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From: gregbo@houxm.UUCP (Greg Skinner)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: homosexuality and the Bible
Message-ID: <1166@houxm.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 6-Mar-85 04:16:10 EST
Article-I.D.: houxm.1166
Posted: Wed Mar  6 04:16:10 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 04:47:16 EST
Organization: AT&T Bell Labs, Holmdel NJ
Lines: 58

I was going to keep out of this discussion, but since a lot of people have 
given their thoughts on it, here's mine.

The Bible is pretty specific on what is considered to be normal sexual 
relations between a man and a woman.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his
wife, and they will become one flesh."  (Genesis 2:24, NIV)

The Bible makes no specific references on normal sexual relations between
men/men or women/women.  One can (note use of can, not should) extrapolate
from this that the Christian faith does not include a provision for homosexu-
ality, since the Bible makes no mention of it as normal sexual practice.

However, the Bible does make some strong statements about the practice of
homosexuality being an abnormal, and undesirable sexual relation between
men/men and women/women.  This may be because at the time, the practice of
homosexuality may have been in accordance with certain other (cults, sects,
what have you) who sacrificed humans or performed other detestable acts to
God.  It also may be because God just does not consider homosexuality to be
acceptable sexual behavior.

Whatever the reasons, the question remains:  Is homosexuality an acceptable
practice for Christians?  To that, I have no definite answer.  I could sit
here all night quoting Scripture at you which would probably bear out that
it is not.  If any homosexuals are seeking Christianity (I mean *really*
seeking, as opposed to casually considering it) I imagine that they are ques-
tioning their sexual relations also.  This is no different than any other
person who is engaging in sexual relations (of the normal kind) outside of 
marriage or any other thing that God considers a sin.  There a a few questions 
one can ask oneself regarding whatever sins they are thinking about.

Why do I do this?
Do I really want to do this?
Do I try to do the right thing, but always seem to fail?

In the Bible, Paul asked himself these same questions and many others besides.

I know that some homosexuals think that they cannot become Christians because
of their homosexuality.  They feel they won't be accepted.  This is not due
to Christians' unacceptance of homosexuality, it is due to *society's* unac-
ceptance of it (which may be rooted in the Bible, but is expressed in an
un-Christian manner, namely the hatred which we saw on the net a few weeks
back).  It is possible, once becoming a Christian, the homosexual may discover
something about themself they didn't previously know, and that realization may
not make them homosexual anymore and they can learn to relate in an intimate
way to MOTOS.  But this can be said of any Christian who has come to terms
with their sin and is finally willing to let God work through them.

The bottom line is that it's not the particular sin that's the problem, but
any sin in general is detestable to God, and what Jesus died on the cross for.
-- 
			... hey, we've gotta get out of this place,
    			    there's got to be something better than this ...

Greg Skinner (gregbo)
{allegra,cbosgd,ihnp4}!houxm!gregbo
gregbo%houxm.uucp@harvard.arpa