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.
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Remember when you were little and you asked your parents why something was so and they said, "Because I said so"... the same applies to the Bible.. I don't question the Lord's wisdom, I just accept it.
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"Remember when you were little and you asked your parents why something was so and they said, "Because I said so"... the same applies to the Bible.. I don't question the Lord's wisdom, I just accept it."
I have every intention of asking Him "Why?" when I get there. I'm trying to obey, even though I don't always understand why he wants us to do some things, and refrain from others. I did not always feel that way, though, and I found out the hard way that some of the things he asks us not to do are not good for us. I have many fewer of those "Why?" questions than I did 30 years ago. I didn't much like it when my parents used that "I'm older than you, and know more." arguement, either. Some folks can learn by being told, some only learn my messing up. Some don't even learn from that. Maybe that is why he gave us rules we don't always understand? Begins to look likely to me, anyway. What do you think about it?
Wrong. Their selfish, animalistic acts have increased the prevalence of diseases such as HIV into our population that has also killed innocent people, hemophiliacs, wives, newborns, etc. These people are a public health nightmare.
I would take this a bit further to suggest that those who want a God (and His word) to condone homosexuality (e.g., I was born this way) have fashioned a new god for themselves. And the new god looks just like them. In essence, between the writers point above, and mine - we have the purest form of idolatry.
It is a simple and consistent message within the Bible: It is wrong to have sex outside of marriage.
This is true for heterosexuals and homosexuals; however, only heterosexuals can be married.
It is not a sin to have a proclivity to one or the other. It is a sin when one acts upon it or allows it to become lust.
And Allah t'Allah
Morality always requires a leap of faith.
The way I feel about it is that I have enough baggage to carry with me to judgment day, that I find I have to much to condemn in myself, to dare to instruct another.
That does not mean I will suffer it's acceptance as a normal element of society. We are called to behave higher than the animals, even though we are flesh animals ourselves we contain what they do not, we contain a spirit that will either live or die according to our decisions.
Bear + otter, femme + butch, cowboy + interior decorator... how can gay people be mirror images of each other, when they can be so different from each other?
Anyway, what is so inherently normal about seeking out something unlike yourself to have sex with? If that's so normal, how come it's illegal in most states to have sex with your dog? How come conservative women are supposed to marry conservative men? Isn't that narcissistic?
If your eye causes you to sin, cut out and throw it away for it is better to enter eternity with one eye than to be cast into the outer darkness. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away...
I take from this that if a lust (like homosexuality) causes you to stumble you should remain celibate rather than giving in to ungodly and animalistic instincts.
That said, I wish I were perfect but I'm not. I am not gay, but I did have a drinking problem. Now I just compulsively over eat. Progress?
I heard this author, Budziszewski, interviewed on Hank Hanagraff's show "The Bible Answer Man" (syndicated on Christian radio stations) with Hank predictably giving him lavish praise.
While I am an evangelical Christian, and agree with his conclusions, Budziszewski is long on reasons, and short on scripture. He reminded me what you might hear a Roman Catholic theologian argue, mainly from natural law, NOT from the Bible.
For example, his reasoning against homosexual marriage is that marriage is meant for children, and since homosexual relationships are by nature sterile, it makes them wrong. Good conclusion, and reasonble, but... no mention of the Bible in that--despite various verses that describe the meaning of marriage (how about in a perfect creation God saying, "It is not good that man is alone..." (Gen. 2 )).
When a woman called in to say she and her husband couldn't have children, asking if her marriage was therefore invalid, Budziszewski was befuddled....as it didn't fit the paradigm. Why doesn't he just go to Levitical law and also New Testament commands? Those never mention that THE main reason for marriage is children, but they clearly mention that homosexual relations are an abomination.
Any moral reasoning must be anchored in the Bible first...then possible reasons can be reasonably figured (for example yes, marriage is the right place for children, and of course A reason for it...but scripture never calls it THE reason), as we know scripture is God's word, His revelation, to mankind. I can't get excited about a Protestant Evangelical scholar who goes back to Natural Law and reasoning, when scripture is plain in and of itself, and cannot be argued against.
What reason can do, reason can also undo, therefore I'm not thrilled with Dr. Budziszewski.
You've just articulated why their form of idolotry leads some lesbians to proclaim themselves to be 'goddesses.'
From my experience with dogs it's always about dominance and submission.
I wouldn't be suprised to find the same dynamic at the root of human behavior.
Kind of silly. God is not obligated to explain His reasoning to satisfy our sense of fairness or propriety. If God says that wearing plaid is wrong, then it's wrong, regardless of whether I can think of any "good reason."
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