Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: jdd@db.toronto.edu (John DiMarco) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Christians -- gay and otherwise Message-ID: Date: 10 Jul 90 07:54:34 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Toronto, CSRI DB/OIS group Lines: 42 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article , mls@sfsup.att.com (Mike Siemon) writes: |> .... I offer my testimony as one of the least of these, |> my brothers. I would rather point you to the incredible faith, and love, |> shown by the myriads of gay couples confronting AIDS -- Christ as both |> victim and priest present with almost unbearable intensity on a path |> towards death as grueling as many Golgothas together. Do not despise |> the testimony of my brothers. Must we *all* die, to show you our love? There is little doubt in my mind that there often is great love, heroic love, sacrificial love in a homosexual relationship. This love is from God, just like the love which flourishes in other relationships. God is love, and whoever lives in love, lives in God and vice versa. God can be present in a homosexual relationship too, and every Christian should be capable of recognizing this. Nevertheless, I don't believe that God intends homosexual relations to be the proper use of our sexuality. Throughout scripture and all through the teachings of the Church, the proper domain of sexual exercise is within heterosexual marriage, and nowhere else. Any extramarital sexual activity, including homosexual activity, is a misuse of sexuality. Fortunately, God doesn't withdraw his love when we abuse some facet of his plans within our lives. He still works in us, consoling, comforting, nurturing, and bringing forth fruit, even though we have something within us which is not his. Otherwise we'd all be without him, for none of us are without sin. And the love He engenders in a homosexual relationship is still his love, even though the exercise of the sexual function within that relationship is not what he intended. To those who believe a homosexual relationship is an acceptable alternate Christian lifestyle, I must respectfully and humbly disagree. But to those who believe that God does not love homosexuals and does not work in their lives, I also must disagree. God loves homosexuals at least as much as he loves everybody else, and we are called to emulate God's love in everything. John -- John DiMarco jdd@db.toronto.edu or jdd@db.utoronto.ca University of Toronto, CSRI BITNET: jdd%db.toronto.edu@relay.cs.net (416) 978-8609 UUCP: {uunet!utai,decvax!utcsri}!db!jdd