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The thing to remember is that the word "gay" is ambiguous: it doesn't differentiate between at least three different cases:

a person who experiences homosexual temptations;
a person who deliberately accommodates homosexual fantasies and/or identifies with "gay" as a personal identity tag; and
a person who intentionally engages in homosexual behavior.

The first person is blameless if he resists those temptations; the second is culpable because of his failure to oppose perverse tendencies (an intentional thought is, as Jesus taught, an inward act); the third is culpable because of morally objectionable acts.

The Catholic Church teaches, and has always taught,that a person can be innocent, and yet suffer temptation (as Our Lord did) as long as, with the grace of God, he resists this evil. The Catholic Church also teaches that temptation must not be accommodated in any way: in your thoughts or in your words, in what you do or what you fail to do.

This is quite different from a church like the one this article describes, which teaches that homosexuality is "a gift, not a sin."

This is quite different from a church like the one this article describes, which teaches that homosexuality is "a gift, not a sin."

Well said. Thank you. I guess what this church may be attempting to say is, in essence, God doesn't make mistakes. We all have our "burdens in life" to bear and all people are welcome to come to the place of healing and hope. I personally think they are doing a poor job of advertising that point, but perhaps this is a campaign to at least get them in the door so that they will be introduced to the only way to heaven - faith in Jesus Christ. I believe that once a person honestly commits their life to the Lord they will only then find the power to overcome temptations of the flesh - of any kind.

Hopefully, this church is trying to reach those who feel rejected by God and they need to know that they are welcome by people of God. NOT to be encouraged in their sin, but to start down the path of holiness we ALL must walk. No sin is any worse that another in God's sight and we all stand guilty before a just and holy God. Without his mercy and grace NONE of us would ever join him in eternity.