Why Homosexuality Is Not Just An Issue

The way people ultimately view homosexuality, whether in religion, politics or modern popular culture, is all determined by traditional or changing points of view. This essay will discuss mainly liberal and conservative Christian interpretations of the Bible, including many verses that may support or condemn homosexuality. It will also discuss the political views and laws against same-sex marriage and the social activism in the homosexual community. This is all about view points and it has many conflicting views and arguments.

In the past ten years, the nonstop discussion and stress has been over the question of homosexuality. Are homosexuals to be excluded from the community of faith? Article writers, Richard B. Hays and Walter Wink explain their perspective and answer the ongoing talk.

The struggle of homosexuality is like all other struggles, they are illnesses that cripple our abilities to live life under God’s will. With all illnesses, it is much easier to walk through the struggle with a team that supports you, then alone or with a group following with curliness. As a follower of Christ we are called to love with no conditions, to love with grace despite the wrong of the sin that was committed by an individual. 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 says, “Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things.” (English Standard Version) The love we extend to our brothers and sisters is to be formulated by a humble heart. When we don’t express such love to one another it is like adding gas to the fire, we are just giving more reason “feeding” to the their choice of sin by being cold hearted. We all need to be reminded at times that God loves us despite our wrongs, it is our job a Christians to remind one another of this. The result of such is not to eliminate the wrongness of sin, but to help one another redirect our focus back on God. Balswick quotes from Yarhouse (2010) saying,” I want to help people live their lives and identify themselves in ways that are in keeping with their Christian beliefs and values” (91).(Balswick & Balswick, 2014, p. 234) There is all sorts of ways satin try’s to pull us away from Christ, his work is only work of sin. We all need the life saver of God’s forgiveness, but it is also something we need to offer to each other according to Ephesians 4:32. All Christian communities who love on individuals with struggles of all kinds including the struggle of sexual identity, can

Downing provides a great viewpoint on the meaning of homosexuality throughout this article. I never thought too much about homosexuality and how individuals in this group might feel in their position, but this article gave me an introductory understanding on the origin and how it came to be over the years. Homosexuality is still an unstable topic even in today’s society. Many people have varying views on the matter and conflicting opinions clash on a daily basis. I remember having many gay or lesbian friends in high school, but I never treated them any differently from anybody else. I think everyone has a right to choose the gender or person they are interested in, but this does not work out so easily in reality. Many people are afraid of coming out due to the

Miller demonstrates in “Our Mutual Joy: The Religious Case for Gay Marriage” the importance in Scripture concerning gay marriage and why it isn’t necessarily valid in all arguments. The gay community suffers biblical scrutiny at all times because there are people, and whole communities such as churches, who don’t agree with their sexual orientation. Miller defends this community by comparing it to a heterosexual marriage because after all, it isn’t any different. “More basic than theology, though, is human need.” (Miller). What any person wants is to love and to be loved; why should this be exclusive to only heterosexuals? Using statistics to prove her points, she turns to a poll: “(In the Newsweek poll, 55 percent of respondents said that married heterosexuals who have sex with someone other than their spouses are more morally objectionable than a gay couple in a committed sexual relationship.)” (Miller). This shows how the idea of marriage has changed. Miller also compares old traditions that are presently

However, it is possible that Spoon was disturbed about their experience in the past that they failed to reconsider their relationship with God. Yes, they did, indeed, relate their relationship with God to an ex-boyfriend and someone they knew well, but did not think about a lot anymore (58). Unfortunately, they did not realize that God loves everyone. The bible states, “But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). Although God might not appreciate how Spoon identifies themself and how they disobeyed His word, regardless, God forgives and loves them. Basically, God loves homosexuals, nevertheless, does not necessarily suggest He accepts homosexual relations. According to Bishop Thomas Gumbleton Interview, he expressed how God knew his brother was homosexual from the beginning. Then explained how God does not condemn his brother from being a homosexual and that he was not going to Hell because of who his brother was. Bishop Gumbleton ends his remark by stating that his brother is the way he is and God made him the way he is and in the providence of God, that’s his brother’s life (Gumbleton, para 12). As in the film Three to Infinity, it stated, “I am not a girl, I am a person”, that, ordinarily, was what Spoon was trying to inhibit (56:15).

The Bible does not teach messages about god loving everyone equally (God, 2011). The Westboro Baptist Church discuss on their web site that the Bible has very strict rules about how a person is suppose to live their life. (God, 2011). Being homosexual, or even allowing homosexuality to occur, is against those rules (God, 2011). A person must follow the Bible to an extreme to be considered sinless (God, 2011).

This immersion into this new world is what prompted Marin to start the Marin Foundation, an organization that helps bring awareness about the GLBT community to the Christian community in an attempt to build bridges between the two traditionally ostracized groups. In this book he starts out telling stories from his experiences and the relationships he has made and what he has learned since immersing himself in the community. This helps the reader get to know the GLBT community and remind Christians that they struggle with similar things that we do, and help break down some of the stigma walls that have been built up over the years. After that, it becomes a bit more practical in giving the five steps for helping make more constructive conversation and help build those bridges and then eventually cross them altogether. This portion has a lot of biblical references, not to provide ways to condemn the GLBT community but rather help us level the playing field and remind Christians that we are sinful as

The second chapter, “Writing the Homophile Self”, describes the struggles many homosexuals face in Christianity. White analyzes the relationship, or lack thereof, some individuals have with religion due to the damning nature of homosexuality. In contrast, others did choose to continue to follow God and find comfort in more accepting congregations. Regardless, many homosexuals pushed for a social reform rather than the therapeutic methods. Doing so, the homophile movement brought same-sex relationships to light within the modern world and modern

Unfortunately in the currently society, one of the many terrible situations that is seen is the situation of same-sex attraction. This issue has caused tremendous stress, not only on a part of society that somehow has kept many of the existing moral principles, but this issue has also affected the individuals who were are affected and all those who are around them, either by the shame that this entails, or simply by the ignorance that exists among many who did not want to accept this terrible reality.

In Chapter 10 of Rudolph K. Sanders’ book, Christian Counseling Ethics: A Handbook for Psychologists, Therapists and Pastors, Mark Yarhouse, Jill Kays and Stanton Jones discuss the “sexual minority” as it pertains to the field of professional counseling. This group is defined as “individuals with same sex attractions or behavior, regardless of self-identification” (Sanders, et. al., 2013, p. 252). By looking at counseling the homosexual community through its etiology, standards by which a counselor should proceed with treatment, and the options a client has on deciding treatment options, we can be better prepared as Christian counselors to be better prepared in serving the needs of others.

The example referenced from Dr. Chanderbhan was that the ideas from the Catholic church having a large issue with the LGBT community, and their rights to marriage. The Bible tells us that same-sex relationships are a sin. He explained that it was all in how you look at the situation. We are instructed not to judge others in the scripture. Though we need to be wary to protect the righteous path.

Homosexuality is a heavily debated topic nowadays. They are a lot of mix sentiments when it comes to this topic. Some people believe that homosexuality is based on

Homosexuality is genetic! How can this statement be true? It is indeed true in the precise fact that Romans 3:23 points out, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Humanity has been cursed with being genetically embedded with sin and a sinful nature. The current worldview is that homosexuality and multiple sexual orientations come from nature, and not nurture. This viewpoint is correct in that it is human nature to sin and seek out one’s own selfish desire. However, No one is prescribing a remedy for this sin. “Become sober-minded as you ought, and stop sinning; for some have no knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame.” (1 Corinthians 15:34) What the world has done is celebrated this sin and deceive youth through their much-wanted desire for acceptance and identity. There is a copious amount of research out there, along with world definitions of each orientation, and a call for acceptance of others’ orientations. There is also the other side of the argument and the fundamental truths that come from the word of God. Various resources are available to help youth leaders, teachers, parents and pastors to have a higher understanding of this cultural issue and the solutions and treatments available for youth struggling in this area. Spiritual leaders in the home, church, and schools ought to be prepared to teach on these topics readily, since this world, in which many youth are daily immersed, will readily present its own point of view with utter

Upon entering this course, my understanding of human sexuality was decent; I was aware of certain aspects of sexuality such as being straight, gay, lesbian, queer, transgender, etc. Nevertheless, I did not realize how expansive sexuality is; it never occurred to me that sexual health, prostitution, marriage, rape, sex trafficking, divorce, families, etc., all fell under the umbrella of human sexuality. Books and essays such as Renee Hill’s Walk Together and David Shneer’s “Out of School” showcased the multiple facets of human sexuality and how terms like queer are not directly related to homosexuality. While sexuality and homosexuality are linked, frequently, people mistake them as being synonymous; before entering this class, I was searching for a definition of sexuality, and often in the thesaurus section of dictionary websites homosexuality and or sexual orientation was considered a synonym of sexuality. Formerly, I too would have agreed they were the same, however, after taking this course, I concluded that homosexuality is just one topic in the broad discussion of sexuality. My understanding of sexuality now is that it