Posted on 01/17/2004 7:45:55 PM PST by Dubya
WICHITA FALLS, Texas (BP)--I received an e-mail from a member of our community about a sermon I had preached concerning homosexuality. "Why do you feel you can speak with such authority on this subject when Jesus is quoted not one single time on the topic of homosexuality?" he asked.
If you are a connoisseur of the cable news channels, you probably heard the same question posed to those who opposed the election of a homosexual bishop in the Episcopal Church last year or Massachusetts' supreme court declaring that "marriage" rights must be extended to homosexuals.
"If Jesus had nothing to say against homosexuality," they say, "why should we?" That argument is seriously flawed in several ways.
First, it assumes that Jesus' words are more authoritative than the rest of Scripture -- something the Bible itself never claims. When New Testament passages that condemn homosexual conduct such as Romans 1:26-27, 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 and 1 Timothy 1:9-10 are cited, the typical response is, "Well, those are just the writings of the Apostle Paul." But even the Apostle Peter (who had his own share of disagreements with Paul) recognized Paul's words as authoritative and called them "scripture" (2 Peter 3:16). Since that time, Christians have historically recognized all of the Bible as equally authoritative.
But even more significant is the fact that Jesus clearly did address the issue of homosexual "marriage." In a "Q&A" with the Pharisees about marriage and divorce, Jesus reaffirmed God's design for marriage as first expressed in the opening chapters of Genesis. "Have you not read, that He who created them from the beginning made the male and female, and said, 'For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh'?" (Matthew 19:4-5).
In these two brief verses Jesus affirmed that God intended for sex to be practiced within the bounds of a heterosexual ("male and female") marriage ("shall cleave to his wife" not "his significant other").
Jesus never directly addressed the issue of bestiality, incest, pedophilia, necrophilia or any other sexual aberration. He didn't need to. By upholding God's original plan for human sexuality, He automatically condemned any deviation from that standard. We should not need a constitutional amendment to tell us what God has said from the beginning: Marriage is for a man and a woman. Period. I realize it is trite, but it is nevertheless true: The first couple God placed in the Garden was Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
The reason God's guidelines for marriage are preserved in Scripture are not for His benefit, but for ours. For example, suppose you purchase a new television set and read in the owner's manual that you should use only a 120-volt outlet. "The manufacturer is being too narrow-minded," you complain. "The set belongs to me, and if I want to use a 220-volt outlet, that's my business." Obviously, the manufacturer gave those instructions for your benefit. He wired the set and knows under what conditions it operates best.
Instead of pounding our pulpits in fury and spewing venomous denunciations about homosexuals, we who believe in the authority of Scripture should remind people that the Bible is God's "owner's manual" for all areas of life, including sexuality. God's commands were given for our well-being. Since He wired us, He knows that the optimum place for sex to be enjoyed is within the boundaries of a heterosexual, married relationship.
What would Jesus say about homosexual marriages? The same thing He would say about adultery and premarital sex. "Go back and read the Owner's manual ... then have a good time." --30-- Robert Jeffress is pastor of First Baptist Church in Wichita Falls, Texas. He is the author of thirteen books including the upcoming "Hell? Yes!"
What would Jesus say about this . .
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Throughout history, the major civilizations major religions condemned homosexuality.1 Until 1961 homosexual acts were illegal throughout America.
Gays claim that the "prevailing attitude toward homosexuals in the U.S. and many other countries is revulsion and hostility....for acts and desires not harmful to anyone."3 The American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association assured the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986 that "no significant data show that engaging in...oral and anal sex, results in mental or physical dysfunction."4
The major surveys on homosexual behavior are summarized below. Two things stand out 1) homosexuals behave similarly world-over, and 2) as Harvard Medical Professor, Dr. William Haseltine,33 noted in 1993, the "changes in sexual behavior that have been reported to have occurred in some groups have proved, for the most part, to be transient. For example, bath houses and sex clubs in many cities have either reopened or were never closed."
US16 US13 US US18 Denmark20 US19 London27 Sydney/London26 Canada25 1940s1977 83/84 1983 1984 1983 1985 1991 ever ever ever in yr in yr in mo in mo last 6mo oral/penile 83 99 100/99 99 86 67 anal/penile 68 91 93/98 95 92 95 100 oral/anal 59 83 92/92 63 69 89 55/65 urine sex 10 23 29/ fisting/toys 22 41/47 34 fecal sex-eating 4 8 enemas 11 11 torture sex 22 37 37 public/orgy sex 61 76 88 sex with minors 37 23 24/
ORAL SEX Homosexuals fellate almost all of their sexual contacts (and ingest semen from about half of these). Semen contains many of the germs carried in the blood. Because of this, gays who practice oral sex verge on consuming raw human blood, with all its medical risks. Since the penis often has tiny lesions (and often will have been in unsanitary places such as a rectum), individuals so involved may become infected with hepatitis A or gonorrhea (and even HIV and hepatitis B). Since many contacts occur between strangers (70% of gays estimated that they had had sex only once with over half of their partners17,27), and gays average somewhere between 106 and 1105 different partners/year, the potential for infection is considerable.
RECTAL SEX Surveys indicate that about 90% of gays have engaged in rectal intercourse, and about two-thirds do it regularly. In a 6-month long study of daily sexual diaries,3 gays averaged 110 sex partners and 68 rectal encounters a year.
Rectal sex is dangerous. During rectal intercourse the rectum becomes a mixing bowl for 1) saliva and its germs and/or an artificial lubricant, 2) the recipient's own feces, 3) whatever germs, infections or substances the penis has on it, and 4) the seminal fluid of the inserter. Since sperm readily penetrate the rectal wall (which is only one cell thick) causing immunologic damage, and tearing or bruising of the anal wall is very common during anal/penile sex, these substances gain almost direct access to the blood stream. Unlike heterosexual intercourse (in which sperm cannot penetrate the multilayered vagina and no feces are present),7 rectal intercourse is probably the most sexually efficient way to spread hepatitis B, HIV syphilis and a host of other blood-borne diseases.
Tearing or ripping of the anal wall is especially likely with "fisting," where the hand and arm is inserted into the rectum. It is also common when "toys" are employed (homosexual lingo for objects which are inserted into the rectum--bottles, carrots, even gerbils8). The risk of contamination and/or having to wear a colostomy bag from such "sport" is very real. Fisting was apparently so rare in Kinsey's time that he didn't think to talk about it. By 1977, well over a third of gays admitted to doing it. The rectum was not designed to accommodate the fist, and those who do so can find themselves consigned to diapers for life.
FECAL SEX About 80% of gays (see Table) admit to licking and/or inserting their tongues into the anus of partners and thus ingesting medically significant amounts of feces. Those who eat or wallow in it are probably at even greater risk. In the diary study,5 70% of the gays had engaged in this activity--half regularly over 6 months. Result? --the "annual incidence of hepatitis A in...homosexual men was 22 percent, whereas no heterosexual men acquired hepatitis A." In 1992,26 it was noted that the proportion of London gays engaging in oral/anal sex had not declined since 1984.
While the body has defenses against fecal germs, exposure to the fecal discharge of dozens of strangers each year is extremely unhealthy. Ingestion of human waste is the major route of contracting hepatitis A and the enteric parasites collectively known as the Gay Bowel Syndrome. Consumption of feces has also been implicated in the transmission of typhoid fever,9 herpes, and cancer.27 About 10% of gays have eaten or played with [e.g., enemas, wallowing in feces]. The San Francisco Department of Public Health saw 75,000 patients per year, of whom 70 to 80 per cent are homosexual men....An average of 10 per cent of all patients and asymptomatic contacts reported...because of positive fecal samples or cultures for amoeba, giardia, and shigella infections were employed as food handlers in public establishments; almost 5 per cent of those with hepatitis A were similarly employed."10 In 1976, a rare airborne scarlet fever broke out among gays and just missed sweeping through San Francisco.10 The U.S. Centers for Disease Control reported that 29% of the hepatitis A cases in Denver, 66% in New York, 50% in San Francisco, 56% in Toronto, 42% in Montreal and 26% in Melbourne in the first six months of 1991 were among gays.11 A 1982 study "suggested that some transmission from the homosexual group to the general population may have occurred."12
URINE SEX About 10% of Kinsey's gays reported having engaged in "golden showers" [drinking or being splashed with urine]. In the largest survey of gays ever conducted,13 23% admitted to urine-sex. In the largest random survey of gays,6 29% reported urine-sex. In a San Francisco study of 655 gays,14 only 24% claimed to have been monogamous in the past year. Of these monogamous gays, 5% drank urine, 7% practiced "fisting," 33% ingested feces via anal/oral contact, 53% swallowed semen, and 59% received semen in their rectum during the previous month.
SADOMASOCHISM as the Table indicates, a large minority of gays engage in torture for sexual fun. Sex with minors 25% of white gays17 admitted to sex with boys 16 or younger as adults. In a 9-state study,30 33% of the 181 male, and 22% of the 18 female teachers caught molesting students did so homosexually (though less than 3% of men and 2% of women engage in homosexuality31). Depending on the study, the percent of gays reporting sex in public restrooms ranged from 14%16 to 41%13 to 66%,6 9%16, 60%13 and 67%5 reported sex in gay baths; 64%16 and 90%18 said that they used illegal drugs.
Fear of AIDS may have reduced the volume of gay sex partners, but the numbers are prodigious by any standard. Morin15 reported that 824 gays had lowered their sex-rate from 70 different partners/yr. in 1982 to 50/yr. by 1984. McKusick14 reported declines from 76/yr. to 47/yr. in 1985. In Spain32 the average was 42/yr. in 1989.
Death and disease accompany promiscuous and unsanitary sexual activity. 70%25 to 78%x,13 of gays reported having had a sexually transmitted disease. The proportion with intestinal parasites (worms, flukes, amoeba) ranged from 25%18 to 39%19 to 59%.20 As of 1992, 83% of U.S. AIDS in whites had occurred in gays.21 The Seattle sexual diary study3? reported that gays had, on a yearly average:
No wonder 10% came down with hepatitis B and 7% contracted hepatitis A during the 6-month study.
Smokers and drug addicts don't live as long as non-smokers or non-addicts, so we consider smoking and narcotics abuse harmful. The typical life-span of homosexuals suggests that their activities are more destructive than smoking nd as dangerous as drugs.
Obituaries numbering 6,516 from 16 U.S. homosexual journals over the past 12 years were compared to a large sample of obituaries from regular newspapers.23 The obituaries from the regular newspapers were similar to U.S. averages for longevity; the medium age of death of married men was 75, and 80% of them died old (age 65 or older). For unmarried or divorced men the median age of death was 57, and 32% of them died old. Married women averaged age 79 at death; 85% died old. Unmarried and divorced women averaged age 71, and 60% of them died old.
The median age of death for homosexuals, however, was virtually the same nationwide--and, overall, less than 2% survived to old age. If AIDS was the cause of death, the median age was 39. For the 829 gays who died of something other than AIDS, the median age of death was 42, and 9% died old. The 163 lesbians had a median age of death of 44, and 20% died old.
Two and eight-tenths percent (2.8%) of gays died violently. They were 116 times more apt to be murdered; 24 times more apt to commit suicide; and had a traffic-accident death-rate 18 times the rate of comparably-aged white males. Heart attacks, cancer and liver failure were exceptionally common. Twenty percent of lesbians died of murder, suicide, or accident--a rate 487 times higher than that of white females aged 25-44. The age distribution of samples of homosexuals in the scientific literature from 1989 to 1992 suggests a similarly shortened life-span.
Homosexuals rode into the dawn of sexual freedom and returned with a plague that gives every indication of destroying most of them. Those who treat AIDS patients are at great risk, not only from HIV infection, which as of 1992 involved over 100 health care workers,21 but also from TB and new strains of other diseases.24 Those who are housed with AIDS patients are also at risk.24 Those who are housed with AIDS patients are also at risk.24 Dr. Max Essex, chair of the Harvard AIDS Institute, warned congress in 1992 that "AIDS has already led to other kinds of dangerous epidemics...If AIDS is not eliminated, other new lethal microbes will emerge, and neither safe sex nor drug free practices will prevent them."28 At least 8, and perhaps as many as 30 29 patients had been infected with HIV by health care workers as of 1992.
The typical sexual practices of homosexuals are a medical horror story --imagine exchanging saliva, feces, semen and/or blood with dozens of different men each year. Imagine drinking urine, ingesting feces and experiencing rectal trauma on a regular basis. Often these encounters occur while the participants are drunk, high, and/or in an orgy setting. Further, many of them occur in extremely unsanitary places (bathrooms, dirty peep shows), or, because homosexuals travel so frequently, in other parts of the world.
Every year, a quarter or more of homosexuals visit another country.20 Fresh American germs get taken to Europe, Africa and Asia. And fresh pathogens from these continents come here. Foreign homosexuals regularly visit the U.S. and participate in this biological swapmeet.
Unfortunately the danger of these exchanges does not merely affect homosexuals. Travelers carried so many tropical diseases to New York City that it had to institute a tropical disease center, and gays carried HIV from New York City to the rest of the world.27 Most of the 6,349 Americans who got AIDS from contaminated blood as of 1992, received it from homosexuals and most of the women in California who got AIDS through heterosexual activity got it from men who engaged in homosexual behavior.23 The rare form of airborne scarlet fever that stalked San Francisco in 1976 also started among homosexuals.10
Society is legitimately concerned with health risks-- they impact our taxes and everyone's chances of illness and injury. Because we care about them, smokers are discouraged from smoking by higher insurance premiums, taxes on cigarettes and bans against smoking in public. These social pressures cause many to quit. They likewise encourage non-smokers to stay non-smokers.
Homosexuals are sexually troubled people engaging in dangerous activities. Because we care about them and those tempted to join them, it is important that we neither encourage nor legitimize such a destructive lifestyle.
1. Karlen A. SEXUALITY And HOMOSEXUALITY. NY Norton, 1971.
2. Pines B. BACK TO BASICS. NY Morrow, 1982, p. 211.
3. Weinberg G. SOCIETY AND THE HEALTHY HOMOSEXUAL. NY St. Martin's, 1972, preface.
4. Amici curiae brief, in Bowers v. Hardwick, 1986.
5. Corey L. & Holmes, K.K. Sexual transmission of Hepatitis A in homosexual men. "New England Journal of Medicine," 1980302435- 38.
6. Cameron P et al Sexual orientation and sexually transmitted disease. "Nebraska Medical Journal," 198570292-99; Effect of homosexuality upon public health and social order "Psychological Reports," 1989, 64, 1167-79.
7. Manligit, G.W. et al Chronic immune stimulation by sperm alloan- tigens. "Journal of the American Medical Association," 1984251 237-38.
8. Cecil Adams, "The Straight Dope," THE READER (Chicago, 3/28/86) [Adams writes authoritatively on counter-culture material, his column is carried in many alternative newspapers across the U.S. and Canada].
9. Dritz, S. & Braff. Sexually transmitted typhoid fever. "New England Journal of Medicine," 19772961359-60.
10. Dritz, S. Medical aspects of homosexuality. "New England Journal of Medicine," 1980302463-4.
11. CDC Hepatitis A among homosexual men --United States, Canada, and Australia. MMWR 199241155-64.
12. Christenson B. et al. An epidemic outbreak of hepatitis A among homosexual men in Stockholm, "American Journal of Epidemiology," 1982115599-607.
13. Jay, K. & Young, A. THE GAY REPORT. NY Summit, 1979.
14. McKusick, L. et al AIDS and sexual behaviors reported by gay men in San Francisco, "American Journal of Public Health," 1985 75493- 96.
15. USA Today 11/21/84.
16. Gebhard, P. & Johnson, A. THE KINSEY DATA. NY Saunders, 1979.
17. Bell, A. & Weinberg, M. HOMOSEXUALITIES. NY Simon & Schuster, 1978.
18. Jaffee, H. et al. National case-control study of Kaposi's sarcoma. "Annals Of Internal Medicine," 198399145-51.
19. Quinn, T. C. et al. The polymicrobial origin of intestinal infection in homosexual men. "New England Journal of Medicine," 1983309576-82.
20. Biggar, R. J. Low T-lymphocyte ratios in homosexual men. "Journal Of The American Medical Association," 19842511441-46; "Wall Street Journal," 7/18/91, B1.
21. CDC HIV/AIDS SURVEILLANCE, February 1993.
22. Chu, S. et al. AIDS in bisexual men in the U.S. "American Journal Of Public Health," 199282220-24.
23. Cameron, P., Playfair, W. & Wellum, S. The lifespan of homo- sexuals. Paper presented at Eastern Psychological Association Convention, April 17, 1993.
24. Dooley, W.W. et al. Nosocomial transmission of tuberculosis in a hospital unit for HIV-invected patients. "Journal of the American Medical Association," 19922672632-35.
25. Schechter, M.T. et al. Changes in sexual behavior and fear of AIDS. "Lancet," 198411293.
26. Elford, J. et al. Kaposi's sarcoma and insertive rimming. "Lancet," 1992339938.
27. Beral, V. et al. Risk of Kaposi's sarcoma and sexual practices associated with faecal contact in homosexual or bisexual men with AIDS. "Lancet," 1992339632-35.
28. Testimony before House Health & Environment Subcommittee, 2/24/92.
29. Ciesielski, C. et al. Transmission of human immunodeficiency virus in a dental practice. "Annals of Internal Medicine, 1992116 798-80; CDC Announcement Houston Post, 8/7/92.
30. Rubin, S. "Sex Education Teachers Who Sexually Abuse Students." 24th International Congress on Psychology, Sydney, Australia, August 1988.
31. Cameron, P. & Cameron, K. Prevalence of homosexuality. "Psychology Reports," 1993, in press; Melbye, M. & Biggar, R.J. Interactions between persons at risk for AIDS and the general population in Denmark. "American Journal of Epidemiology," 1992135593-602.
32. Rodriguez-Pichardo, A. et al. Sexually transmitted diseases in homosexual males in Seville, Spain, "Geniourin Medicina," 1990 66;423-427.
33. AIDS Prognosis, Washington Times, 2/13/93, C1.
But I think God's hand is everywhere. So when 1,000 people are working their 10 feet righteously, that can make a 1,000 times more impact than the single person's righteousness.
God's glory through our faith in Him is exponential.
The penalty for homosexuals caught in the act was stoning. The penalty for being caught in the act of adultery was stoning. Both required two witnesses.
What did Jesus say to the women taken in adultery after he had saved her from being stoned? Did he tell her that he was so loving and forgiving that she could continue on in her lifestyle and God would forgive her for each offense? No He did not. He told her to "Go and sin no more."
I believe he would tell active homosexuals the same, to go and sin no more.
He might also do a little exorcism.
Kind of like there needs to be a return to corporal punishment in the schools but don't let them touch my kid.
All homosexuality is an arrested sexual development whereby the person was unable to make a healthy, complete transition from same-sex attraction to opposite-sex attraction in adolescence.
This is usually the result of early childhood sexual abuse which produces confusion and repressed anxiety/rage in the child or young adult.
None of it is healthy. It is all a negative response to a some kind of trauma.
Homosexuality is a psychological disorder which severely limits a person's growth, peace of mind and physical well-being.
Ultimately, it is a death wish. And all longing for death is an anathema to God.
Luk 17:25 But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
Luk 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
Luk 17:27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
Luk 17:28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
Luk 17:29 But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all.
Luk 17:30 Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
Read and understand.
I saw a commercial for a broadcast TV show (airs tonight, I think) about celebrity weddings. The ad included a shot of two "brides" kissing. Even the commercials aren't safe anymore.
That's one asinine argument.
Christ never mentioned pedophilia, either. Does that make pedophilia okay? Of course not.
Christ stated that He came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. In Leviticus 18:22, it states, "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."
It was a sin then and it's still a sin.
Not to defend a homosexual as I disagree with their lifestyle greatly...but....
What do you say about having your part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone for passing off truths as lies (how small they could be), looking at another person as you look at your spouse, coveting your neighbors possesions... Etc. etc. etc.
As all Christians know, no sin is greater than another in the eyes of the Lord.
I guess you and I have to discuss it when we get to the lake of fire. Looks like very few people will enter heaven since everybody lies.
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