The Bible and homosexuality

This is a response to “Opposition to Homosexuality Within Christianity” by Michael Hoye.

I commend your work. In reading this paper, I thought your response to Justin Lee’s essay was well discussed. You’ve proven your point. There isn’t any biblical evidence affirming “this practice” you have titled.

Unfortunately, your paper has left me with the same answer I have found again and again, which isn’t an answer.

It isn’t an answer because I am gay. The Bible is very clear that “practicing homosexuality” is wrong.

I’m a Christian, too. I grew up as the child of missionaries. I have read these verses time and time again, and I believe they have truth.

However, I’m still left wondering, “How are these verses supposed to comfort anyone who is “struggling” with their sexuality?”

How does someone find comfort knowing that their feeling and attractions are sinful and that they have angered God by their mere existence? I did not.

According to a report by the the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles, 3.5 percent of Americans are part of the LGBT population. What kind of hope does this offer for all of those people?

The hardest part of reading your paper was coming back to the same statement, “homosexuality is a sin.”

It feels alienating for me that I have been comodified as a sin. When someone commits a crime, is their name changed to the crime they commited?

At the end of the day, homosexuality is a more three-dimsional issue than being a sin.

This paper was written with good intentions, but it still misses a crucial point.

Your answer isn’t an answer. It’s a Band-Aid for people like me.

Is the love I express validated by the greatest love?