with that.

I had this response:

St. Allio, most dietary restrictions and the ceremonial laws were done away with in the New Testament. The moral laws were not. It's apples and oranges-- or more like apples and rocks.

I wish more people (Christian or not) understood the distinction. If they do, we could dispense with what turns out to be a lame argument.