So your answer to my friend would be, "Yes you may still be attracted to men, but you must remain celibate".
My answer to them would be the same as my answer to an alcoholic. Drunkenness is a sin. You should strive with all your effort to live a sober life, as this is the command and call of God for those who would follow Jesus Christ. I don't understand what is challenging about this or why you think someone can actively and unremorsefully engage in a sinful lifestyle and call themselves a follower of Jesus.
Again, I'm telling you what my gay friends tell me about their feelings and attractions, and that I don't feel any of us are in any position to say otherwise (IOW act as if we know their feelings better than they do). If he says to me "I can't stop being attracted to the same sex any more than you can stop being attracted to the opposite sex", what I am going to say? "Yes you can"? If I say anything that questions that, I'm implying that I think I know his feelings better than he does, which is ridiculously arrogant.
No, I very directly said that their attraction is very real. However, the desires of our flesh should not dictate the direction of our lives.
“But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.” (Galatians 5:16–18, ESV)
Well obviously you're getting very defensive and don't seem to be open to what I'm saying.
Not defensive at all. Im just baffeled by your confession that homosexuality is a sin and yet your determination to defend a sinful behavior. I would have the same reaction if you were defending alcoholism, drug abuse, child abuse, or prostitution. Yes, God loves sinful people, and we should reach out to them with love in grace. The loving thing to do for a prostitute when developing a relationship with him/her is to become their friend and lovingly encourage them away from such a lifestyle. To act as if they cannot help it or ignore the issue is not loving, nor Christ-like. Jesus was not afraid to address people's sin...whether it was the relationship of a Samaritan woman (John 4), a prostitute (John 8), the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, or the pride and unbelief of his own disciples. I believe Jesus' message is summed up by Gospel writers as "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." It seems that you feel the "Repent" part is unnecessary, or insensitive, or unloving...perhaps all three.
And you don't believe those things also occur in heterosexual circles? If I went to singles bars do you think what I saw would be representative of the heterosexual community as a whole?
Well, actually I would say clubs and bars are a very good indicator of where young people are in their view of sexuality and the direction of culture as a whole. My point is quite simple: if you enter heterosexual club or bar and then go into a homosexual club or bar...you will see a mind-numbing difference. Neither are healthy...but there is a very distinct difference between the two.
Where have I "attacked the church"? And pointing out the legal aspects of this issue is neither defending or excusing anything. It is simply stating the legal facts. But it is interesting that you see it that way.
My point is that there is also some good things the church is doing in these areas along with the messes. Your focus seems to be exclusively that the church is "hateful" on these issues. I've been simply trying to provide some balance. Some of the "hatefulness" is simply a branding our culture gives to anyone who dares claim a behavior is wrong. In other instances, Christians have definitely addressed this issue improperly, in my opinion. We should be more loving and address the issue with individuals rather than through courts and laws. However, my impression from what I have seen in your comments is that you have nothing good to say about the church on this issue and the only proper way to address it is to say nothing at all. You seem to indicate that anything else is "hateful" or insensitive to these individuals. You seem solely focused on pointing out all the faults of Christians. Remember, Christians are people too. Lets not throw Christians under the bus as if homosexuals are the only people that count here. The Church takes enough criticism from the world that I don't think its helpful for Christians to join in. Lets get solutions rather than joining in on the criticism as a means of identifying with the world.
How about this....it's a sin and how to handle that is between the sinner and God, not between the sinner, me, and God? Did it ever occur to you that it's not our place to tell anyone "Well, God is going to ask you to do this and that"?
This is a terribly postmodern and unbiblical approach to sin in my opinion. I think it is the place of church leaders to do this very thing. Have you not read the Epistles or 1 & 2 Timothy & Titus? The Epistles are filled with rebukes and corrections for churches. Its also filled with warnings about the lifestyles of pagans and those without faith. I think your approach displays a very weak ecclesiology. The Church is a community of people of faith who should build each other up and hold each other accountable. It is not a collection of atomized individuals who have their own "personal relationship" with Jesus. The Bible knows no such language and to view the church this way is more of a result of an egotistical culture steeped in "rights" and individualism than anything taught in the Bible.
Scripture clearly states that greed and love of money will bring nations down, and it's something Jesus spoke about frequently (while not saying one thing about homosexuality). Yet based on the activities and rhetoric of today's Christians, you'd think homosexuality was the one and only sin.
Yes. And as I have said before, I hear such messages every week at church. Very few churches I know of (other than the health and wealth groups) encourage greed or defend the love of money. Rather, I hear messages almost every week on generosity, tithing, and focusing on the eternal rather than the temporal.
However, we live in a culture today where to speak out against homosexual unions as being "hate speech" and many mainline deonimations are completely embracing this lifestyle and even have clergy who are homosexual. I would be just as intent on this issue if the church was preaching pro-greed messages. Preachers who are greedy or caught embezzling money or have expensive cars and planes are criticized heavily by both the church and our culture. However, it is quite the opposite with homosexuality. The culture is embracing it as something to be celebrated and churches are falling in line for the most part. This is a very different scenario. If I teach a class on God's purposes for sexuality and male and female relationships and say anything about homosexuality being wrong....I am labeled a bigot by people both inside and outside the church. This is not true if I teach on God's purposes for wealth and the importance of generosity and self-sacrifice financially.
I think you assessment of the state of our culture and the church if quite off base.