The militant and powerful "gay lobby" would undoubtedly like to have the Holy Bible banned as "hate literature". Why? Because the Bible's condemnation of homosexuality is as clear and plain as the Bible's condemnation of murder, adultery, premarital sex, kidnapping, lying, idolatry and other grave sins. Clergy who support the "cause" of gay and lesbian rights must have skipped classes at the seminary the day this was taught. (Or perhaps they went to seminaries which have become, in the words of a now-deceased cardinal, "hotbeds of homosexuality"!) In any case, for any churchman or layman (oops -- layperson!) to use the Bible to condone rather than condemn homosexuality just proves such a one has absolutely no idea what the Bible actually teaches.
For anyone to suggest that the Holy Bible says God approves of (or at least doesn't condemn) homosexual activity is nothing less than willful blindness. This is what the Bible* -- the inspired Word of God -- actually says on the subject.
First, look at the story of Sodom and Gommorah in Genesis 19. Those cities were notorious hotbeds of homosexuality. Gen. 19:5-7: They called Lot and said to him, "Where are the men that came in to thee at night? Bring them out hither that we may know [have sexual relations with] them." Lot went out to them...and said, "Do not so, I beseech you, my brethren; do not commit this evil."
The Greek-dervied word we use, even today, to describe homosexual sex is "sodomy". And those who practise sodomy are "sodomites". It was for the sin of sodomy, among others, that God punished the city of Sodom with total annihilation.
Some say that the God of the New Testament is a God of love, much different from the God of righteousness and justice we meet in the Old Testament. But the first Christians, the writers of the New Testament, knew perfectly well that God's view of sodomy remains the same.
In the Catholic Epistle of St. Jude the Apostle we read (7): As Sodom and Gomorrah and the neighbouring cities, in like manner, having given themselves to fornication, and going after other [strange] flesh, were made an example, suffering the punishment of eternal fire.
Yes, the God who commands us to love our neighbour is the same God who will cast unrepentant sinners into the "eternal fire".
Back to the Old Testament, where homosexuality is clearly and unequivocally condemned.
Leviticus 18:22-23: Thou shalt not copulate with mankind [males] as with womankind [women]; because it is an abomination."
Lev. 20:13: If any one [man] lie with a man as with a woman, both have committed an abomination; let them be put to death.
In his epistles, St. Paul writes on this subject three times.
1 Corinthians 6:9-10: Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind [those who have sex with men]...shall possess the kingdom of God.
1 Timothy 1:9-10: The law is not made for the just man, but for the unjust and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for the wicked and defiled...for fornicators, for them who defile themselves with mankind [men], ...for liars, for perjured persons, and whatever thing is contrary to sound doctrine.
In the following passage we see the condemnation not just of sex between men but also sex between women (lesbianism):
Romans 1:26-27: For this cause God delivered them up to shameful affections. For their women have changed the natural use into that which is against nature. And in like manner, the men also, leaving the natural use of women, have burned in their lusts one towards another, men with men working that which is filthy, and receiving in themselves the recompense which was due to [the punishment for] their error."
If homosexuals continue in their deviant ways, in the face of the clear proscription of God, that is their choice, made of their own free will. But let them know for certain that the Bible condemns all such practices and the day will surely come when God will judge them unfit for His kingdom.
Moreover, if they continue to practise and openly promote homosexuality, leading others astray, "it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea." (St. Mark 9:41).
* Douay-Rheims Version (DRV)
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