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From: joe@emacs.UUCP (Joe Chapman)
Newsgroups: net.motss
Subject: Re: Thus saith the Lord
Message-ID: <119@emacs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 18-Nov-85 17:12:22 EST
Article-I.D.: emacs.119
Posted: Mon Nov 18 17:12:22 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 23-Nov-85 01:57:02 EST
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<>
>>In Romans, Paul actually condemns homosexual acts by heterosexual people. It
>>is natural for gay people to be attracted to the same sex. What is condemned
>>in the passage is going against one's natural inclination.
>
>How do you know what the author considered "natural inclination"?

I think you're both starting to argue off in the wrong direction.  In
the passage in question, St. Paul is condemning the Romans for embracing
and then abandoning the true religion.  The "burning in lust" portion of
the argument is used as an analogy, not as the topic.  The natural
inclination which is being discussed is not sexual, rather it is the
inclination of the soul, which for the Apostle was towards Christianity.
Furthermore, "natural inclination" is a risky phrase to use in this
context as our concept of "natural law" had not yet been formulated.

The point which I'm trying to make, and which I tried to imply in my
last posting on the subject, is that a theological or ethical judgement
requires a great deal more effort than isolated quotation from a
translation of Holy Scripture.  I can't imagine that throwing fragments
of the Epistles about to justify everything from homophobia to the MX
missile to the burning of Beach Boys records can even be considered good
*fundamentalist* theology.

--
Joe Chapman			Geraldine: "I must be a boy.  I like girls."
decvax!cca!emacs!joe		Dr. Rance: "I can't quite follow the
joe@cca-unix.arpa		    reasoning there."