Gay Is Okay

My opponent did not address my contention of defining normative standards. I assume that means we agree that God's Word is the standard from which we are to proceed. I will address my opponents arguments paragraph-by-paragraph.Paragraph 3:Jesus says in Matthew 5:17-19, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished. Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” According to Jesus himself, God's Law will be valid until the heaven and earth pass away. Have heaven and earth passed away yet? No, they have not. Therefore, God's law has not changed. It is still valid. And according to the Bible, women were never supposed to be looked down on. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”(Eph. 5:22). “An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain”(Prov. 31:10-11). My opponent is arguing against misconceptions of biblical teaching. My opponent is constructing strawmen and attacking those, rather than the actual teaching of the Scriptures.My opponent likewise appeals to a culturally relativistic ethic. “Things change.” However, the folly of this ethic is seen when applied to other laws from God's Word. We are told not to murder (Ex. 20:13) and not to steal (v.15). If the ethical principle is that “things change,” then it very well may be the same when it comes to murder and theft. To my opponent, if a friend stole from you and you told them that stealing is not okay, what would your response be if they said, “things change”? Paragraph 4:My opponent says that not treating everyone equally is a sin. Again, this is one of those statements that I can agree with prima facie. But it must be qualified. Does the murderer, pedophile, rapist, and such deserve to be treated in the same way as everyone else? Justice demands discrimination against those who break laws. If we were to treat everyone equally without discriminating against those who break laws then society would crumble.If telling someone that they are wrong is a sin, then God/Jesus is a sinner. (Zech. 3:2; Pss. 119:21; Jude 1:9; Jer. 30:11; Heb. 12:5)If putting someone at a lower position is a sin, then God/Jesus is a sinner (which I never did, by the way). (Deut. 8:2,16; Isa. 5:15; Pss. 116:6; Mark 10:17-22). God strikes at our pride, bringing us low and humble before Him, and that my friend, is a good thing. “He adorns the humble with salvation”(Pss. 149:4).Who is ignoring the Word of God? The one arguing that the Law of God is still valid today or the one arguing that “things change”?If dissing the Westboro Baptist Church because they refuse to love God and to love their neighbor is a sin, then Jesus is a sinner (Matt. 15:1-20; Matt. 23).Jesus is guilty of the things you listed as sins. And if Jesus is a sinner, then he was not a perfect sacrifice. And a perfect sacrifice can never take away sins (Heb. 10:1-18). And that means there is no hope for you or I to be saved.Paragraph 5: I agree that if homosexuality is a sin, God will love. And I am so glad to hear that you have been able to experience God's life-changing love in your life. God never leaves us where we are at. Even you attested to that fact. Titus 2:12-14 says that “the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people, TRAINING US TO RENOUNCE UNGODLINESS AND WORDLY PASSIONS, AND TO LIVE SELF-CONTROLLED, UPRIGHT, AND GODLY LIVES in the present age, waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ, WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR US TO REDEEM US FROM ALL LAWLESSNESS AND TO PURIFY FOR HIMSELF A PEOPLE FOR HIS OWN POSSESSION WHO ARE ZEALOUS FOR GOOD WORKS.”God's love is not a static love that leaves us unchanged. If homosexuality is a sin, then God will work out the salvation within a Christian to fight against that sin so that the Christian may be conformed to the image of God's Son (Rom. 8:28-30;Phil. 2:12-13). Paragraph 6: My opponent ended this paragraph by saying “You were just blinded by something. What? I have no idea.” This last sentence leads to the conclusion that this paragraph does not have any valid point. If I were to tell an atheist that they were blinded to the evidence of God's existence, they would expect me to tell them what is blinding them. Otherwise, it would seem that I am making a naked assertion. My opponent's entire paragraph is a naked assertion. Paragraph 7:I never said that the homosexual life is boring. I said that we do not want the homosexual, by forsaking the practice of homosexuality, to live a more boring life. There is a difference. The point I am trying to make is like what C.S. Lewis said: “It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”As entertaining and attention grabbing as a homosexual lifestyle may be, life lived in accord with God's law is much more so. That is what I am saying.I am not stereotyping gays as non-Christians. I would say many gays that profess to be Christians are not, because they insist on affirming something for which Jesus died for. I am not talking about my opponent. I have not had hours of long conversation with Pro, as I have had with many other gays. It is a case by case basis. The stereotyping question can be flipped: Are you stereotyping me as a Christian who stereotypes gays as non-Christians? Again, I ask my opponent a) by what standard and b) who told you that homosexuality is okay? How do you know that I sinned by dissing the baptist church? Why do you believe that God will save us? Where did you get that information?Thank you and I turn it over to Pro.