This was an incredible article. I have been trying to help the youth recognize that all facts come from God, but that feelings can be influenced by Satan. I like the way the point is made in #2.

I have just recently found the "Campus Crusade for Christ" pamphlet about the "Four Spiritual Laws". It shows a train of FACT-FAITH-FEELING. Fact is the engine, faith is the tender, and feeling is the caboose. They mention how your faith should follow God's facts, and your feelings should follow your faith. Just a caboose cannot pull a train, neither can feelings properly lead a person. A caboose pulling the train is a failure.

Been There 10/6/08
The answer to your question, is no, it is not in the genes.Because if it was, then God would not have said these words in his word. Which is found in Romans 1:18-31. And i would not have needed to be deliver are saved. It is a spirit of deception.Homosexuality is not normal, nor is a child abuser, or a rapist, they all are under the control of satan the devil.Two men or two women sure not be having sex together.And God said that this act was abomination, and that them that do these acts will have no place in the kingdom of God.I myself was a gay woman,i lived that way for many years.And God called me out to reach those that the devil has blinded.For no one has ever told them who they are.They are not gay just because they love to do hair,and love fashion,and so on.But because the world has label them as being gay they think thats who they are.They have a gift from God not to marry,for Paul said i wish you all can be like me,read it in 1Corth7:7-9.

I believe a good answer for homosexuality just being another ploy of the enemy could simply be described as a relationship that cannot breed life. I believe God wants a deep personal realtionship with us so that we may have life and life more abundantly. And the marriage relationship should mimic this. He has commissioned us to reproduce and designed our bodies that way. Following God's design and plan for our bodies will reproduce life. Although fornication and adultery can create life outside of God's plan, which he can work for the good,but homosexuality cannot reproduce life which leads to a dead end.

We live in the end times and satan is launching a full scale attack on the Body of Christ. He's getting Christians to believe all sorts of erroneous things, but the fact of the matter is...Paul clearly states in Romans 1:26 -For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom 1:27
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
If you do a study on sexual immorality there are dozens more verses: Col 3:5; Gal5:19; 1Cor5:11, Eph. 5:3, IThes. 4:3 and many more. The Holy Spirit had Paul write on this because it was a problem in his day as it is in ours but it is getting to be more prolific now. The bottom line is that God wants us to be PURE. It's not a particular church's teaching but God's Word.

This is truly one of the best articles I have read, and i have read many, on this subject.
I know first hand the "joy" of realizing, this is "who I am!" and of allowing oneself to be loved by someone of the same sex. It is truly an addictive type of love. And the end is not as in the beginning. Because...if we truly are Christ's as this article points out, He will not allow us to remain in sin, and that is what the Bible repeatedly calls same sex love, even though our hearts tell us different. When He starts talking to us, we either have to choose to listen, and make a very painful and difficult break with what we have now embraced as "us", to embrace what Christ is calling us to - a far deeper relationship with Him! or we continue to ignore His word, His "still small voice" and buy the lies of the 'deceiver" who has so many in his lies.
This was written thoughtfully, and with compassion as well as truth. The church needs to speak BOTH to the struggler, not compassion at cost of truth.

I would consider myself to be a very firm believer in the Catholic Chuch's social teaching, yet I still have a hard time swallowing the pill that is the Church's stance on homosexuality.
I don't see how, logically, one can compare homosexuality to something such as alcoholism, or an addiction. Addictions become present after a person chooses to expose himself to a certain thing or substance. Homosexuality, and the urge for physical relations with the same gender, is present before the act is made. That is why a person does a homosexual act. It is because they have the innate desire to do so before the actual act. You say this is a form of original sin, yet it is not the same for alcoholics. They are not born with the innate desire for alcohol.
I realize that original sin may manifest itself in many forms in a person's life. Yet I cannot bring myself to agree here. I wish I could accept it, and feel wholly with my Church, but my logic beckons me to see differently.

The argument that homosexuality or any sexual immorality for that matter should be acceptable because it is a "natural" byproduct of our genetic code misses the entire point about the fall in Scripture.

Sin entered into "creation," which is why on the last day God will burn this heaven and earth with fire, and make a new heaven and new earth without sin. This creation is corrupted, as is everything in it.

Sickness & death...disease/mutations/deformities/etc, are a result of sin.

Even "if" it were somehow empirically proven that a person is born with a genetic pre-disposition to homosexuality, we still have the ability to obey God, denying ourselves.

Mark 8:34
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

Jesus saves us if we have faith in Him, and that means believing what He said and living out that faith, not misinterpreting what God said to appease our desires.

Be careful....Jesus loves all sinners and so should we. Tolerance is not acceptance, it is just tolerance and grace. It is not Biblical to be perfect, and God may use this community (gay community) to show them and the world how much they need God - while I know it is sin, we all sin. I know you are not negating that fact, and what is also true is the tone of articles against gay's often places them in a different level of sinning as if this prevents them from salvation. It does not say that, it says all who sin come to me, be careful lest you boast...., etc.....my only point is Jesus loves all his children, including murderers and gays.

This is a nice article. Well written. God originally made Adam and Woman. Not Adam and Adam. I feel sorry for those who claim that God has made them that way. Bible also tells us that homosexuality is sin. In 1 Corinthians, Paul has mentioned relationships only between a husband and wife. Anything other than this which involves sex is a sin. It is strongly warned in the Bible. It is not fair that to commit sin out of our own sinfulness and lustful desires and say that God has intended me that way. It is, dishonoring God. Homosexuality is the most important issue in the Church today, because some parts of the world consider it as a criminal offense. Compromising on homosexuality issue will bring more damages to the Church. Already the Church is facing many trials. The Church should not tolerate homosexuality. When God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis Chapter 19) one can recognize that homosexuality was abound there.

I find the article interesting in a way. I will not debate whether homosexuality is right or wrong...but I will caution EVERYONE to not tar and feather Ray Boltz. I don't think it's fair to insinuate that his family, children, and friends will all abandon him. They are the ONLY ones who knows what he's been going through. I think it's easy to look from the outside in and assume that we know what's best for them all. We have NO idea what he's been through. The hell that maybe they have all gone through.

I just pray for them all. I pray for those of us on the outside. Please don't make homosexuality the big issue...there are a lot of us who gossip, who overeat, and many other things and we don't write specific articles on them. Please be careful....

Well written and compassionate article. To know the truth and then turn away from it - it's enough to make one weep.

Thanks Julie,

Good article - very balanced. So often we tend to make excuses for our failures and blame our failures on our creator and circumstances, instead of accepting the responsibility for our actions. Sin is a choice issue, and one that is fuelled by the god of this world as well.

Keep writing the truth,

Rad www.youhaveadestiny.com