[Farren]

Originally Posted by Sweetie

There are practicing homosexuals and there are not. We are concerned with practicing homosexuals.

Sweetie, I know you're not Anglican, but you might want to hear what Nobel prize laureate Desmond Tutu has to say on homosexuality:

Originally Posted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu

Asked by ENI why he had adopted this stand, when most church leaders were reticent to speak or else branded homosexual behaviour as immoral, he replied: "The answer is straightforward. It is a matter of ordinary justice. We struggled against apartheid in South Africa because we were being blamed and made to suffer for something we could do nothing about.

"It is the same with homosexuality. The orientation is a given, not a matter of choice. It would be crazy for someone to choose to be gay, given the homophobia that is present."

Originally Posted by Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"Our church [Anglican] says that the orientation is okay, but gay sex activity is wrong. That is crazy. We say the expression of love in a monogamous, heterosexual relationship is more than just the physical but includes touching, embracing, kissing, maybe the genital act. The totality of this makes each of us grow to become giving, increasingly god-like and compassionate. If it is so for the heterosexual, what earthly reason have we to say that it is not the case with the homosexual, provided the relationship is exclusive, not promiscuous?

It is only of homosexual persons that we require universal celibacy, whereas for others we teach that celibacy is a special vocation. We say that sexual orientation is morally a matter of indifference, but what is culpable are homosexual acts. But then we claim that sexuality is a divine gift, which used properly, helps us to become more fully human and akin really to God, as it is this part of our humanity that makes us more gentle and caring, more self-giving and concerned for others than we would be without that gift. Why should we want all homosexual persons not to give expression to their sexuality in loving acts? Why don't we use the same criteria to judge same-sex relationships that we use to judge whether heterosexual relationships are wholesome or not?

I was left deeply disturbed by these inconsistencies and knew that the Lord of the Church would not be where his church is in this matter. Can we act quickly to let the gospel imperatives prevail as we remember our baptism and theirs, and be thankful?"

I love that old guy. He starts from the position that homosexuality is a condition of birth and reaches the obvious conclusion that a just and loving God would make people that way because he wanted them to be that way, instead of ascribing to his God a very human bigotry that has been around longer than Christianity.