The Bible does not exclude homosexuals as acceptable people.

This should make for a good debate. Thanks for the acceptance of the challenge. --- "JESUS SAYS NOTHING ABOUT SAME SEX BEHAVIOR AT ALL... THE JEWISH PROPHETS ARE SILENT ABOUT HOMOSEXUALITY" My opponent concurred that, "That is true." However, he went on to explain that Jesus and Paul condemned sexual sin butwho is to say that homosexuality is sexual sin? It is a natural genetic and social occurance according to many leading studies and sources including the American Psychology Association. My opponent also mentioned that homosexuality as a taboo topic was not the doing of a religious group. I disagree with this but it is irrelevant to the topic of whether or not the Bible excludes homosexuality as acceptable, which it does not. --- "IT IS NOT IMMORAL BECAUSE OF THE FACT THAT THEY ARE INCAPABLE OF HAVING CHILDREN." My opponent and I agree on this aspect of this topic. Point dropped. --- "THE CITIES OF SODOM AND GAMORA WERE NOT DESTROYED BECAUSE OF THEIR HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOR BUT RATHER BECAUSE... OF THEIR ARROGANT WAYS." We both agree, seemingly, homosexuality was not the reason Sodom and Gamora was destroyed. Rather, it did, more than likely, have to do with sexual sin this, more than likely, did not include homosexuality. --- "LEVITICUS IS A HOLINESS CODE WRITTEN 3,000 YEARS AGO." Opponent - "The New Testament makes it clear that homosexuality is still considered an aberration" You mentioned Moses, a character of the Old Testament, not the new. --- "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. -Romans 1:24-27" This verse appears to be clear: Paul sees women having sex with women and men having sex with men, and he condemns that practice. But let's go back 2,000 years and try to understand why. Paul is writing this letter to Rome after his missionary tour of the Mediterranean. On his journey Paul had seen great temples built to honor Aphrodite, Diana, and other fertility gods and goddesses of sex and passion instead of the one true God the apostle honors. Apparently, these priests and priestesses engaged in some odd sexual behaviors -- including castrating themselves, carrying on drunken sexual orgies, and even having sex with young temple prostitutes (male and female) -- all to honor the gods of sex and pleasure. The Bible is clear that sexuality is a gift from God. Our Creator celebrates our passion. But the Bible is also clear that when passion gets control of our lives, we're in deep trouble. When we live for pleasure, when we forget that we are God's children and that God has great dreams for our lives, we may end up serving the false gods of sex and passion, just as they did in Paul's time. In our obsession with pleasure, we may even walk away from the God who created us -- and in the process we may cause God to abandon all the great dreams God has for our lives. Did these priests and priestesses get into these behaviors because they were lesbian or gay? I don't think so. Did God abandon them because they were practicing homosexuals? No. Read the text again. ([Homosexual] Reverend Mel White) --- PRO states, "During the last three decades, for example, organizations representing 1.5 million U.S. health professionals (doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, and educators) have stated definitively that homosexual orientation is as natural as heterosexual orientation" "...By your logic...the supposed aberration of homosexuality should never have been challenged to begin with..." Homosexuality should never have been questioned! It is perfectly natural. If science is not good enough proof to you that homosexuality is natural, then there obviously is no source or process good enough to prove that. I can't be expected to give you any better source than science. And why would God condemn something that he created? --- "that sexual orientation is determined by a combination of yet unknown pre- and post-natal influences" I can only quote the scientists at the APA. I imagine they've done experiments to prove that you cannot determine your sexual orientation but have simply not determined those exact influences. I am a bisexual American. I do not have a mental disorder. I was never molested or taught to be this way. I doubt that my God or your God condemns and will eventually chastise the way he supposedly created me.