Topic : Homosexuality

Americans experience sexual difference as a reality, not an appearance, that exists amid the diversity of social customs. They acknowledge this reality in the way they raise children, organize social life, and structure public spaces. Americans from widely varying religious traditions, both Western and non-Western, affirm this in their communities of worship. Coming together as citizens, they have chosen to embody this reality in the special legal status they give to a man and woman who are willing to become a total sexual community—lifelong, exclusive, and faithful.

David Coolidge in “The Dilemma of Same Sex Marriage,” in Crisis, July, August 1996, p. 19, quoted in CBMW News, March, 1997, p. 16

The average age of a homosexual man dying with AIDS is 39. The average age of gays dying of all other causes is 41. (The average heterosexual married man lives 75 years.) Only one percent of men who practice homosexual sex lives to be 65 or older. Gay men are three times more likely to have alcohol or drug abuse problems. Homosexuals are 14 times more likely to have had syphilis, and 23 times more likely to contract venereal diseases.

From a 1993 report by the Family Research Institute

There was a boy who never knew the love a father gives,
raised by his mom in anger for the man who left his kids.
The moment came in growing up, when gates were opened wide;
and the boy, whose heart was wounded, walked into the other side.
His appetite for nurture, to be given by a man,
had been left an empty vacuum as he roamed about the land.

He tried to stroke himself in closets, hidden from the light.
But it never satisfied him, so he wandered into night.
Looking for the man who would make him feel complete,
he gave himself to do such things that some would never speak.
It always started out with hope that love would finally heal,
but each encounter broke him more and left him feeling ill.

Dying for affection which he wrongly sought in man,
he turned for help to others thinking they would understand.
Instead they told him Sodom burned for such things he had done.
“How could you hurt your family so? You’re such a sorry son!”
Angered by the social pride that turns from darker things,
the lad now swore to desecrate the palaces of kings.

He bound himself in common cause with others such as he —
who had suffered long the anguish of the public mockery.
Parades were formed, and marches made, to show their new defiance.
Hand in hand, in open view, they stood in bold alliance
Supposing this would win the day and give them what they needed,
they entered into loud debate and publicly they pleaded.

“Equal right! We are deprived! Treat us true and fair!
Your moral rules are meaningless—for them we do not care!”
The rhetoric, inflamed by fear, polarized their cause;
civil strife erupted through the breaking of God’s Laws.
What they had hoped would give them peace instead provoked a war;
and a nation, known for tolerance, these things do now abhor.

And a boy who never knew the love and kindness of a father
died a victim of disease—alone—with no one who would bother.
The answer to this problem lies within the heart of those
who are filled with Christ’s compassion for the travelers on the road.
We can heal their broken bodies and restore their fallen hearts,
if only we’ll stop from judging them for how they fell apart.

The little boy who never knew, and yet became a man,
can feel the love of Christ in you, if you will touch his hand.
Help him to recover from the darkness of his fall —
for the love of God gives freedom unto any who will call.

- by James Ryle

Men of Action, Winter 1993, p. 5.

• Christian Child Rearing, P. Meier, Baker, 1977, pp. 51ff
• The Rebirth of America, A. S. DeMoss Foundation, 1986, pp. 106ff
• The Moral Catastrophe, David Hocking, Harvest House, 1990, pp. 129ff

It’s out, and it’s hot: a discussion guide on sexuality for Lutherans. Released last month, it is sure to spark debate both in and out of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) between now and the next ELCA assembly in 1993. “Human Sexuality and the Christian Faith,” a 55-page document produced by the denomination’s Division for Church and Society, was designed to prompt dialogue and set the stage for a future ELCA social statement on sex issues. The material urges readers to examine with an open mind different views about marriage, promiscuity, and homosexuality.

At it’s core the document questions biblical passages concerning homosexuality and suggests that scriptural references to same-sex relationships need to be re-interpreted in light of modern theories about sexual orientation. “We must distinguish between moral judgments regarding same-sex activity in biblical times and in our own time,” the report states. It differentiates “exploitative” homosexual activity from same-sex relationships” in which there is mutual love and commitment.”

The document challenges ELCA members to evaluate prejudices against homosexuals, insisting that “what we personally find offensive is not necessarily sinful.”

Members of a 24 member United Methodist Church (UMC) panel could not agree on whether homosexuality is a sin, so the committee’s 14,000-word report on the subject was referred to the denomination’s national policy-making body, which will convene in Louisville, Ky., in May. The report contains a majority statement, signed by 17 committee members, recommending the removal of an assertion in the church’s book of rules that homosexual practice and Christianity are incompatible. A minority report, signed by four members, argues for retaining the current language. The panel agreed that biblical references to sexual practices should not be viewed as binding “just because they are in the Bible.”

Fierce debate is expected at this year’s General Conference because at least 35 of the UMC’s 72 regional bodies have approved resolutions calling for preserving the traditional stance.

Copyright 1992 by Media Management, P.O. Box 21433, Roanoke,VA.

The oft-reported claims that Americans are promiscuous and that 10 percent are exclusively homosexual are false, according to a new University of Chicago study. Sociologist Tom W. Smith of the Univ. of Chicago National Opinion Research Corporation (NORC) says his study clearly shows the vast majority of Americans are heterosexual and unlikely to engage in behavior that would put them at risk for AIDS.

The study shows 93 percent of the population has been exclusively heterosexual since the age of 18. Five to 6 percent consider themselves bisexual. And only 1 percent are exclusively homosexual. Smith also found that only 6.8 percent of the population engaged in sexual activity of any kind that would put them at risk of AIDS.

Citizen, Vol. 4, #4, April 1990, p. 5.

In the 1930s, British anthropologist J.D. Unwin studied 86 cultures that stretched across 5,000 years. He found, without exception, when they restricted sex to marriage, they thrived.

Strong families headed by faithful spouses made for bold, prosperous societies. But not one culture survived more than three generations after turning sexually permissive.

Noted Harvard sociologist Pitirim Sorokin found no culture surviving once it ceased to support marriage and monogamy. None.

Source CBN

"Cause and Effect: The Benefits of Traditional Marriage"

By Paul Strand
Washington Sr. Correspondent