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You are both charitable and knowledgeable, and I appreciate that.

I am not in need of persuasive efforts, because I am not beguiled by the gay exegetes' Scriptural arguments at all. Not in the least. But I really do have a concern for the young and sexually confused (as well as the not-so-young), for whom I pray every single day.

I think they would benefit from the realization that all of Chritendom has been in agreement about the basic norms of sexual virtue until very, very recently (that is, until the mid-20th century).

That's assuming they have not already picked up a "Hermeneutic of Suspicion," an assumption that most Christians have, historically, been mostly wrong about most everything. Or the idea that what most Christians have believed, down the millenia and across contnents and cultures, is irrelevant. Some see themselves as being led by the Spirit, as they think, without the blinders and biases of the past.

A "Hermeneutic of Continuity" would help them avoid the tyranny of relativism and modernism, and find sound Scriptural interpretation. A "Hermeneutic of Suspicion" (or of historical indifference or skepticism) will impede them.

Do you see what I'm getting at?

So if young people won't listen to Jesus because they've been seduced by a "Hermeneutic of Suspicion", you insert a "Hermeneutic of Continuity" to work a faith in them that Jesus' words were unable to?

To what end? To keep them from supporting sodomy and fake marriage? Is that the only goal? The main goal? A worthwhile goal?

A major theme in the Bible is the story of the remnant. If we're discouraged and disheartened by seeing wickedness on every hand, it's because we missed that theme. Read the parable of the sower and the soils. Read about the wide gate and the narrow one. Read the story of Noah, or the story of Lot, or Elijah, or Jeremiah. Read about the few thousand out of roughly a million or so Jews on Pentecost. Read about Paul preaching like a man obsessed with spreading the good news, and being run out of town after town for it. Read about the rejection en masse of the warning judgments in Revelation.

I preach from the Word what I know every chance I get, as persuasively as I can. And I grieve over the lost souls who reject the gospel, the slaves who refuse freedom. And I pray God give me more wisdom and prudence and love in my efforts.

But I won't take it upon myself to devise some "better way to reach the lost" or, as you put it, "help them avoid the tyranny of relativism and modernism, and find sound Scriptural interpretation." Paul, in his wisdom and prudence, preached differently to different audiences, and I need a lot of improvement in that area. But I just have to do my best to preach the Word...God will do His work with it.

Shouldn't I just trust Him? If He says, "Deliver this message," do I need to spice it up so people will listen? Do I need trumpets and banners? Picnics and potlucks? NFL Nights and door prizes? Choirs and concerts? Fancy buildings and fancy clothes? Big screens and bell towers?

I have a Bible. In it is the Word of God.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.

That's good enough for me.