God’s sovereignty in all things notwithstanding, I don’t agree with this interpretation that God MADE these people gay as a punishment for their denial of him.
V24: Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts. (Emphasis mine)
The concept ‘gave them over’ I think comes from ‘giving in’, which is essentially one party submitting to the wishes of another. Note that the text also acknowledges that the “sinful desires” already seem to belong to “their” hearts. I think a better interpretation of this text suggests that in response to their sin, God allowed (yes, in His sovereignty) for these people to act on desires already present in their hearts. Note that this verse does NOT reference homosexuality – it only references sexual impurity.
The homosexual references don’t appear until verses 26 and 27:
“Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men…”
The language is the same: God “[gives] them over”, or gives into their lusts. When the same phrasing is used for (arguably) heterosexual and homosexual behaviour, then to be consistent with the argument you would have to call both inflicted punishments. And since we are all in agreement that heterosexual orientation (at least) is good, I think the text infers that it is this inappropriate expression of sexuality which is being labeled as sin.
Summary: I don’t think this passage speaks of anything causal, but rather acknowledges that sinful desires (homo’ or hetero’ or anything else) are innate, and when we reject God He may withhold His staying hand of grace and allow us to act on them.
UPDATE
Note also that ‘giving in’ suggests a reluctance to do so, on God’s part. I think that’s important to remind us that God loves us, and wants us to be obedient; not to act on our sinful desires, whatever they may be. God’s response isn’t simply a smack-down, or mercilessly hitting his ‘SMITE’ button, like the speaker seems to imply!
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