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Originally Posted by Rathji
...I know this doesn't fully address your point, but might clarify some of what textcritic said: They see historically, that societies who engage in/allow this type of activity being destroyed (See Sodom and Gomorrah). They obviously don't want this to happen.
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Many proponents of gay rights will point to the Leviticus passages as the root of Christian opposition to homosexuality, when in actual fact, Romans 1 is really a much more powerful influence:
Quote:
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Originally Posted by The Apostle Paul
"For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of those who by their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his eternal power and divine nature, invisible though they are, have been understood and seen through the things he has made. So they are without excuse; for though they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles.
"Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
"For this reason God gave them up to degrading passions. Their women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.
"And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind and to things that should not be done. They were filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, covetousness, malice. Full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, craftiness, they are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, rebellious toward parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. They know God’s decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die—yet they not only do them but even applaud others who practice them."
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There is a clear progression of thought here in Paul's rhetoric, which really needs to be read as a sort of creation narrative:
First, God created everything and revealed his own divine character through creation. Second, human pride fostered a rejection of God's obvious glory, and produced a psychological impairment. In humankind's diminished intellectual state, they gravitated to forms of idolatrous religion as a cheap form of compensation. Third, the depravity increased and produced homosexual behaviour. Finally, homosexuality gave way to other forms of evil including murder, deceit, and ruthlessness.
Paul's Epistle to the Romans is quite commonly considered the cap-stone of Christian theology, and his doctrinal treatise begins with an account of creation in which homosexuality is presented as a compliment to paganism: the "original sin" which resulted in moral chaos and human depravity. It is a root cause which threatens all sorts of terrible harm; Paul pretty clearly believed it to have been a catalyst in the downfall of civilization.
Is it any wonder why many Christians feel as strongly as they do about the "dangers" of homosexuality?