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.
I believe you are a pedant. ;-)
Which was exactly my point. What was yours?
In all seriousness, if you loved the true spirit of Christ, you would not be a neo-pagan.
An interesting concept, so does this mean the sin of glutony is the same as murder?I wonder why the bible doesn't rate sins?one being worse than the other? Could it be that is why God gave us common sense?
"What makes you think the Law is still in force?
I merely stated that some of it still exists. The Ten Commandments are part of that "Law".
Um...you lost me. Please elaborate.
I have a little problem joining in with the stone throwing. To begin with I'm not sure what correct sex is. I grew up in the catholic religion and it was male on top, to completion and only to conceive an offspring no birth control.
Guess when it comes to sex most you guys are a little shaky from where I stand :-O
Every sin is the same to God.
Some things that we humans view as one sin (such as a murder) really require multiple sins. That's one reason the guy who kills his wife for insurance has done worse than I have when I eat a dessert on a full stomach...he had to get greed, pride and a whole host of other things involved, I just had to value chocolate over self discipline one time.
In addition, each harm done to a person by a sin constitutes another sin. So the murder has harm that ripples outward to an untold distance, but my chocolate cake...not so much.
So...murder is the same as gluttony...and not even close, at the same time.
I have come to a realization that God didn't give us all those "thou shalt nots" because he is a prude, or because he has an obsession against people experiencing pleasure, or because he enjoys giving orders that no one likes. I believe that God, the creator, is familiar with every weakness of the creation and has issued rules, that if obeyed,even partially, will assure the greatest productivity, pleasure, and longetivity possible for us.
Reproducing our own kind, was programmed into the design. Homosexuality is that program gone totally awry, and a perfect formula for humanity's absolute extinction.
One of the things people miss about the stone-throwing parable is that the people standing around holding the stones were preachers involved in a plot to kill an innocent man. One is hardly in a similar position when one says, "Homosexuality is wrong." I could sit here and list a whole host of things I've done that are wrong...the stone thrower is not the one who believes that sin is sin, the stone thrower is the one who believes his or her sin is OK, or that he or she not a sinner, or that someone else is a "real sinner" and he or she is not.
Another thing people miss is that Jesus said "Go, and sin no more."
That is not necessarily correct. All sins separate us from God equally, but some sins lose more rewards than others. Additionally, those who are in leadership or authority positions are held to a higher standard.
Well I might as well out myself now, no I'm not gay but there are members of my family who are.I do not consider them dangerous perverts,If they have an agenda I haven't heard of it.Two of them are devout Catholics who attend mass more in a week than I have in a month of Sundays.They don't condemn me for my indulgences in beer and cigarettes and I don't get into deep theological discussions about their sex life.Being that one of them is an X nun I'm a little out gunned scripturally so sin is sin and we'll just leave it at that.There are bigger fish to fry.
Just because animals do it, that doesn't mean humans should. Rape, infanticide and cannibalism are all found among animals.
Personally do I think homosexuality is normal --- no
Do I think there is any religion that endorses it --- no
Do I think God sees sex strictly for pleasure any different --- nope on that also
Lots of normal people 'talk about' sex ... couldn't resist that one.
Homosexuals are mostly hyper-sexualized in their behaviors. If children are raised in a hyper-sexualized environment, it effects their socialization as well as their sexualization. Homosexuality is deviant sexual identity accompanied in the vast majority of homosexuals with deviant sexual behavior, (in my books, pre-corrosive psych 'normalizations'), but any home where hyper-sexualization is influencing the child would be detrimental to the development of a noraml sexual and social persona.
Progress? nope...same problem manifesting itself in a different format ..thats all
I too have a sister who is "gay". Watching her "relationships" is enough of a reason for me to conclude it's unnatural. At one point it confused my sons because they believed that one of her aquaintences was their Aunt.
I made it abundantly clear in no uncertain terms that she means nothing to us. They are not quite old enough yet to understand what is going on though. I love my sister but I will not condone her sins anymore than my own.
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