"A Thinker"

Whatever you happen to think about the morality of homosexuality, this paragraph from a book I've recently perused should make you think. It did for me.


"The heterosexual community needs to see and experience homosexual unions that are marked by integrity and caring and are filled with grace and beauty. The heterosexual majority seems to assume that the only form homosexual love making takes is the promiscuous life of gay bars, pornography, and one-night stands. They are ever ready to condemn that behavior pattern as morally unacceptable--and so it is. But two things seem to have been overlooked by those who make these judgments.


First, promiscuity, pick-up bars, pornography, and one-night stands are not unknown in the heterosexual world. That kind of behavior is destructive no matter what the sexual orientation of thse who live out that style of life.


Second, heterosexual people have the publicly accepted, blessed, and affirmed alternative of marriage that has as yet not been available to the homosexual population. If there is no such positive alternative for homosexual persons, then what is the church's expectation for them? If the church or society refuses to reconize or promote any positive alternative in which love and intimacy can sustain a gay or lesbian couple, then those institutions are guilty of contributing to the very pormiscuity that they condemn."


Spong, John Shelby. Living In Sin: A Bishop Rethinks Human Sexuality. (Harper Collins Pub.: San Fransisco, 1988) p. 202.


The intent of this post is not to convert anyone to any side of any 'argument' concerning the morality of homosexuality. It simply made me think, and I like thinking so I thought you should think about it too. What do you think?


I happen to not truly know what God thinks about homosexuality. I know what I was taught growing up by church/family/society. And I've heard the Bible used in support for and in condemnation of gay/lesbian persons. But I can't say I know what God thinks, just as Paul said, "Who can know the mind of God?" (Rom. 11:34)


I do think God loves more than he hates, and we should too. I think Jesus was in the business of breaking down the walls of prejudice and social ostracism, and we should too. (Reconciliation anyone?) I think no matter what we think about right or wrong, sin or holiness, we should treat every person we come across with love and respect (Golden Rule anyone?).


Comments?