Before anyone posts the scripture condemning sodomy, let me just remind everyone that vast majority of Christians don’t believe in stoning adulterers anymore, right? or cursing/blasphemy? or disobeying our parents?
“I give you a new commandment: love one another; just as I have loved you, you also should love one another” (John 13:34)
Stoning for adultery
For adultery (including urban rape victims who fail to scream loud enough)
If a damsel that is a virgin be betrothed unto an husband, and a man find her in the city, and lie with her; Then ye shall bring them both out unto the gate of that city, and ye shall stone them with stones that they die; the damsel, because she cried not, being in the city. Deuteronomy 22:23-24
But if this thing be true, and the tokens of virginity be not found for the damsel: Then they shall bring out the damsel to the door of her father’s house, and the men of her city shall stone her with stones that she die. Deuteronomy 22:13-21
Stoning for blasphemy
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall certainly stone him. Leviticus 24:16
For disobeying parents
If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother … Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city … And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die. Deuteronomy 21:18-21

From Christianity Today, 12 Sept 08
“Ray Boltz, who sold about 4.5 million records before retiring from Christian music a few years ago, came out of the closet Friday to announce that he’s gay.
In an interview with the gay magazine The Washington Blade, Boltz said he came out to his family and some close friends in December 2004, but only now decided to go public with the news.”

I get the feeling that we as christians are allowing jesus’ message to get watered down by what society considers ‘cool’.
black and white: according to the bible adultery is wrong, jealousy is wrong, sodomy is wrong, lying is wrong… . if we are not happy with it then we should be followers of another God. I mean, there is heaps out there just pick one that suits. Ray Boltz shouldn’t be condemned but his actions should. just as an adulterer’s actions should be condemned not the adulterer.
I don’t think this is prejudice I think we are doing what the bible says in Proverbs 27:17: Iron sharpens iron, So one man sharpens another – If i am lying endlessly my friend should tell me that lying is not right. If I am cheating on my husband, my friend should tell me it is not right. etc. it is about loving each other enough to confront each other with those things that in the end will end up hurting us.

Rob the Rev – I already reported on that. I must have forgotten to put the links in there.
http://blog.beliefnet.com/gospelsoundcheck/2008/09/ccm-veteran-ray-boltz-comes-ou.html
Thanks!
Joanne
host of the GS blog

The Rev. Dr. Mel White and Soulforce http://www.soulforce.org has produced Ray Boltz’s new song “Don’t Tell Me Who to Love” as a great video. Check it out at: http://www.Soulforce.com or at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBQyJTXiOYs
I am a out and proud gay man and a pastor.

I, myself, are appalled. Where in the Bible does it say that gay marriage is permissable? And why did God seperate different people at the Tower of Babel? Why did He give them different languages? So that people of different origins/ races, etc. would not mix with other races as in interracial marriage, dating, and having kids of mixed race. God says that homosexuality is an abomination! He seperated the races so that there would be no intermarrige and children that are mixed racially would not have such a hard time knowing “who” they are. There is no such thing as “gay marriage”. That is a contradiction in terms. Read Your Bible!!

It seems to me that the issue isn’t sex (or sexual conduct). The US Supreme Court has already ruled that sexual activity between consenting adults is legal.
The issue is taking responsibility and making commitments. Those who oppose equality for gays and lesbians oppose allowing us to take responsibility. We aren’t allowed to serve in the military, donate blood or organs, minister (openly) in many churches or marry. There is no reason for any of these except fear and bigotry.
I do find bizarre the argument that my relationship somehow cheapens or diminishes another’s marriage. Did Brittany Spears’ 72 hour marriage demean my 13 year relationship? Not really. Did Elizabeth Taylor’s series of failed marriages somehow make me want to divorce and remarry six times? No, not at all. Did refusal by the state prevent me from making the commitments I chose to make? No but it made it very hard to fulfill them.

I am appalled! Where in the Bible does it say that homosexual marriage is okay? Where in the Bible does it say that being homosexual is okay? In the Bible it says that homosexuality is an abomination!! Is it different for “gay” Christian singers, pastors, choir members, etc? NO IT IS NOT! An abomination is an abomination no matter who commits it. Ray should get down on his knees and ask for God’s forgiveness and ask Him to take whatever made him think that he is gay right out if his heart/mind/soul.
And as far as interracial anything–God divided the people at the Tower of Babel with different languages and sent them in different directions. It is not Biblical to marry someone outside your race, date someone outside of your race, or have interracial children that are so confused they don’t know who they are!!As the woman earlier said, go find another faith that condones all these things. Don’t take the Lord in vain and consider yourself a Christian that is allowed for whatever reason to be different than the rest of us.

I am more than appalled!! Where in the Bible does it say that homosexuality is okay? Where does it say that homosexual marriage is okay? God’s Word says that homosexuality is an abomination. An abomination is an abomination! No matter whether you are a Christian artist, a pastor, a Sunday School teacher–it is NOT Biblical! Period!
I think that Ray Boltz should get down on his knees and beg Almighty God to take whatever is in him that tells him he is gay out of his heart/ mind/soul!
And as far as interracial marriage/ relationships/ children–God seperated the people at the Tower of Babel–he gave them different languages and sent them in different directions. He did not want us to intermix.
I think that Ray Boltz, any other person that is gay, or people that think it is perfectly fine if they marry or cohabitate, or give birth to interracial children that are confused for the rest of their lives, need to go find a “religion” that says that these things are wonderful and perfectly acceptable. They don’t belong to our Lord!

Thanks, “Your Name” for calling me an abomination. Unfortunately, the majority of the world is mixed culture and I am one of them. I am not confused about who I am. I am a human and a follower of Christ. All else is unimportant.

The bottom line…God hates homosexuality. Satan is the author of confusion. “And likewise, also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly…God gave them over to a reprobate mind…they which commit such things are worthy of death…” 1Corinthians 1:26-32. According to dictionary.com “reprobate” means: a person rejected by God and beyond hope of salvation; a wicked person. Folks, this is the WORD OF GOD, not my opinion!

I found this open letter to Dr. Laura on the internet and thought maybe “Your Name” would like to take a whack at answering the following questions.
“Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God’s Law. I have learned a great deal from your [post] and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some of the other specific laws and how to follow them.

1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord – Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness – Lev.15:19-24. The problem is, how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can’t I own Canadians?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2 clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination – Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don’t agree. Can you settle this?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev. 19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two different crops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? – Lev.24:10-16. Couldn’t we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev.20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively, so I am confident you can help.

Thank you again for reminding us that God’s word is
eternal and unchanging.

Your devoted disciple and adoring fan.”

Hi there,
Firstly, Tina your a legend.
I am not homo sexual, however my old youth leader used to be close friends with a christian man who was homo sexual. He would tell my old youth leader that he hated having feeling towards other men, and wanted to be attracted to Women. To honor God, he decided to stay single all his life as he believed a homo sexual relationship is wrong. As far as i can see this man is honoring God through his choices right??? It seems to me that most people think you “choose to be gay.’. I used to think this also, however after this story, and others i no longer think like this (however ultimately i dont know).
I wondered ‘YOUR NAME’, if you could answer me this question….what has this man done to be an abomination?
Bless you
Sam

Boy you people just don’t get it do you? When your child hangs themselves because you were not tolerate of them, or when your grandchild comes home crying with broken bones because he was or she was called a Fagot, and you just turn your eyes and face GOD!!! Yes Let God heal all, it’s people like Ray that has more compassion than any of you, God Loving Hypocrites.

Listen the Bible has said that homosexuality is a sin. The same way fornication is a sin, killing is a sin, and so on. God loves the gay community. He jus doesn’t like the sin. I believe someone can be a Christian and gay. The same way i believe someone can be saved and struggle with lying. However i dnt believe that because you struggle with something gives you the right as a Christian to give in to whatever that sin is. God died for the purpose of giving us the victory of death and sin. Whatever sin that we struggle with God can give us the power to overcome this. Oh! And God doesn’t love straight ppl more than gay or vice versa. God is the God of all flesh.

Homosexuality is not a choice…if I could be attracted to women and not men…I would be. The greatest challenge all face is not to deal with their sin…but rather to seek the Lord’s face…to go into His presence…that He would make it known to us that He is with us in the fire. When, on the cross, He said…”It is finished”…there would be no sin, no earthly or supernatural power in all creation that could take His love away as well as that He could not forgive. We get so caught up with looking at ourselves and what we are going through…seek Him…above all…seek Jesus Christ.

Hello Tina,
You know the Word of God is eternal and in it we read,
Do not be deceived, God cannot be mocked for whatever we sow that so we shall also reap. Your top questions are amusing but misguided and yet another futile attempt to prove the absurdity of homosexaulity as a sin. However, while these levitcal or Mosaic laws have changed a bit, you have to understand that God’s moral law has not. This moral law encompasses what is known as iniquity or any sin that is moral in nature such as murder, adultery, fornication, homosexaulity this has never changed. Rememeber the law was given as a school master to lead us to Christ for who can keep the law? No one, except for our Savior Jesus the Christ. Your top 10 questions are good reading but they do nothing to sway us from the moral conviction of what God teaches in His word about that Holy institution we know as marriage. The Bible says to answer a fool according to his folly and it also says that “the fool has said in his heart there is no God.” However, it also says that, “For God so loved the world that He gave his ony begotten Son so that whomsoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. Why don’t you open up your heart, repent from you sins, and ask Jesus to come into your heart for only then will you understand God’s Word and not miscontrue it with silly questions.
May God touch your heart.

First of all, God doesn’t make mistakes. Secondly, I too am “WHOSOEVER.”

Speaking as a gay man (and more importantly, as a child of God), to those of you who will be “praying for my soul,” I have this to say:
Pray for my direction and the guidance of my heart to continue sharing His word, and not just the words I want people to hear. Pray for my health and safety so that I can continue doing what I am here to do. Pray for my perseverance in overcoming the obstacles that try to halt me and the scorn that tries to silence me. Pray for those who I encounter so that they will hear not just my words, but the Word of God. Pray for all of these things
But DO NOT pray for my soul.
My soul belongs to God. Only He knows what I need. Only He knows my heart.
And as you pray for these things, I will be praying for you, my brothers and sisters in God’s Family. You who serve the same God as I do, and share the same Word, and love with the same heart. And also for you, who are so well versed in scripture, but who will preach only the evils of these abominations to God, while keeping silent about the evils of your own abominations. You, who pass off today’s way of life as “a different time.”
Most of you CLAIM not to be judgmental, yet you will “pray for us” as though you were selflessly, yet visibly standing for a cause that inflicts people with a hideous disease. You will stand above us, and preach to us the wickedness of our ways without knowing exactly what our ways are. These are some of the very DEFINITIONS of judgmental. “Fight the good fight” we are told. And some of us will choose to stand beside you to fight that good fight with you. Yet you will deem us unfit, and push us away. The only difference between people like you and people like me is that we mean you no harm. We don’t know you either, but we trust in your cause because your cause is good.
As a gay Christian, let me say this: being gay is NOT a choice. Being a Christian is. I CHOOSE CHRIST. And MY bottom line? LOVE IS NEVER AN ABOMINATION. Certain acts performed by gay people may well be an abomination, but LOVE IS NOT. Loving someone of the same gender is not an abomination to God. It is the unclean acts that we choose. My emotional love for another man can and does exist without its physical act. I will to believe that this is pleasing to God.
Pray for me and I will pray for you. As Christians, we are called to fight the good fight together. How can we fight the good fight when we are tearing each other down?

Larry, you are ‘da bomb’. I don’t think I’ve ever read a gay Christian person’s point of view that was so clearly spoken before. Thank you, brother in Christ.

Can I add a “amen” to that brother!

To the unnamed poster, September 24:

I am praying for you. Someday I hope that you will see with God’s heart and not the heart of the church. Because in our time of life, they are seldom the same. Somewhere along the way, and many times over, we have put the Word of God into a “nutshell” and blanketed the world with the interpretations we have formed for ourselves.

As I witness to those in the gay community in my hometown, I share Leviticus with them as a reference to the sins and abominations OF being gay. Not that being gay itself is the sin. We are called to live according to the Word of God, and as a gay man, this means that there are temptations in life that will try to afflict me, based on my gender proclivities. It is up to ME to determine for myself that these are the things that I must turn my back on, in order to live in God’s favor. When you remove these things from the equation, they are no longer defined by God’s moral law. I am not saying I am perfect at this. But it is in my heart to strive to remain faithful to my promises, because in my heart is also Jesus.

It is unfortunate for those you encounter that much of what you “preach” (for lack of a more appropriate term) is founded on condensed summaries and loose interpretations based on what it is easier to believe in today’s society. The congregation (whose definition is only syllables away from “cult”) has defined for itself what “homosexuality” is without being a people who have experienced what it is to BE homosexual. It is much like a sighted man describing what it is to be blind. And when you put on your slacks and tie and clutch your Bible and go into the street and start screaming at someone about the evil of their ways, they will run from you, or rebel against you, and tragically, either way, it is entirely possible that you could be sending them to hell much faster and more surely than anyone else could. Please think about that. A homosexual may NEED a homosexual to let him know there IS an answer and that answer is Jesus.

The CHURCH decided that homosexuality is a choice. The CHURCH defines the ways of ALL homosexual as “wicked” without knowing what their ways ARE. A person’s gender proclivities are defined FAR earlier than puberty, far earlier than we are equipped to form a “choice.” I can tell you this on my very soul. Because I can clearly and vividly remember my own inclinations being revealed to me as early as age 3. What did that make me? A three year old pervert? Certainly not. It is not within the ability of a 3 year old to BE perverted. At 3, the only thing we are capable of is acting out of our own nature.

Please, if you are going to preach to someone the evil of their ways, be informed. Please be informed. Why fight a fight if your fighting the wrong one? Be mindful that the man standing at the pulpit is not actually God and can be just as easily misinformed as you. The people of the church are not perfect, nor is anyone. What they ARE is a large group of people collectively reassuring each other that “this is our story and we are sticking to it.” They don’t even believe simply because the word is true. They believe because it’s all they have ever been told. How do you KNOW beyond any shadow of doubt that God Himself is not weeping from His throne crying out “THAT IS NOT WHAT I MEANT!”?