Path: utzoo!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: rvp@softserver.canberra.edu.au (Rey Paulo) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Imposing Christian morality on nonbelievers Message-ID: Date: 8 Mar 91 05:51:26 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: University of Canberra Lines: 48 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article djdaneh@pacbell.com (Dan'l DanehyOakes) writes: >ta00est@unccvax.uncc.edu (elizabeth s tallant) writes > >> You cannot be a practicing Christian and committ homosexual acts. The two >> are contradictory. > >No, dear heart. They are not. Christ does not expect us to be sinless. Wrong. While I agree that Christ does not expect us to be sinless, to willfully commit sin is another issue. As far as I can understand, homosexuals are well aware that homosexual acts constitute sin. Therefore, a homosexual committing homosexual acts is willfully comitting sin and in my belief the forgiveness of such sin is in question. We should all be aware that there are sins which are unforgivable. What Christ wants from all of us (including homosexuals) after all our previous sins have been confessed and cleansed, is to stay away from sin. This does not mean, however, that we should sin no more but only under circumstances which is entirely and humanly impossible for us to avoid and more importantly, it is not for us to decide what those circumstances are. In fact the ideal scenario is to sin no more as Christ said after healing a sick man "Go and sin no more!". But since we are humans and hence weak, all along we still stumble but not willfully. I firmly believe that committing homosexual acts are well under the control of homosexuals in the same way as a normal man and woman abstain from sex. > >I suggest that a gay whose acts -- however sinful they may be, and I do not know >whether they are or not -- are committed in honest and charitable love with his >or her partner may be much closer to the Holy Spirit than a professing Christian This statement is the same as saying: "When a person kills someone as long as he does it in honest and charitable love with the victim then he may be closer to the Holy Spirit ..." This uncomfortably leads us to the topic of "mercy killing" which is highly debatable and which I think every christian does not approve. -- Rey V. Paulo | Internet : rvp@csc.canberra.edu.au University of Canberra | "One and one and one is three" PO Box 1, Belconnen ACT, AUSTRALIA | -The Beatles --------------------------------------+----------------------------------- [Most homosexual Christians -- at least the ones that speak openly on the subject -- seem not to believe that homosexual activity is sin. You may say they are wrong, but it seems odd to say that they know it is sin. --clh]