Hi Zed,
Welcome to Freedom2Be.
I get so annoyed with that whole “right” relationships thing and if homosexuality was right then we’d be able to have kids. That’s such a silly argument on many levels and I usually dismiss that with something along the lines of “Like the world needs more kids.” It really doesn’t need any more dignified response than that.
I also explain that my very wrong relationship with my ex-husband which was unhappy for us both, was in some respects more damaging than it was nurturing, etc, resulted in children, but that didn’t automatically make it a healthy or good relationship.
Recently, I watched a video from Bishop Jim Swilley, called “A real message for real people.” It was filmed at his “Church in the Now” on the night that he came out to his congregation. In that video message, he says something like no one in their right minds today, would go to Paul (the apostle) for advice on relationships. Paul was unmarried, and encouraged all people to be the same as him, single, and celibate. He had no children as far as we know, and he didn’t seem to be too terribly keen on women (as was the culture of his time).
I agree. If Paul was to come along today, offering his opinion on marriage and relationships, most people would dismiss him out of hand, yet, Christians uphold him as some kind of moral expert on today’s sexuality and relationships, which he very clearly is not and was never meant to be.
Paul was writing at a time when homosexuality as an orientation was not even recognized. He was adressing his remarks to people he considered to be ‘outside of the natural order’ because he was coming from the assumption that everyone is straight, which is simply not true.
The Bible in fact does not address orientational homosexuality, or loving committed homosexual relationships at all. It speaks to cultural idolatry and sexual abuse (sex in the worship of idols, and the Greek practice of older men having relationships with young boys).
The end of it all is, these people are attempting to put you back under the OT law and Jewish ritual cleanness which Paul himself condemned in the strongest possible terms.
6 I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you to live in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— 7 which is really no gospel at all. Evidently some people are throwing you into confusion and are trying to pervert the gospel of Christ. 8 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel other than the one we preached to you, let them be under God’s curse! 9 As we have already said, so now I say again: If anybody is preaching to you a gospel other than what you accepted, let them be under God’s curse!
I’d also like to suggest the excellent book Bullet Proof Faith, by Candace Chellew-Hodge. She goes into how to answer these kinds of arguments in the book and I found it really helpful in clarifying my own thoughts on these issues.
Blessings to you!
|