Posted on 12/04/2004 5:17:59 PM PST by Mr. Silverback
Note: The following commentary includes graphic descriptions. This is not suitable for children.
“I’m at my wits’ end,” the young woman wrote. “I’ve asked pastors, friends, parents, God, and message boards this question and still haven’t received an intelligent answer that I can live with. Why are homosexual acts wrong? I’m a Christian and believe in the Bible, but this part always stumps me.”
According to my friend, Dr. J. Budziszewski, author of the excellent new book, Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students, disturbing questions like this show that church leaders aren’t providing young people with the whole picture about sexuality. They may be faithfully teaching God’s rules, but when asked why God made these rules, too often they say, “Take two aspirin, and wait for the questions to go away.”
The good news, says Budziszewski, is that we can answer disturbing questions. Where are the answers found? In our creational design.
“People say homosexuality isn’t natural,” the young woman complained in her letter, “but that can’t be true because it’s found among animals.” Budziszewski answers, “But our nature is how God designed us. What’s natural for human beings isn’t whatever you can find some animal doing; it’s whatever fulfills our design. Men and women were plainly designed for each other—not men for men, nor women for women.” Children can be born in no other way.
“But homosexual acts don’t harm anyone,” said the young woman. Budziszewski answers, “The idea that homosexual acts don’t harm anyone isn’t even close to being true; they harm those who perform them at every level. To begin with the most obvious level—the physical—how could it not harm a man to suffer physical trauma because body parts are repeatedly forced into bodily openings that were designed for a radically different function?” And the rates of a long, long list of diseases are also much higher among practicing homosexuals, and contrary to popular belief, this is true for lesbians as well as for “gay” men.
At the emotional level, Budziszewski explains, the damage of homosexual acts is just as grave. God designed the male-female pair to balance each other; by contrast, same-sex mating drives them out of balance. If you want an example, think of the anonymous, no-brakes promiscuity of men who have sex with hundreds, even thousands, of other men.
“And what about spiritual harm?” asks Budziszewski. “In homosexual acts, you’re seeking union with someone who is only your own mirror image, so in a way, you’re still trapped inside yourself. You haven’t experienced the power of marital sexuality to take you beyond the Self; you’re rejecting the challenge of union with someone who is really other. In that way, homosexual acts are less like marital intercourse than like masturbation with another body.”
That’s frank, even startling language, but what’s happened to our culture is startling too. When young people confused by the culture ask questions, they need clear, unvarnished answers to set their thinking straight. That’s why I recommend this great new book Ask Me Anything: Provocative Answers for College Students.
God’s rules for sex are never arbitrary; they are based on how He made us. As Budziszewski rightly says, it’s all in the design.
Even the ancient Jews knew the difference between ceremonial cleanliness and hard moral truth.
"God refers to turning certain people over to a reprobate mind, a physical change to the brain, where men lust for men and their women lust for other women receiving into ....."
There may very well a change in the brain...I was reading where the types of raw sex that homosexuals practise have induced hypothalmic changes similar to the way cocaine acts on the brain.
The pleasure sensors there in conjunction with the mental imprinting that occurs prefrontally(you get mentally programmed to only enjoying the actual style of sex that got you into trouble in the first place)literally locks a person's thinking into a pattern that becomes almost impossible save for God's grace and extreme fear of death and hell to break out of!
Homosexual sex is like cocaine addiction in its power to keep a person trapped in a spiraling downward path of depression and internal self revulsion, contrasted with increased outward disdain for anything good or spiritual!
The good news is that it does seem possible for homosexuals and lesbians to break the hold of sexual addiction thru God's grace. Many of them have had their sexual orientations healed and have married and have wonderful families. Some of them simply, hold their own thru the power of the cross and don't fullfill the urges of their flesh any longer. After all the memories, much like Paul's thorn of the flesh, will linger and the evil one will rub salt into the wounds on occasion...just to test!
"The good news is that it does seem possible for homosexuals and lesbians to break the hold of sexual addiction thru God's grace."
Yes! It's the only way to freedom, since the secular psychological establishment ahs retreated and collapsed in the face of the vast forces of the neo-pagan sensualists.
I think of it as a test of our love for Him. It's as if God is saying; "Good for you if you obey my rules when you understand the reasons for them. But what I want you to do, is obey me when you don't understand."
The tree in the garden was Adam & Eve's test, which they failed. There is no other reason for having put it there, that I can think of.
Of all the "rules" mentioned in Exodus 20: 3-17, one has all the characteristics of exactly the same kind of test for the present time.
Ever hear Greg Koukl (www.str.org)? Really sharp guy. I heard him asked that question on an interview, and found his answer helpful.
He said, "I write my books to be read. That's my designed purpose for every book I write. Now, that doesn't mean that some people don't use them as doorstops or paperweights; but that doesn't change the fact that I wrote them to be read."
Having said that, I agree with your main point. Our direction of reasoning shouldn't be, "Well, God said _____, and so I thought it over, and decided I'd go along with the Big Guy on that one." When Eve believed she had the right to determine for herself whether God was right or wrong about the fruit, the Fall was a done deal.
God is the one Being in the universe whose every word morally obliges consent.
But that doesn't mean (and I don't take it that you are arguing) that there is anything inappropriate with reasoning thus: "Given that God says ______, what can we discern about the wisdom we know lies behind that word?" Nine times out of ten, we can find a lot. But our obligation on the tenth is no less than on the nine.
Dan
Biblical Christianity web site
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"I think of it as a test of our love for Him."
I know that many Christians don't believe as my church believes, and don't accept as scripture some of the works we accept, but perhaps this will illustrate your point?
6 And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.
7 And then the angel spake, saying: This thing is a similitude of the sacrifice of the Only Begotten of the Father, which is full of grace and truth.
8 Wherefore, thou shalt do all that thou doest in the name of the Son, and thou shalt repent and call upon God in the name of the Son forevermore.
(Pearl of Great Price | Moses 5:6 - 8)
Sacrifices don't have to be burned on an altar to be made to the Lord.
There is no moral equivalent of the metal rod. If you cite the Bible, then you are arguing a tautology: What the Bible says is right IS right, because the Bible is the word of God. How do we know it is the word of God? Because it says so in the Bible.
There are certainly biological arguments against homosexuality. But there are identical arguments against anal heterosexual sex, oral sex, and other practices.
Ultimately, moral arguments do not need to be bolstered by reason, nor do they need to withstand reason's test. In many cases, moral codes (norms) derive from social utility, and violation of them has negative consequences. But that model puts the cart before the horse: behavior creates morals, not vice versa.
In the purely moral model, one must admit to a transcendent authority who is the author of absolutes. Those absolutes may or may not withstand the scrutiny of our puny reason.
Yes, it is.
Strong stuff.
Thank you.
"I’m a Christian and believe in the Bible, but this part always stumps me.”
LOL!
If you believed you wouldn't be "stumped".
In other words you don't ACCEPT this.
I believe in redemption if the person wants it more terribly than wealth. I treat both hetero and homosexual with respect and willingness to live and let live, unless or until the person shows me a bad side to their personality then I'll quietly move on.
Once I came home from work, dead tired, only to greet two very muscular, large black men and their wives in my front yard. They were angry that my son had chased their children.
Here comes my gay neighbor swishing across the street in his flip flops and firmly plants his skinny frame between me and the men. Turns out my son was chasing their boys because he had just witnessed them steal a neighbors two scooters.
I mean here my gay neighbor was ready to go to the ground for me, and I had avoided ever meeting him. We are friends now, since my husband died he has insisted I keep busy, and last night, finding me in my usual depression tears, he insisted we decorate my yard for Christmas.
So we and my next door neighbors were out until midnight putting up my Christmas lawn decorations. You talk about an eye for design, he makes a great designer, and I acutally had fun for the first time in a long time, even though it was sprinkling rain.
When someone shows me that much love and caring, that is what they are going to get back from me, I can't help it.
wow, could you be more wrong?
yes but there are some things that have no answers, things for which we are not supposed to know the answers to until we reach heaven..
that comes from liberal (the true meaning) interpretations of His word.. it's really not that complicated.
| What We Can Do To Help Defeat the "Gay" Agenda |
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| Homosexual Agenda: Categorical Index of Links (Version 1.1) |
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| Myth and Reality about Homosexuality--Sexual Orientation Section, Guide to Family Issues" |
I like that:
"In the purely moral model, one must admit to a transcendent authority who is the author of absolutes. Those absolutes may or may not withstand the scrutiny of our puny reason."
As long as you don't have children.
Rather than scaling the summit, we erode the mountain.
"Dr. J. Budziszewski"
In the case of Professor Budziszewski...I wish the US immigration officer had
told his forbearor...better change that family name to something simple like Burton
or Buck or...
I can NEVER rememeber how to spell "Budziszewski".
I'm sorry, but you're judging this person by a standard that is not only too harsh for a young Christian, but perhaps even too harsh for a mature Christian.
First, just because a person doesn't understand why something is unholy doesn't mean they think it's holy, or that God's a goober. It just means they don't understand. It is the job of the more mature Christian to help them understand.
Second, building faith takes time. If we were everything we were supposed to be as believers right away, no growth process would be necessary. This girl may not have even read the whole Bible yet, much less come to a place of total maturity. They don't call them "babes in Christ" for nothing.
Third, there is a vast gap between questioning God's word and asking questions about God's word.
Lastly, if this young woman had approached you instead of the Bud-man to ask these questions, would you have charged that she does not accept God's word and turned her away without an answer? If so, would that have strengthened her faith or in any way advanced the cause of Christ?
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