Gay

Romans 1:26-27 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. [27] 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.

I've thought a lot about this, and I have so many questions. I wish that I could sit in front of Jesus and listen to him speak to me about how much he loves. I wish I knew his heart. I don't understand the verse above, because it says so many things. "God gave them over to shameful lust". What does "gave them over to" mean? Was being gay the punishment? Or was it the shame from being gay? What if God didn't "give them over to" that lust? Was it God's intent for gay people to feel shame? Why?

Why are people gay in the first place? Why is it a sin? It says in a different place in the bible that people who are homosexual will not inherit the kingdom of God, so what exactly is "the kingdom of God"? Are we talking about heaven, or are we talking about the kingdom here on earth? Christians like to hold up signs saying that gay people are going to hell, but the verse above says that they "received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." The due penalty, the exact and complete penalty that they "deserve", they received in themselves. So what is this penalty? I assume that the penalty is shame, because the verse says "shameful lust", but maybe I'm wrong. I also assume that God isn't talking about hell when he's talking about the penalty they receive, because he's talking about the penalty being in themselves. Unless God is talking about the soul of course, but for some reason I feel like he's talking about the heart, and the guilt it faces.

By saying that they receive the due penalty for their perversion, He's also saying that the don't need to be penalized anymore. They don't need those picket signs, they don't need to be spat on.

The church says that they disagree with the sin, they fight against gay marriage, they do everything to make sure that it's clear that they disapprove, and why? In so many ways gay people are the people that God calls us to love the most.

So often they are the most hurt, the most in pain, the most rejected and the most unwanted. They're the ones who were sinned against as children, who grew up feeling different. And when they finally felt like they were comfortable with "who they are", and gained the courage to come out of the closet, they only experienced more hurt and more rejection. The church has called them perverts because of the verse above. They've told them that they're living in sin, and that they're going to go to hell and I just can't wrap my mind around that.

What about the two year old that was molested? Who's sexual doors were opened way too young, so he grew and developed differently. And when he was 10 years old and started to like boys instead of girls, he was confused because those feelings were the only ones he knew.

Why does that 10 year old boy start to like other boys? Because I guarantee at that point, it's not a choice. And why did all of those things that led to this point happen?

I'm not saying that all people who are molested turn out to be gay, and I'm not saying that all people who are gay were molested. I don't think that it's all genetics either, but I don't disagree that some people may be born that way. I don't really know why people are gay, but I know that there can be many different reasons.

The fact is that people are gay. That people are attracted to the same sex, whether it be by birth, or circumstance, or choice, and it's not going to go away. So what is our response, as Christians, going to be?

2008