Sorry to everyone for the direction this thread has taken, although in my defense the discussion was already veering in that direction before I got here.
Angela Harlem said:
If we do choose, I remind you that you are obligated on this forum to do so without insulting anyone. No one here can force people to be open minded, or even to be just a little polite.
I can in all honesty say to you that I have not said anything with the intention of being hostile, insulting, or even mildly impolite. If my attempt to express my opinions in a very sterile, impassionate way in general keeping with the tone of this thread have given the impression that I am cold-hearted on this issue, it was not my intention.
I will freely acknowledge that I am a christian, and to the best of my understanding of what the bible says, I believe that God tells us that homosexuality is a sin, and as all sin I believe it is something which is harmful not only to those who are engaged in it but to everyone in their lives and their community as well.
The somewhat shocking theory, I suppose, that I am trying to put forward here is that it is actually possible to oppose homosexuality (and anything else that you believe is harmful/sinful behavior) without actually hating, being prejudiced towards, or even mildly disliking anyone. As a matter of fact, it is quite possible to stand up against what you believe to be wrong, not for the sake of being hateful or brow-beating people or pretending to be morally superior, but out of love.
Let me put it this way: If I saw someone standing in the bottom floor of a house who was unaware that the second floor was on fire, and I really cared about that person, I would do my best to warn them and try to convince them to that they are in danger and need to get out.
If they told me, "I don't believe you, I'm not in danger, leave me alone," and if I really cared about that person, then would I say, "Okay, fine, I will respect your decision to stay there," or would I say, "I'm sorry, but I can't hold my tongue because we're talking about life and death here." Living a life unknowingly entrenched in any sin is truly a life and death matter. I could give you several very clear quotes from the Bible which condemn homosexuality, but I'm guessing that the response of some would be that I was either misinterpreting them, taking them out of context, or that the Bible itself is not a genuine authority.
Now if what you're saying to me is that my view (which I firmly believe to be biblical to the best of my understanding) is not welcome to be expressed in this forum in any way, shape, or form, if that my spiritual views are in and of themselves unwelcome to be discussed, then I'll leave and not come back, assuming that it is the consensus desire of the people who make these decisions.
But I'll ask you first to at least give me some kind of basic hearing to determine whether I have in fact made any of these statements out of rudeness, insults, or hostility, or is it simply the expression of my opinion itself which is causing the problem?
While I can't speak for everyone, for many who oppose homosexuality, it is often a matter of believing that God exists, that there is such a thing as absolute truth, that God has given us this truth in the form of a book called the bible, and that the bible condemns homosexuality.
Hypothetically, just for the sake of discussion, what if it was actually true that:
1) God directly inspired the writers of the bible and therefore wrote it, and
2) the bible condemns homosexuality because it is a matter of using sex in a manner other than what God created it for.
Under this hypothetical scenario, we would have two choices:
1) We could choose to say, "While I don't see anything wrong with homosexuality, in the end I'm going to cede final authority to God and accept what he has to say about it," or
2) We could choose to say, "I'm going to value my own logic, feelings, and judgement on this issue over God's."
Under this scenario, would we be willing to let go of things that we really wanted if God insists that they're wrong, or would we choose to keep those things if we could find a rationale that satisfies our comparatively limited human understanding of them?
The bottom line, I guess, is that I can't in good conscience remain silent on these issues when I believe that people are doing grave harm to themselves and putting their eternal destiny in jeopardy without realizing it. (see postscript below)