Homosexuality is NOT a disease and you are NOT born with it. According to Jesus Christ the true God and according to His Word, the Bible. Homosexuality is wrong. The person is not bad, I have no discriminaton, but what they are doing is wrong. If that person does not repent they will be facing an unhappy fate. God would not make it so that in the person's genes they are homosexual "naturally" it is unnatural. God created Adam and Eve NOT Adam and Steve. But, God will forgive them if they repent and turn away from their evil deeds. I am happy that homosexual are not recognized as married. GO Bush! I have absolutely NO HATRED towards anyone, I dislike of what they are DOING. In the Bible God refers to homosexuality as vile and disgusting. It's not meant to be.

Bella I'm not questioning your word but I couldn't find it in the bible, no doubt I missed it though as my bible doesn't have a good reference section in the back. As to being wrong, I'd like to meet the person who DOESN'T do anything wrong in their life, including Bush. As the bible states - 'let he who is without sin cast the first stone.' I have a good gut feeling that no stones will be thrown.

It's impossible for humans not to do wrong, after all if we were perfect what was the point in Christ being crucified on the cross? God must have known that humans would be failures in the future. And yes, I'm a christian.

Just a bit of curiosity here on my part but if God can forgive homosexuality if you ask for forgiveness can He also forgive murder and rape if you ask for forgiveness? If that's the case, what does it say about those people? That it's ok to kill someone because you know you'll be forgiven? What of the father who molests his daughter? Will he be forgiven for such a vile act? The priests who molest young boys, do they get forgiven when they ask for it? I'm sorry but as someone who's suffered at the hands of a sick human, even as a christian, I'd never be able to forgive him and if God did, I'd have to question my beliefs.

I'll find some references for you. and yes God can forgive everyone. if they ask for forgiveness and stop what they are doing...God will forgive them. Yes, it would be hard for humans (like me and you) to forgive murderers,terrorists, etc. but that's because we're sinful and not perfect. Only, God can know if they truly mean their repentance. Are you questioning your beliefs now that you know God can forgive everyone as long as they truly are sorry and stop their action?

I'm sorry that my opinions are obviously different from yours, and I'm just voicing my opinion...

Look up 1 Corinthians 6 and pay SPECIAL ATTENTION to verse 9! If you are a Christian God clearly states what he thinks about homosexual RIGHT THERE! If you haven't run across this when you were looking through the Bible, well now you know. So, when you look it up you can come back here and tell me some way you will still contradict the Word, unless you agree.

also, I realize no one is perfect.
Oh, and I do disagree with Davey about stomping homosexuals out of society...that'd be contradictory to God's Word, too.

I am a member of the United Church of Christ...a denomination I am proud to say welcomes everyone. Our local congregation is designated as "Open and Affirming" meaning we are open and affirming to gay or straight relationships. I know that my husband and I would not feel comfortable going to any other type of church.

Most leading Biblical scholars do not agree that the Bible has anything against homosexuality and the passages most people reference are being misinterpreted.

I hope I live to see the day where society comes to its senses about this issue.

Sarah, your church sounds very opened minded just as they should be these days. I'm a member of the Church of Christ, is yours much different? I know mine has the same views as yours regarding homosexuals.

Bella, thankyou for posting the Bible chapter and verse, I was unable to find it earlier. Yes, it does state that homosexuals will never enter the kingdom of God.

This though brings to mind another matter - the amount of priests and men of the cloth who represent the church and have done so over the centuries - so many of them were homosexuals or paedophiles.

If these 'Men of God' have committed such a sin, surely they as representatives of God should not be forgiven.

What a much better world we'd live in though if people just took the time to be kinder to their fellow man.

Davey,

I get the impression that you are questioning eveything that the church and the Bible has ever suggested.

That's a good idea, in my opinion, but going from one extreme to the other is not necessarily the best way of doing it.

Two contradictory threads:
- "down with homosexuality"
- "up with homosexuality"

However, you certainly get to discover other people's views and arguments - I'll give you that.

Oh, I'm not saying to be rude or show hatred towards others! I was just stating what the Bible said and I thought it said that pretty clearly! We should be kind towards them and lovingly show them the right way to go.

Bella:

'Oh, I'm not saying to be rude or show hatred towards others! ... We should be kind towards them and lovingly show them the right way to go.'

This rather assumes that you / we know 'the right way to go'. I think that that is assuming rather a lot.

So, we should not be unkind or rude, we should just show our 'disgust' at their 'vile' behaviour in a kind and loving way?

There seems to be something wrong with that to me.

(Re: Murder, rape, terrorism. paedophilia, etc)
'it would be hard for humans (like me and you) to forgive murderers, terrorists, etc. but that's because we're sinful and not perfect.'

No, it's not because we are sinful - though I accept that nobody is perfect - it's because we are human. It is normal - and I would say absolutely right - for a human to have negative thoughts and feelings towards criminals. The worse the crime, the stronger those feelings.

In one of the threads (Eve & the Apple) about 'The Da Vinci Code' someone has quoted this:
"If you look at the bible, there is exactly one word for "sin", it is "sin". It does not matter if the sin is premeditated murder or a white lie, they are both "sin"."

It sounds, Bella, as if you might go along with this, but how can that possibly be right?

Who decides what is a sin? Different nations have made very different decisions. And, whatever the Bible says, we cannot rely on it as it stands - without interpretation. It is very ancient. It comes from just one culture. It may not be the word of God at all. It is basically a history, not a lifestyle guide.

The ten commandments are open to interpretation.
The one that most of us would agree on is: Thou shalt not kill. Yet there was plenty of slaying and smiting in the Bible - often the work of God, or on his behalf.

And what about self-defence? It's got to be all right then. What about insects and animals?

Even if you are a fundamentalist Christian, you cannot just take the Bible as it is.

And to label homosexuality, or telling white lies for that matter, as a sin, comparable with terrorism, murder or rape, is little short of being a crime in itself. Who knows where such thinking might lead!