Depends on what you mean by "supportive." Personally, I find it icky. Theologically, I know it is sinful, but no more so than indifference to the poor. Practically, I realize that trying to regulate this kind of behavior will simply lead to driving it underground - and create huge potentials for blackmail. At the end of the day, unless you are me, my friends, or in my church, what you do with consenting adults on your own time is none of my business.
There is no fundamental difference between bestiality and homosexuality. It is a rejection of the natural use for an unnatural one, per Romans 1 & 2.
Matter of degrees. Recall that extramarital sexuality in Romans 1 also was a rejection of the "natural" for an "unnatural."
There is nothing about consenting adults that really changes the nature of the homosexual act. It kills people at an extremely early age, it spreads disease, and it threatens the infection of the population. Legislatures are well within their purview to control such practice to promote the general welfare.
I disagree. Extramarital heterosexual sex can kill people at an early age, it can spread disease, and threatens the infection of the population too. As a retired chaplain, you had to have seen this.
One cannot make "right" extend to that which would have negative impact on the community at large.
Sure you can. If I want to go buy a bottle of booze, and drink myself till I'm blasted, who's gonna stop me? Prohibition never works.
And here is the dilemma, Jude. We can debate this until we're blue in the face. I can pull out the stats that show a 20-30 year difference in life expectancy for homosexuals.
Then we can get 9 of us -- you, me, p-marlowe, blue-duncan, congressman billybob, connectthedots, buggman, corin stormhands, and orthodox presbyterian -- in a room with our opinions and let us vote on the policy of the entire flippin' nation. We can toss back and forth whether this is a right or not.
But, the truth is that this is not a question for 9 people to decide. It's an issue of policy, morality, and opinion. Even the notion that it comes under the constitution is simply an opinion. There is nothing one can point to and say, "Here, SEE. It's right here in the US Constitution." You can't do that, because it isn't there.
And that's why 9 black-robed oligarchs shouldn't run the nation with their parochial, even if legal, opinions.
They aren't elected, and there is an elected body that debates these things. This is a democratic republic.