In a discussion at The Point, reader Jan shared her concern over a gay brother-in-law. Her response brings up three significant issues: one, the recognition by homosexuals that whether their orientation is caused by nature or nurture, their behaviors and lifestyle are matters of choice; two, the fallacy that our private choices have no negative social consequences and, thus, are of no civil or moral concern; and three, the lengths to which some will go for affirmation, even to the point of contorting Scripture to make it approve what it plainly reproves.

My wife has a friend I'll call "Becky," who had been in a committed 12-year lesbian relationship. Immediately after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Becky began noticing married couples with children and realizing, for the first time, how different the social design of man, woman and child was from her relationship. After a couple of sleepless nights she went to pastors in three different denominations to ask whether she should terminate the relationship. All three were shocked at her suggestion and counseled that it would be a mistake: the love for her partner "was a divine gift to be thankful for, not reject!"

Amazingly, that didn't square with Becky (who wasn't even a spiritual person at the time), so she decided to investigate what the Bible said about the matter. After borrowing a Bible from a friend, the first verse Becky read was 2 Timothy 4:3: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear."

Somehow Becky knew she had been told a great lie by, of all people, the clergy. That led to a scriptural study which confirmed her new suspicions about homosexuality: same-sex orientation was a distortion of God's original design, and homosexual behavior a sin.

Shortly thereafter she left her partner and began her Christian walk—a walk, I might add, that has not been without significant struggles and a few defeats, but that nonetheless has been marked by growing confidence in her true identity and increased ability to overcome the pull of the old lifestyle.  

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