[CS-FSLUG] God Didn't Say That

[Timothy R. Butler]

>
> To me and perhaps the larger majority of Christians "The Bible teaches 
> us to
> love God and neighbor (Matthew 22:36-40), and to allow
> the Holy Spirit to develop within us the qualities of love, joy, peace,
> patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and 
> self-control
> (Galatians 5:22-23).

	There is a difference between loving someone and trying to make the 
case that a given behavior is good, honorable, lovely, etc. (Phil. 4:8) 
"'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things are profitable. 
'All things are lawful for me,' but not all things build up" (1 Cor. 
10:23).

> When children, youth and adults embody these values, regardless of 
> sexual
> orientation, we are growing into the whole people God hopes we will 
> become.
> You or I may hyperfocus on a person's sexual orientation, but God 
> loves the
> sum of all of our parts."

	To an extent I agree. I've gone on the record saying that we ought to 
love homosexuals, that we ought to reach out to them, etc. BUT, I say 
this because we should reach out to all sinners. I'm a sinner as well. 
At the same time, WE SHOULD NOT attempt to distort the Bible to argue 
that what they are doing is not sin. What we should do, is lovingly 
help them show the fruits of the Spirit and escape sin... just like I 
hope others do for me.

	Remember, "Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead in itself." 
(James 2:17). We know that it is "by grace you have been saved through 
faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, 
that no one would boast" (Ep. 2:8, 9). How we reconcile this is clear: 
we are not saved by works, but we should seek to do good works as fruit 
of the Spirit -- a sign of our salvation. If someone cannot tell the 
new me from the old me, what kind of witness am I giving? Therefore, 
the church *should* recognize and attempt to encourage Christ's body to 
be pure. The problem is not that some people's sin is homosexual 
activity but that people are trying to argue that this is not a sin. 
These are two different things. The only way we can come to God with 
repentance and faith is if we honestly seek to repent.

	Let me put it like this. One of the things I struggle with is 
coveting. I find it easy to get wrapped up in the things of the world 
and want them. Could I attempt to justify that away and say I just want 
to enjoy what God has made available? Sure! Should I? No! It is much 
better for me to avoid rationalizing things away so that I can go on 
doing them. "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that 
grace may abound? May it never be!" (Romans 6:1-2a)


> In my mind simply put God's son came to earth to love, heal, and 
> forgive. The
> bible does not condemn homosexual's but does condemn homosexual sex 
> and other
> sexual practices as part of the religious service. Remember that 
> homosexual
> and heterosexual sex was a part of most of the predominate religions 
> at the
> time Christianity was starting and Christians wished to distants 
> themselves
> from the other religions of the time. With One God and no sex.

	That's a very dangerous train of thought that leads to explaining away 
most of the Bible if one is not careful (not that you are, just a 
friendly reminder). Are these restrictions merely a knee-jerk reaction 
to other religions or is it the law of the one True God? Is 
Christianity a faith invented by men or is it of God?

> In our Judeo-Christian society, the documents known as the Bible serve 
> as the
> primary guide on most issues. It is interesting that many Christians 
> take
> literally the references to homosexual acts while interpreting other 
> text
> with great flexibility.

	This has to do with lit criticism. You can tell by the context, the 
wording, etc. Form Criticism, in particular deciphers, based on the 
language used, what type of text we are dealing with -- poetic, mythic, 
historical, parable, etc. Thus, we can say the Psalms should not be 
read as good historical sources -- they are poetry, not a book of 
history. Luke's Gospel, on the other hand, is very much intended to be 
history and follows the form of other historians.

	Now, a lot of people say, but wait a minute! In the Old Testament, the 
rules on mixing types of fabrics, prohibition of being around women 
during their "period" and other oft ignored rules are right next to the 
prohibition on homosexual activity! And, yes, that's true. But, we are 
under the New Covenant. Paul also prohibits homosexual activity, which 
is part of the reason we can argue it is wrong.

	The other issue, is that Paul argues from the standpoint of sin; 
Deuteronomy is concerned a lot with ceremonial cleanliness. Somethings 
relating to ceremonial cleanliness may not be sinful (i.e. I do not 
personally feel it is sinful for me to eat ham), others may relate to 
sin (i.e. murdering someone will make you unclean and also sinful). 
Ceremonial cleanliness is of no concern to one in the New Covenant, but 
sin always is. Why do I want to nail more sins on to that cross than I 
have to?

>  And I some times grow weary of the flood of FUD on
> this subject and others that is produced by a single person and simply 
> wish
> on occasion to remind the list and the world that this FUD is not the
> majority christian view. Causing fear, hatred, and division is not the
> christian ethic or way.

	Hatred is different than disagreement. If the Christian community did 
not oppose homosexuality, it would open a floodgate in America and 
elsewhere because there would be no counterbalance to the extremely 
powerful liberal/homosexual lobby.

	-Tim

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Timothy R. Butler       Universal Networks      www.uninet.info
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