From: gsmith@concour.cs.concordia.ca (Gene Ward Smith)
Newsgroups: talk.religion.misc
Subject: Re: Homosexuality and Christianity
Date: 12 Apr 92 03:52:47 GMT
Organization: Centre Interuniversitaire en Calcul Mathematique Algebrique

In article <1992Apr10.191301.4386@en.ecn.purdue.edu>
muehlhau@en.ecn.purdue.edu (John Muehlhausen) writes:

>I think I have been convinced that this causes people to be defensive
>and no one is going to change their mind based on what I think - I can
>only hope that they will change their minds based on what God thinks.

If you insist on putting the matter in terms of attack, I don't think
the response to you has been entirely along the lines of defending
against attack. What some people have been pointing out (to no avail)
is that it is not merely a question of placing the homosexual in the
dock, with the intention of finding a verdict of guilty, or possibly
even not guilty.

There is also the question of the moral legitimacy of the other side
here. Have you *ever* seriously considered the question of whether you
are doing what God wants? Or are you so convinced that you are better
because you are heterosexual (an extremely common attitude, I might
add) that you find the question almost literally inconceivable? I
would really like to hear why you think you have the moral standing
in the first place to sit in judgment over things which on the
face of it would seem to be none of your concern?

>Let me just say that if I were a non-believer, I would still feel that
>homosexuality was inherently _wrong_, and I would not give any credibility to
>someone who was trying to convince me of the nature of Christ's love but had
>this kind of perversion in their own life.  

And this illustrates precisely what I am trying to say. It is not a
matter of what the Bible says--you admit it. It is just that you think
you are better; other people are not cut from so fine a cloth. Or at
least, this to me is what it sounds like. How is it possible that you can
fail to realize this attitude might be a serious moral error?

>"But do not let immorality or any impurity or greed _EVEN BE NAMED AMONG YOU_,
>as is proper among saints;"

Do you see how circular this is? Only because your eyes see evil do
you think to apply this to homosexuals. You see evil, and feel it must
be exterior to you, an impurity to be rooted out. But if what you see
without is really within you, what then? What should follow is that
you learn to look again at the world with the eyes of innocence, and
understand the world according to the teaching of the Voice of
God--the Spirit which will teach you inwardly to the extent you will
allow it.

People think that innocence is ignorance, and wisdom is found in the
cynical knowingness which sees evil--and secretly rejoices. But the
wisdom of innocence is to not see evil where none exists. And by not
attributing this evil to others, we will not be attributing it to
ourselves--which is precisely what we had hoped to gain by projecting
our sense of unworthiness and "dirtiness" onto another.

The obsessive concern over the "sinful filth" of gays is like the
concern people once had over leprosy as a symbol of sin. Lepers
symbolized sinfulness and rejection by God. But it is *symbolic* sin,
not actual, and what it stands for as a symbol is in *you*, not in
someone else. According to the story, it is when St. Francis kissed
the leper that his journey really began. It is precisely to the extent
that you find homosexuals repellent that you must learn to replace
this attitude with love, or find it a stumbling-block.

>I apologize for exhibiting somewhat less than the fruit of the Spirit in
>these matters.  It is my earnest prayer that the homosexual Christians on
>this board will at least take it upon themselves to _honestly_ decide if
>their lifestyle jives with these verses.

I would ask for the same honesty before the Spirit from you.


--
     Gene Ward Smith/Brahms Gang/CICMA/Concordia University 
                  gsmith@concour.cs.concordia.ca
Xref: sparky talk.religion.misc:7125 soc.culture.jewish:8044