re: Over 25% of Methodist churches abandon denomination as schism grows over LGBTQ+ issues

quote:

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Would somebody please explain to me how you can read the Bible and come away with the idea that homosexual sexual relations are not sin?

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You can't if you are reading it with any objectivity whatsoever.

But that's not what people who defend it do.

They have gay children or friends or some other family member, so they won't accept what the Bible is very clear about. They twist themselves up like pretzels trying to explain it away. Arguments include:

1. Jesus never said anything about it, so what was said doesn't really count.

2. They say that Romans 1:26 means that the sin is when people go against their own inclinations, not that the sin is when people violate the obvious biological realities of sexuality.

3. They say that passages regarding male homosexuality aren't really referring to male-male relations between equal partners, but to men engaging in sex with temple prostitutes who were often not of age. Therefore (they claim) the actual sin is either pederasty or sexual relations within a power differential.

4. They claim that loving homosexual relationships between equal partners didn't exist back then and there was no language to describe it, so that couldn't be what the Bible was referring to. (They have to say this out of the side of their mouth that they don't use for saying that being gay is normal and healthy and has always existed.)

As far as I know, not a single reputable scholar agrees with any of this.