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.
Good Points....
Obsessive/Compulsive Behaviors can only change when the individual confronts the lies he/she believes and choses to come out of denial.
Usually it takes a very traumatic event or "Bottom" to generate enough pain to act as a catalyst for change.
But only a small percentage of people are successful in permanent change...30-40 percent...
"What part of the Ten Commandments are now invalidated?"
Check out the Fouth Commandment, seems most of the
world has tried to invalidate that one...
So are rape, incest, cannibalism, interspecies sex... the list goes on and on. Hardly anything to brag about.
How much monogamous homosexuality is there in the animal kingdom? No reproduction at any point. No partnering with a bunch of "mates".
Is it strictly anal sex or do males engage in oral sex as well?
What is dominance of other animals and what is consensual sex?
Thank you kind Sir.
Comparing humans to animals? Well, some dogs eat crap, but I or anyone elseI know wouldn't be doing that! Can't you do better than that lame excuse? What a crock of doodoo!
I don't think it is found among animals...
The only 'act' I have seen among animals involved a friend's dog buggering another male dog, after repeated fights to establish dominance. After that, the other dog wasn't so uppity.
IMHO, the need to assert domination is probably somewhere in the profile of humans who engage in the same practice.
Many animals will eat the dead of their own species. Does this mean that cannibalism is OK, too? Sad, sick, people, trying desperately to justify their behaviour.
Yes, but that "fulfilment" part only applied to the Jews. The early fathers of the Church are quite clear that Jewish law didn't apply to non-Jewish Christians.
It seems perfectly reasonable as well to question the sanity of males who refer to themselves as "queens," "bitches," and certain female genital parts, as well as the sanity of the males who obligingly refer to the former as "she and her." There is something peculiarly repulsive in hearing males speak of themselves in that way.
950,000 Americans infected with HIV
OK, so don't count them...
CS Lewis called this sort persuasive argumentation....."coming in the back door." When I go into pagan/agnostic/secular humanist groups, which are most generally designated as dgs for "free-thinkers" my arguments are always couched in secular terms.
If it's said in answer to the question, "Why shouldn't America censor political speech and establish a state religion?", then yes, it is.
>>Two of them are devout Catholics <<
Your relatives are not devout Catholics. They are pretending to be. Take the Bible teachings about lesbianism out of it, the pope said no Homosexual Catholics. I don't remember him talking about beer and cigarettes the same way.
I have a pretend Catholic sister myself. I avoid her. Please do not call them Devout anything Christian while they continue to sin.
Jesus said, "Go forth and sin no more." He truly didn't love the sinner, He loved the repentant. Going to church does not make a Catholic, living the life does.
I had this argument offered to me once. My reply was "Some animals eat their young. Is that ok too?" All the lib could say was "You have a point."
I do so agree with you!!!
Dominance is the only reason for Homosexual Acts in animals.
My lesbian sister and her daughter were discussing this with me. My sister said that animals are homosexuals. My niece, (who worked for an Adult toy shop at the time {yes, messed is the word for that family}), said that only two animals have sex for pleasure. Humans and Dophins. All others do it for dominance.
I like the cannibalism statement. It about sums it up!
Christians were relieved from the strictures of Leviticus by Paul. The elephant in the room in all of these discussions is the question, "How do you know the bible is true?" That is always answered by simply saying that one believes it is true. All purported statement of fact about G-d's will are overstatements. One can only believe, one cannot know.
"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."
Nope, that one doesn't work for me - It's too easy. Substitute the words Bible and Lord in that sentence, for Koran and Allah, and you sound like the people we are fighting.
There are many hard questions, they can be answered and we should never avoid them. Right is always on the side of those who use the brain god gave them to seek truth.
The creation of life is the standard of all value.
I only know what I've seen.
It is strange to see a female dog mount another female and go through the same motions as a male dog.
But I don't see any indication that it is done for pleasure but rather as means to establish dominance and submission.
Likewise human homosexual behavior probably has it's roots in similiar motivations with the added human twist of lust for pleasure.
If they live that long.
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