[T]he Bible does lay out homosexuality as a sin.

No. It is a common misconception that the Bible says that homosexuality—a word that, in modern English, means “the state of experiencing sexual attraction almost entirely towards the same sex”—is a sin. Not only is this factually incorrect; it stretches credulity to believe that a statement to identical effect might be succinctly expressed in ancient Greek or Hebrew. The very concept of sexual orientation was unknown then; it scarcely be less anachronistic for Paul to openly address the congregation in Rome concerning their TV viewing habits.

At the very most, some passages may be interpreted as specifying that homosexual activities are sinful. I am happy to grant this: it relies upon several assumptions and a degree of selectivity in how one reads the text, but it is at least a consistent and parsimonious hypothesis. The greater statement, however, that a homosexual orientation is ever spoken against or even referred to obliquely in the Bible, is thoroughly extra-Biblical and a grave disservice to the many gay Christians who are, even by very conservative standards of acceptable sexual conduct, living entirely honourable and chaste lives.

my holy book says all christian nutters like you are scum and should be either shot or beaten with a baseball bat. i accept this holy book as MY word of god. does make acting out what it says justified?

admit it: you’re all just a bunch of bigots seeking any excuse to justify your own insecurities.

People act hateful towards me when I say that homosexuality is a sin. I believe this to be true, however, I have recently found that God hates all sexual sin, as you said, so I treat gays, lesbians, and bisexuals the same as anybody. And I don’t believe that it is our duty as Christians to tell these people how to behave if they are not believers, as it is none of our concern. We should focus on showing Christ’s love. But as the Bible says to chastise fellow Christians, I would kindly remind a homosexual church member that what they’re doing is sin, exactly how we should remind adulterers and fornicators! How we should expect other Christians to inform us of our own sin!
And I must confess that it really annoys me when an otherwise sexually immoral person gets up-in-arms about homosexuality.

That being said, I wanted to write the following. Not sure why, I just felt led to.

I’m a Christian and I love the Lord with all of my heart. Homosexuality is a cross I’ve had to bear for a long time. I’m only 23, but that cloud has hung over my head since I was young. I know this is hotly debated, but from someone who’s been there, I can tell you that this is NOT a choice. I don’t want it, I ask that God take it away, but it remains. I don’t know if I’m born this way. I don’t know if it’s some chemical imbalance. I guess I just wanted to reiterate that for someone looking in from the outside, it may look like a choice some people are making. But I can’t tell you how farther from the truth that is. I don’t know a single person who would want to complicate their life so much as to choose this.

All I know is that it’s a sin – and a very strong temptation at that. That is why the real choice that exists here is whether or not to act on it. Just like resisting the temptation of cheating on your wife, or sleeping with someone before you’re married, homosexuality is no different. A sin, is a sin, is a sin in God’s eyes.

God Bless.

Discrimination doesn’t rule out homophobia.

We all have hearts, lungs and a brain, there is nothing different about homosexuals than there is to heterosexuals.

We. Are. Human.

This will be my last comment, as long as the discussion goes in this direction. Obviously we have some major points of disagreements that make this discussion almost pointless because it is our other disagreements that make us disagree here. Nonetheless. I was reminded this week of why I had said the things I said in comments before. I’m going through Matthew for a class of mine and so many of the teaches in Matthew refer to the chaffe of wheat stock. The good part is eaten and used, the bad part is burned up. Obviously this has nothing to do with wheat, but eternity. This is just one book of the Bible, but being that you say Jesus was just a kind, loving man and yet he taught on this separation, if you will, in eternity. I am not saying homosexuals are the bad who go to hell, not at all, but to say there is no separation and that everyone goes to heaven is so far off from what the Bible teaches.