Arthur81
Well-Known Member
Steve, I've looked at those "Gay Affirming" church lists in the past and it seems to be the modernist, liberal churches such as the ELCA who even ordain transsexuals and lesbians to the pastorate. For some reason, it also hits me similar to saying "Divorce Affirming" churches. While divorce is not a sin in the case of fornication and abandonment, it just seems amiss to think of gay or divorce being affirmed.
I personally have come to view male with male relationships to be sin only if there is some sort of abusiveness, or outward 'in your face' sort of LGBTQ/gay marriage approach. I guess my view is similar to observation on marital relations in a man's bedroom. It is no one's business what sexual behavior the man and wife experience and mutually enjoy in the bedroom, they do not need to be ashamed of it, nor is it a matter to be openly discussed and talked about. If two men have a loving relationship, I view it the same as the man and wife relationship privately in the bedroom.
For those Christians who cannot view men's love relationship any different than any other than sin, I've read two approaches that are the best I know. One is from a Puritan and the other a modern theologian, and considered together may be a 'best moral option'.
One view would be based on the approach of the Puritan Thomas Brookes who wrote:
"God has nowhere engaged himself by any particular promise, that souls converted
and united to Christ shall not fall again and again into the same sin after conversion. I
cannot find in the whole book of God where he has promised any such strength or
power against this or that particular sin, as that the soul should be forever, in this life,
put out of a possibility of falling again and again into the same sins. And where God has
not a mouth to speak, I must not have a heart to believe. God will graciously pardon
those sins to his people, which he will not in this life totally subdue in his people. I have
never seen a promise in Scripture, which says that when our sorrow and grief has been
so great, or so much, for this or that sin—that then God will preserve us from ever
falling into the same sin. The sight of such a promise would be as life from the dead to
many a precious soul, who desires nothing more than to keep close to Christ, and fears
nothing more than backsliding from Christ." that's on page 106
The following is by Dr. Lewis Smedes of Fuller Theological Seminary -
"I think that homosexual people are not responsible for their sexual orientation toward loving people of their own gender.
I think that, as a class, homosexual people are as moral, as spiritual, as decent and good, as creative, and as much in need of the grace of God as heterosexual people are.
I think that homosexuality is not the sexual orientation that God intended in creation. It is a genetic lapse. It is nature gone awry. There is tragedy in it. And homosexual people are called to live as morally within their tragedy as the rest of us are called to live within whatever may be ours.
I think that homosexual people merit the same rights and bear the same responsibilities within society that anyone else does.
I think that, if celibacy is not possible, it is better for homosexual people to live together in committed monogamous relationships of love than not. Homosexual partnerships that are committed offer the best moral option available." From Sex for Christians, Eerdmans Publishing
I suppose in my mind, it comes down to deciding which is the greater sin: 1, promiscuity with repetitive one night stands, and the repetitive hand wringing in repentance; or 2, having a monogamous faithful relationship in love that can be stable.
