Clergy Proclamation: Being Gay Not A Sin

Wow. When I first read the title I was expecting something else...like "BEING gay is not wrong, but gay sex, no no, can't do that..."

This is a nice bit of news here. It's encouraging to hear voices from the faith-based communities that are positive about equality and love.

 

This definitely makes me happy Good for them.

 

It is interesting that all the passages in the bible that claim homosexuality is a sin dont come from any narrative of god. it starts with the priestly code the jewish priest created to govern themselves. then some jewish people adopted the code for their own lives to live a more priestly, godly life. Then Paul quoted it, what, 80 years after the cruicifixtion?

but whenever god in some form (god or christ) speaks in the bible, not a single mention of homosexuality, but a buttload of mentions of love and compassion for all people regardless.

It comes down to if man wrote the bible to make sense of the divine, or god wrote the bible, and contradicts himself constantly.

 

Yes! Finally! I've been saying this for years! Most Lutheran/Presbyterian/Methodist/not crazy Protestant churches are deeply accepting of homosexuals! For heaven's sake, we perform gay marriages and ordain gay pastors!

 

I'm not understanding why this is news. These denominations are already pretty gay-friendly and have been for some time. At any rate, the conservatives who are anti-gay don't think these people are Christian anyway.

 

and ironicly, the bible says those conservatives aren't christian.

 

We Anglicans/Episcopalians fit into that category as well! People don't realise that there are SOO many accepting mainstream Christians because we aren't outrageous enough to make the news...

 

I'm curious to see how they rationalized this if they still believe in scriptural rigor. Maybe they think gay sex is wrong like some others do? Maybe they're taking a "love the sinner" approach?

 

I'm floored. I've never heard people around here so vocal about this subject! It's a miracle. A real miracle.

 

Scriptural rigor is a urban legend. What the anti-gay forces do is not read scripture, they cherry pick it. Ironicly, their behavior tends to put them straight in the express line to hell if we are to take scripture literally... which traditional christanity doesn't, useing the original way of viewing the bible as a combination of metaphor and history to express concepts of how we are suposed to live and treat each other.

The Anti-Gay side tends to spend all of their energy basically masterbating their ego while tearing down any group they don't like. Jesus spent more time calling that behavior a sin than he did calling homosexuality a sin... since jesus never did call homosexuality a sin.

 

No, we pretty much take the whole package... We're trying to let the whole "hating gays" thing go the way of "shunning vegetarians" and "avoiding shellfish."

 

There you go. Nowhere in the Bible God condemns a monogamous, respectful, faithful relationship between a man and a man or a woman and a woman.

 

It's pretty clearly written in there.

I'm not even a Christian, but I'm just saying.

 

They can't be taking a "love the sinner" approach if there is no sin.

 

Yes, along with a load of other stuff that zero Christians pay attention to and have completely accepted is unimportant. You're acting on some false assumptions about Christianity... Ask any reputable theologian.

 

All of the passages on the Bible refer to stuff like ritual sex (some cults and religions believe you can archive purity by having sex with "sacred" people at an altar or church), and prostitution.

Sodom and Gomorrah was not punished for their homosexual acts. They were punished because they lacked hospitality. It was something people had to abide back then: if a foreigner approached your city you were obliged to share food and shelter with them but the people in Sodom and Gomorrah were against that, since they felt that some foreigners would want to steal their riches since they were loaded. So, to try to scare them away, they raped any visitor, since that is the lowest form of humiliation back them. The sin was not homosexual sex, but the lack of hospitality.

Any respectable and knowledgeable theologists will be able to back up what I just said.