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Emails that we have received about homosexuality

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Introduction:

Many visitors to this web site send us E-mails which discuss homosexuality. That is to be expected, because surveys have shown that the two moral topics of greatest concern to church goers are equal rights for homosexuals (including the right for same-sex couples to marry) and abortion access.

We thought that some of the questions that they raise, and our responses, might be of general interest. So we have stripped some of these E-mails of any identifying information, and listed some of our responses below. We will add to this essay as additional thought provoking E-mails arrive.

You may wish to send us your views on this much-debated topic. We will try to respond to your E-mail. However, we cannot engage in continuing E-mail exchanges.

Attacks on our homosexual essays:

Homosexuality is a very controversial topic at this time. Part of the population favors equal rights for gays and lesbians. Others feel that same-sex behavior is a profoundly evil sin hated by God, a threat to society, and an activity which should be criminalized. Our web site is unusual in that we try to explain all sides to the topic.

For the record, none of the five of us at this office have a bisexual or homosexual orientation.

A surprising number of social and religious conservatives ignore our gay-negative essays -- those that describe the traditional position -- and concentrate on our essays which are gay-positive. Some have commented:

	"I hope all you faggots die of cancer or worse!!!!!"
	"please do not call your self or any HOMOSEXUALS Muslims. No homosexual can really be a Muslim for Islam rejects them in black and white pages of the holly book....Islam is the only religion that is clear about homosexuality and its punishment. no one died for our sins in Islam, only you the "homosexual" will, in places that use the law of Islam to punish the sinner. My lovely country of IRAN being the best at that...bye you rejected -God and the Qur'an rejects you and you still wanna belong?
	"YOUR CONCLUSIONS ON THE SUBJECT OF HOMOSEXUALITY ARE WITHOUT MERIT AND UNBIBLICAL;"
	"Quit trying to pervert the right ways of the Lord."
	"It seems your site mistakenly tries to say it is ok for Homosexuals to be alive. As if that error isn't idiocy in itself (read the bible). You seem to attempt to make argument it is ok for them to be Christian. Again folks I ask you to read the Bible. Please remove the error ASAP! Thanks!
	"You promote the SODOMITES AND GOD WILL JUDGE YOU FOR IT."
	Homosexuality is an abomination unto God and you're promoting it. That makes you wrong according to God's word. Period.

We occasionally get Email attacks from visitors who have concentrated on our gay-negative essays but seem completely oblivious to our gay-positive passages in our essays.

Subject: religious finatics [sic]. "If you people would read something other than bible fairy tales maybe you cound [sic] understand other people of sexual oriantation. [sic] You all sound like fallwell [sic] or even baker."

Never have I'd been so disgusted as I have when I mistakenly came across your site. How dare you ignorant a--holes write such bulls--t on homosexuality. You have no real facts no concrete evidence, all you have are jaded and ignorant views on a subject you know nothing about. And how dare you rummage God's good name through open lies and words of hate! God loves everyone and has created everyone EQUAL!! For you to sit on your asses and create these stories...I only pray God punishes you all for taking his word and twisting it to suit your personal views. BURN IN HELL YOU TWISTED F--KS!!!

And then, we do get some Emails from people who have actually read our essays:

"You take a very scholarly approach to the [homosexual] issue which is very refreshing I commend you on your work "

Finally, we receive a different type of Email at an increasing frequency lately. They are too personal to repeat here. They typically describe how they grew up in a religiously devout family learning to hate gay and lesbians. They later discovered during their teen years that they are homosexual. They turned all this hatred onto themselves and eventually became suicidally depressed. After reading our essays and studying further, they pulled themselves out of their depression, and became convinced that they are not garbage because God does not make trash. Such letters do not arrive very often, but they are very encouraging to us when they do.

The Bible is clear about homosexual behavior:

Incoming E-mail: The Scriptures are quite clear that God condemns homosexuality. There is no need to pray to God to assess his will on the matter.

Response: The writer appears to be referring to our essay which describes the result of a pilot study that we made on assessing the will of God about same-sex marriage.

We suggest that the Bible is not at all clear about loving, committed same-sex relationships:

	Within the most conservative wings of the Christian community, there is a near consensus that the Bible is God's inerrant word, written by men who were inspired by God to be totally accurate. They feel that the message of the Bible on same-sex behavior is obvious: God condemns all homosexual activity, no matter what the circumstances. In fact, in one location, Leviticus 20:13, the death penalty is called for.
	But many followers of the Progressive Christian movement, and other religious liberals, interpret the dozen or so biblical passages about same-sex behavior as referring to: Homosexual rape and improper treatment of strangers (Genesis 19 & Judges 19:14-29); Homosexual ritual sex in Pagan temples (Leviticus 18:22 and 29:13); Homosexual prostitution (Deuteronomy 23:17, 1 Kings 14:24, 2 Kings 23:7 and many other places in the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament); Men molesting male children (1 Corinthians 6:9); Heterosexuals engaged in homosexual behavior (Romans 1:28); and Men or women engaging in bestiality with angels (Jude 7). They feel that the Bible is silent about loving, committed, same-sex relationships.
	Mainline denominations, like the Episcopal Church, USA, the Presbyterian Church (USA, and the United Methodist Church are severely divided on the topic, with part of their memberships taking the conservative approach, and others following the liberal beliefs. There is even talk of a schism in some mainline denominations because of an inability to reach a compromise on this topic..

So, within a particular wing of Christianity, there is often little debate about the Bible's position on same-sex behavior. But within Christianity as a whole, there is no consensus on what the Bible actually says.

Your numbers are way off:

Incoming E-mail: Your article regarding the sexual orientation of Jesus is grossly inaccurate. There are way more than 5% of males in the US that are homosexual. It's more like 15-30%..Do your research before you mislead  people and misrepresent facts please.

Response: Trust us. We have done the research.

It all depends on how you define "homosexual."

	If you define any person as being a homosexual who has had an orgasm with another person of the same sex after puberty, the percentage is about 35% according to Kinsey.
	If you simply dial a whole bunch of random telephone numbers and ask the person who answers point blank whether they are homosexual, then you will find that about 2% are homosexual. Yes, some public opinion surveys have used this approach, and their results are widely publicized.
	But if you contact a random selection of adults, gain their confidence, and determine their sexual orientation, you will find that about 92% are heterosexual, 5% homosexual and 3% bisexual.

However, some people do not recognize that a bisexual orientation exists.

Gay-positive organizations have often used a 10% figure, particularly in the past. But there is a near consensus that this is an inflated number.

Religious conservatives often quote the 2% figure based on some meaningless phone surveys.

I have never seen a group claim in excess of 10%. Can you tell me where the 15% to 30% came from? It would certainly be true of some sections of some cities. But as a general estimate, I think that it is grossly excessive.

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Copyright © 2003 to 2011 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-JUN-29
Latest update: 2011-APR-09
Author: B.A. Robinson

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