As Christ did, let me bring this to layman terms:
When looking at S&G, it is clear that they were not asking for the angels to come out to have sex with them; they were demanding it. In other words, rape. Most people understand that rape, even if it is heterosexual, is not loving your neighbor, but disrespecting the other, selfish, cruel, violent, and enforcing your power and will upon another.
S&G was no more about homosexuality, than rape is about heterosexuality.
Men in prison, who identify as heterosexual sometimes rape other men as a form of sexual release and domination or humiliation. The same was done historically, when soldiers raped the enemy to humiliate and degrade them in defeat. Yet, when the same convicts get out, or the soldiers return, they still see themselves as heterosexual, while having commited homosexual acts. In the same, gay men, in an effort to change their orientation, sometimes marry women, have sex and even have children with them, only to find that their orientation is still towards men.
In Leviticus, "abomination", or "hateful thing of God" is also said for unclean things, such as, eating gulls (scavengers of the air), pork (scavengers of the ground), and shellfish (scavengers of the sea). Does God hate the eating of ham, hotdogs, or lobster and shrimp? Or does it refer to such things simply as "unclean"? Pork meat particularly can carry parasites if not properly stored, thus it would make sense, before the refrigerator or curing, that pork was shunned, for the danger to health. Similarly, if one is not clean when having sex with another man, there is a potential for infection. This is not true if the receiving partner is cleaned prior, or the active partner is wearing a condom. Women, however, cannot "enter" each other, and thus, it is omitted from Leviticus. However, one must also luck at Leviticus. A woman who is "unclean" with her period is not allowed into the man's tent. Wives are not commanded to sleep on the couch during their Mensies, but disregard the verse, and sleep next to the husband. A rapist is commanded to marry the woman he raped. Again, not only is he not commanded to do so, but no woman would want to marry and give her love and devotion to a man that violated her to her very soul. One can't simply pick 2 verses of all of Leviticus that others should follow, while they ignore the 99.9% of the book themselves, unless they wish to be called a hypocrite.
In Romans, Paul is talking about those who are pagans, who have turned from their natural drives and lusted for one another in pagan ritual, and worshipping idols, such as birds and snakes, worshipping creation, rather than the Creator. However, today, there are gay Christians, often attacked not only by nonChristians for their faith and wondering why they would believe such nonsense, but then attacked by others within the church who dare to claim that one cannot be gay and Christian, and that they aren't real Christians (TM) at all. However, they aren't turning from their natural passions, but continually stating that these ARE their natural attractions. They are not worshipping Idols, such as birds, or snakes, or a Golden Calf, as the Jews did in the wilderness, but worshipping God, and loving their neighbor as themselves. Yet, they are often told that "you cannot be gay and Christian. It is in conflict." Is being straight the same as being Christian? Is a man who picks up prostitutes, sleeps around to boost his ego, or goes to strip clubs and porn sites serving God? Or is he acting selfishly? In Greek times, men went to the bathhouse to have sex with men for recreation, and home to their wives for procreation. It can be seen in Greek myths (Zeus' love for a young man, Greek men taking on a young boy to teach him about sex, and Narcisus, who was loved by both men and women. It's not the current understanding of homosexuality today. In fact, Greeks thought anyone strange who was only attracted to one or the other. One has to take that into account when reading the passage, and its appearance to Paul. One must acknowledge that Gay Christians are not idol worships, as the passage quotes. You can't ignore the parts that don't fit with your claim, ignore modern knowledge, and instead, rely on the understanding of Paul, who lived 2000 years ago, and be taken seriously.
The bible says that those who do not seek the word in Love cannot understand the Word, nor are open to the Spirit to be lead to its Truth. They read that Paul says that women should not braid their hair, but nurture and beautify the soul, and then walk away believing that it is a sin to braid your hair. It's as if the person sees the trees, but is unable to see the forest. Thus, one walks away with the sin of hairstyle, while another believes that they should nurture the soul, and beautify it, for it is eternal, rather than beautify the shell, the shallowness of vanity, which passes away.
I hear people try to tell me that they know God, and that the bible is clear about homosexuality. Not only is that inaccurate, but I don't think that the Bible speaks of homosexuality at all, as it doesn't speak about computers, or iPod use. We have a more clear understanding of homosexuality - that part of it is innate, and part of it is nurture. We have learned that gay people cannot become heterosexual any more than heterosexuals can be turned straight. However, for those who do not come to the issue in love, they are unable to see the homosexual as their neighbor. They are unable to understand that, while they seek a mate for companionship, family, security, strength, physical closeness, support, and love, two people of the same sex do not, but believe that it is purely lust. They lump all gay sex, from those who are pedophiles, those who rape, those who want to commit and marry, those who are promiscious and selfish, those who have multiple partners and are respectful and kind, those who are responsible and those who are not, those who make love simply because they are in it, in the same category. They brand them all as sin, all as abomination, all as bad. When I came out in the 1980s, i didn't have any support, no internet to find out what the bible really says, no counciling. People were fearful of AIDS, and i was told by a nurse acquaintance that her patients with AIDS got what they deserved, and yet, she wouldn't be so harsh on heterosexuals that got STDs, because what they were doing was "normal." Those who talk about the evils of homosexuality choose to willfully ignore the rampantness of heterosexual men that will sleep with any woman that say yes, of strip clubs that men feel is "normal" to go to, or heterosexuals during Spring Break that brag about their wild, promiscous behavior to the point of letting someone film them on Girls Gone Wild. They ignore that, and then condemn only homosexuality, whether it be committed, loving, longterm, or a anonymous fling in a bathhouse.
I was led to the conclusion that, since i couldn't separate homosexuality from who i was, anymore than I could separate my sex or my race, that God hated me, and it was often backed up by Christians who "hated gay people" while unaware that I was "one of thoooose", as well as a few preachers. Fortunately, God sent Fred Phelps, with his ugly message of hatred, a false represetative of God, to make people uncomfortable by holding up a mirror, and showing the ugliness of this message, and the feelings many people held in secret, while claiming to love God.
Would a loving person compare a man's marriage to that of a man sleeping with a woman that he never wants to see again, a man who has sex with little girls, a man who rapes, or a man who employs prostitutes, usually committing adultery, with little respect for his wife or the hustler? Can someone who does such a proposterous comparison really be listened to, and taken seriously? And if they are this unable to understand someone who is gay, refuses to listen, can only condemn while they are quick to forgive themselves or others like them, and unable to demonstrate true love, i can't really believe them when they say, "I love God. I serve God. I love my neighbor as myself. I love Jesus, and follow him." Jesus didn't spend his time condemning people. He loved the sinners, and for that reason, Jesus came to save people - save us from ourselves, save us from the Pharisees that dared to know God, and preach the Scripture, while teaching the antithesis of what God is.
Simon, on seeing the prostitute come to Jesus, who simply let her come to him, weeping, washing his feet with her tears, and wiping his feet with her hair, and anointing his head with oil and perfume, said that surely this was no Son of God, or he would know what kind of woman she was. Christ said, "who loves his master more, the one forgiven a huge debt, or the one forgiven a small debt?" Simon said, "I suppose the one who is forgiven the greater debt." Jesus said, "you have judge rightly. You did not offer to wash my feet, and yet, she washes them with her tears, and dries them with her hair. You have not offered me oil to annoint my head, yet she has, and offers me expensive perfume." In other words, Jesus was in Simon's house, and while judging the prostitute for being less than, and judging God himself for simply allowing the woman to come to him, did not demonstrate love to God himself, even when he saw him in the flesh.
Christ talks of another story, where the Pharisee thanks God for how holy he is, how he keeps all the laws and tithes, and is so thankful that he not like that man, the tax collector, who would not even raise his head, and asked God to forgive him, a sinful man. It was the second, the one who humbled himself, even though he was less "holy" outwardly. He was holy inwardly, while the Pharisee, as Christ accused them, were white washed tombs, clean on the outside and dead on the inside.
I have met people that feel that they are men in women's bodies, or women in men's bodies, and feel the need to have their body and being mactch up with surgery. I know that hermaphradites exist, even though they are rare. I have met very gay acting straight men, and straight acting gay men, heterosexual tomboys, and women that enjoy being feminine to an extreme. God has created this amazing rainbow of people, so complicated and individual and different. And each is loved by God, and nothing can separate us from God's love.
I am gay, and I am a child of God. I was made gay as much as God choose to give me the ability to make others laugh and dance, and speak to others with clear communication. He gave me the gift of being gay, as well as the gift of slowness to anger, mercy, kindness, hope, compassion, an aversion to violence, selfishness, and harm toward others.
I have a partner of 3 1/2 years. I believe that we are not hated by God, but that God has given us to each other. We support each other, forgive each other, encourage and help one another, offer physical warmth to our souls. In short, we love each other, and in doing so, I believe that we love God. I also treat others in love, and in doing so, love God.
So, when someone insists that they know God, and yet thinks that the bible is clear about homosexuality, it's like saying that the BIble is clear about Schizophrenia, something that we understand very differently today, and see not as demon possesson, but a hormonal imbalance, and thus, treat the person in a very different way. When they claim that homosexuality is simply a sin, they refuse to see the context, the science, the knowledge which God has offered us to not only understand God, but to understand ourselves and each other, and possibly, bring about compassion and understanding of those who are different.
One can disagree. You can say that homosexuality is a sin. I'm unclear if that means that I only sin when i performing sexual acts with my partner, and not when, say, i am typing this, working, or at the gym, but for me, I don't "stop" being gay when i stop having sex, nor am I only gay when I am being intimate, anymore than believing my love for my partner is only activated during sex. It is always present, as is my orientation. Because one cannot truly separate a homosexual from their homosexuality anymore than one can separate God from man, who is our conscience, the small voice that accompanies us always, and leads us, with a choice to obey or follow.
And yet, I'm sure, reading through all of this, one will still say that my relationship, one of self sacrifice, honesty, trust, support, love, intimacy, and nurturing is simply sinful by its very nature, unable to explain why.
And that person will have the right to believe to. However, I answer to God, and not to any man. I don't answer to any man who claims to know God better than everyone else, especially me, when they don't really know me, aside from my posts, are unable to see me as a person, as their neighbor, who cannot understand that our needs aren't that different, lest they acknowledge that they are not greater. Like Simon, I don't believe that they truly love God, but love themselves, and take every opportunity to attack a minority that is often killed or beaten or harrassed, both from Christians, and the world.
I refuse to answer to such a person, because, as 1 Corinthians, 4:7-8 says, Brothers, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that love is born of God, and knows God. He that does not love, does not know God, for God is love.
Such person does not only not speak for God, but probably listens to their own ego, drowning out God's voice, and like the Pharisee, thanks God for how glad they are not to be like those terrible gay people, the enemies of God.
I believe that everyone is love by God, and nothing, no misquotes from the bible, no preacher, nothing above or below can separate us from God's love for us, not even our sexual orientation. God loves us unconditionally, and unending. (cont due to length)
Hopefully by the time my daughter is old enough and finds someone she wants to commit to she won't have to leave her home state to make it legal.
