The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.
Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.
Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. – Romans 1:18-32

Aaron I share your view of Republican politicians.

he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

describes them all too well.

I bet the un-Godly aspect is what burns you the most, nnmns. Seriously though, almost all politicians (with a handful of exceptions) seem to fit that description rather nicely (no need for partisan hackery in this particular instance).

Tom I think there is. The Republicans line up solidly or nearly solidly against what the Democrats try to accomplish; heck even when they do work with them, and take months to reach some sort of compromise, they almost always vote against it. They don’t even let judges get appointed after a year or so. This is a lot worse than it ever was before; the Republicans want Obama and the Democrats to fail no matter what it does to the nation. And this after what they did to the nation.
And there are the lies: Obama is a Muslim, Obama isn’t a citizen, Obama is a socialist, Democrats hate America and on and on. How many Republican officeholders will just stand up and say those things are nonsense, which of course they are.

The news shows everyday that President Obama is getting things done. Watched the Gov. of Michigan saying that if it wasn’t for the stimulus given her state that the Auto industry would have gone under. Look at what Obama’s Affordable Care Act is uncovering! It started last May, but fridays catch was enormous, $251 million found in scams being used in 5 states. It’s in the news, read it all. Everything nnmns said is so. One lie after another to confuse people who really should have better sense.

Man cannot bless what is unholy, try to rise above God if they wish the blessings can only come from God and His word concerning homosexuality is very clear the church cannot ignore the scacred word of God.

I think it’s hilarious that I’m evil because I don’t worship Aaran’s god. You have to wonder if he’s ever really read the bible, and seen all the evil acts his god committed.

Mordred08, God is good. Only man is bad and will interpret anyway that seems fit for how he wants to control people, whether now or thousands of years ago. That is why the Holy Spirit was sent to each and every follower of God. Jesus didn’t say I go, and will send you a Bible.

Sorry H22 but we do need the bible, fraudulent ‘holy spirits” are all over the place. That same bible that you condemn is the probably the way you hear of Jesus and it probably gave you the most information on Jesus

And how much of that faulty? (If not all.)

only God truly knows how much is faulty

ckunck-
I agree with you that the important blessing comes from God. That is what the marriage liturgy is all about. Asking God to bless the union of two people.
I understand that in your opinion, that the Bible clearly states homosexuality is wrong. However, your opinion does not match that of many Bible scholars. Further, you have yet to quote one passage where our Lord Jesus Christ condemns homosexuality.
Meanwhile, there are good, caring people who are following Christs teachings by of glorifying God and loving thy neighbor of as thy self. These are two areas where the Bible is pretty clear.
Peace!

There are as many interpretations of scripture as there are ‘fraudulent Holy Spirits’. The Bible is essential as the confession of faith of the first Christians. But it was written by and to specific people in a specific time and place, and this context needs to be taken into account. We are not first century Palestinian Jews living under Roman occupation, and the bare words of scripture don’t necessarily have the same meaning for us that it did for its original audience. It is the Christian’s obligation to educate him/herself on these matters.
Christ made it very clear that everything the Law and Prophets said could be summed up in two commandments: “Love the Lord your God with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and love your neighbor as yourself.” It seems to me this should end the bickering over details, but unfortunately, it hasn’t. Man’s desire to justify himself at his neighbor’s expense is just too strong.

Cknuck you are reading my comment and jumping too fast on what I said. I didn’t condem the Bible. Jesus said I go and will send the Holy Spirit to guide you. He didn’t say I go and will send a Bible to guide you. Am I not right? Supposedly, the people who felt led by the Holy Spirit wrote the words of the Bible. Maybe some were led and maybe some just didn’t receive the impressions right. Maybe some just pretended, to make people go where they wanted them to, just as the religious leaders of today do. Each soul receives differently. If this confuses you I’m sorry.

H22 the only thing I am pointing out in (yes) your condemnation of the bible is that in your viewpoint the Holy Spirit is incapable of inspiring the creation of the Living Word known as the bible. If it is indeed inspired (as I and many believe) by the Holy Spirit then your rejection of it is not a holy act, it would be a unholy act with ramifications that would be expediential in a nature beyond our understanding.

JohnQ whenever guys like you use that (He never mentioned) argument they (like you) alway – always leave out the part where Jesus clearly and purposely defined marriage as one man one woman. Jesus put clear discipline upon us about holiness other than the loving your neighbor as yourself and people forget about the other disciplines Jesus taught, He was not a one-liner LORD. Stop deceiving yourself an others my friend.
Wannabe you should know these things.

So you aren’t making any claims? Very wise.

cknuck wrote: “Jesus put clear discipline upon us about holiness other than the loving your neighbor as yourself…”
No cknuck. When Jesus said “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” he meant it. It’s true he gave other commandments, but they are all meant to help us fulfill these two: ‘seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness’, love your enemies, don’t be angry, unlimited forgiveness…
Perhaps you could provide an example of one of these ‘other disciplines’ you speak of that don’t serve to to help us satisfy these two.

true on those two commandments hang all the laws, but don’t deceive people wannabe Jesus required folk to “repent” and “go and sin no more” Matthew 18 does not state limitless forgiveness, (read it) and it is not “don’t be angry” Jesus was very angry it’s don’t sin in your anger, don’t continue deceiving people wannabe, get it right. You don’t live by the bible but you want to justify your sin through perverting scripture with lies, it took a lot of discipline for Jesus to walk the walk He walked and He did instruct us not to be like “the pagans” not to be like the world, get it right if you want to justify sin with scripture you’ll have to find someone who don’t know and is ignorant to buy what you are selling. Read more.

Yes cknuck, Jesus said ‘sin no more’. He even said ‘be ye therefore perfect even as your Father which is in Heaven is perfect’. My assertion is that all sin is deviation from following the two great commandments to love God and neighbor. If it’s not a violation of one of these two commandments, it’s not a sin.
And yes, I paraphrased a bit, but not with the intent to deceive. You say Jesus does not require us to forgive without limit in Matthew 18? Well, indeed he says seventy seven times, but that is generally understood to be too large a number to actually keep track. “Don’t be angry” is an overly broad paraphrase, and you are correct that Jesus did get angry, though I will point out that his most severe anger was directed at self righteous religious leaders who set up barriers between people and God.
I try to follow Christ’s commandments, and I fail repeatedly to show the love and forgiveness and self sacrifice our Lord asks of us. You are absolutely right that it takes a lot of discipline to ‘walk the walk He walked’. It requires us to not live by fear and greed and self interest which is all too common in this world.
But I don’t see what any of this has to do with sexual orientation.

Looking at the oral tradition your “broad paraphrase” turns out to be more self-serving than actually having anything to do with scripture. The seventy seven times seven is a large number but certainly not too large to keep track, and forgiving can be done while having nothing else to do with the person as directed in Matthew 18 or treating them like a tax collector. When Jesus teaches us to be gentle as a lamb, but wise as a serpent He is referring to situations just like this, (trying to fool people into thinking homosexuality is holy.
wannbe, your quote, “I try to follow Christ’s commandments,”. You sound much like the rich young ruler. Now do you see what it has to do with sexual orientation?

No cknuck. I followed my statement “I try to follow Christ’s commandments” with the statement “and I fail repeatedly”, so no, I sound absolutely nothing like the rich young ruler.
How is my paraphrase self serving? How do I benefit from being required to forgive an unlimited number of times, as opposed to 77 times (or 70 X 7 = 490 times; the Greek is unclear)? And you seriously keep track of how many times you’ve forgiven somebody, counting up to 490? Do me a favor, and give me a warning when I get to 489! Seriously, never once have I heard, whether in sermon or commentary, that we are supposed to keep count. In every commentary I’ve ever read on this verse, the 77 is meant to be taken as a symbolic number for completeness or infinity.
And yes, you can forgive somebody while detaching yourself from them, which is appropriate in some cases, for example physical or mental abuse.
And you never even came close to explaining how this relates to sexual orientation or what the Episcopalians are doing here. You’ll have to work a lot harder to convince me that Christ came into the world to break up loving committed relationships.

If I put myself in the position that i have forgiven you 490 times then I would be very foolish, Matthew 18 is very clear on that point. If I have forgiven you 3 times you won’t get the opportunity to put me in that position again, that’s called wisdom. Jesus was very clear concerning relationships, sexuality (one man one woman) and holy relationships (in which homosexuality is not included) Same sex can never be holy it is a result of sin and therefore sinful.

cknuck, what you fail to remember is that we are ALL created in the image of God. Nowhere does the Bible say, “except”. Also, since we are all, without exception, the children of God how can you even think that homosexuality is sinful?? He created us and loves us.

Sorry Barb not according to Jesus, some are serpents, and vipers and He also said that some are sons of the devil. If one is the son of the devil they are certainly not a child of God. Some he said “I never knew you”.

Jesus said nothing that we know of about homosexuality. I do not equate the supposed words/teachings of the apostles to the teachings of Jesus, they were just humans like us with a bunch of cultural hangups and did not even agree on matters amongst themselves.