homosexuality and Scripture

It's funny that I had to come out here - to the liberal capital of the country - to make this particular journey that I'm on. In the last weeks my eyes have been being opened to the ridiculous amount of false teaching that is present in this society.

Here's an example (extensive quotes below if you don't feel like wading through this):
http://commonwealmagazine.org/homosexuality-church-1 (particularly the first article on the page)
In light of that:
http://www.actsion.com/neognost.htm

My comments:
My church here has been talking a lot lately about false teaching, particularly the Gnostics from the early church and the ways that it is again manifesting itself in our society. I was very struck by this in Johnson's article on homosexuality and the church. Johnson writes, and I quote:

"I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed to, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us. By so doing, we explicitly reject as well the premises of the scriptural statements condemning homosexuality—namely, that it is a vice freely chosen, a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to God’s created order."

and later he says:

"We are fully aware of the weight of scriptural evidence pointing away from our position [emphasis mine], yet place our trust in the power of the living God to reveal as powerfully through personal experience and testimony as through written texts. To justify this trust, we invoke the basic Pauline principle that the Spirit gives life but the letter kills (2 Corinthians 3:6). And if the letter of Scripture cannot find room for the activity of the living God in the transformation of human lives, then trust and obedience must be paid to the living God rather than to the words of Scripture."

And.......

"If it is risky to trust ourselves to the evidence of God at work in transformed lives even when it challenges the clear statements of Scripture, it is a far greater risk to allow the words of Scripture to blind us to the presence and power of the living God."

If you read the whole article, be warned...the above quotes are only the beginning.

At this point, I find myself shaking slightly from shock that someone would pervert the truth like this. I wish I was smarter so that I could articulate exactly why this is wrong. Perhaps I will devote my Christmas break to writing on this subject. However, I would like to point out a few verses that come to mind:
1 Timothy 3: 16-17 - ¹⁶All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, ¹⁷so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Romans 1:18-19 - ¹⁸The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, ¹⁹since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.
Revelation 22:18-19 - ¹⁸I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. ¹⁹And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.
Deuteronomy 4:2 - Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

There is one interesting thing to come out of this, something I think might be important to keep in mind. Our western society seems to have the idea that someone's sexuality defines them. Thus someone who is homosexual is defined to their core by this one thing. This, as the author of the second article in the first link I gave points out, is a recent phenomenon. I think it's important for Christians to keep in mind when talking about this subject, because when Biblical authors talked about homosexuality, they did not view it through the same cultural lens as we do. They saw homosexuality as a sin, alongside all the other sins, but the sin of a man sleeping with another man did not necessarily define that man as it does in our society. This is key for us to remember. I believe that there is no doubt that Scripture teaches that homosexual relations are a sin. However, this sin is listed along with a wide variety of other sins. Let us not forget this in our dealings in the world.