Sadly Gay Male Nurse Stereotype is Not Just Trolls

being gay is not a sin..

I never said that... I said the homosexual act is a sin. Wanting those jeans at the store isn't a sin... walking out with them without paying is. If you throw out standards of right and wrong you open the door to ALL deviant behavior. first it is homosexuality, then incest, child sex, bestiality, etc. Legally speaking if you change the traditional definition of marriage to allow same sex unions, why not plural marriage, or marriage to inanimate objects (yes, some people want this ).


That being said, I agree with the poster who said they could care less about the sexual orientation of the person treating them. "All have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God" To judge a person based solely on their vice is disingenuous since we are all guilty of something. However if someone outs himself about their sexuality or other vice they should expect some to judge!

i'm sorry you took offense to my post. a fair reading of what i wrote could hardly be construed to say that any gay person would be involved in any of those behaviors, the point was about different types of deviant behavior and how societal acceptance of one is a slippery slope. there are already groups promoting such agendas NAMBLA for one. and as far as the thread going off topic i gave my opinion on the topic and have defended my position to those who responded. I am hardly a troll and usually avoid responding to gay related posts, but found the post i originally responded to a little hard to let stand unopposed. once this thread dies out you won't have to hear anymore on the subject from me. i hope the tone of all my posts comes through clear, i love gay people as much as anyone else, but believe the behavior is wrong.

I think what I am having a hard time ingesting is the fact that the homosexual act is considered deviant...but being homosexual is okay? I don't get that. Don't they both go hand in hand? You like me as a person...but not what I do with my partner? Is that it?)

CB, many conservative Christian churches teach that homosexuality is a sin but that Christians are called to "love the sinner but hate the sin." At first glance, this seems quite reasonable. Who loves sin? Yet, Jesus commands us to love our neighbors and our neighbors are not just limited to people who are similar to us, who attend the same churches as we and live in our communities, even in our back yards.

The problem with "love the sinner but hate the sin" is that it still gives these so-called Christians a reason to engage in homophobic acts. The conservative pastors who preach this tell their congregations that the way to approach gays is "in love" and that they are supposed to point out to the gays their "sinful ways" so they can "turn them away from their sinful lifestyle and toward the Lord." Sometimes the conservatives who subscribe to this belief become very aggressive and extreme---and that's one reason we see the so-called "faith-based" gay and lesbian "conversion" therapies and centers.

Years ago I attended a conservative Christian church. I knew that this church preached "love the sinner but hate the sin" but I had no idea that it was truly homophobic. In fact, there were two retired gentlemen who lived together for many years, owned property together, attended church together, acted in every way as if they were a committed gay couple. So I assumed---wrongly---that this particular church was tolerant of gays. Shortly after I left the church, the college-age group Soulforce came to the campus of a college affiliated with that particular church. Soulforce is a group of GLBT young people who visit campuses that are unfriendly to gays in an effort to start dialogue. Sometimes the campuses allow the students to speak their minds. Sometimes they react as if they've been invaded by terrorists. The college affiliated with the church I once attended reacted as if it had been invaded. I have never seen such a shameful display of homophobia, bigotry and sheer HATE in my life. The college president and chaplain had Soulforce kids arrested for trespassing because they wanted to pray in the chapel. There were leaflets all over the place, warning the college staff what to do if the "undesirable people" who were on campus that day were to become aggressive. (The college had advanced notice because Soulforce told them they were coming, as was their policy.) After Soulforce students had visited that campus, they went to the gay-friendly UCC church in that community. My then-fiance and I attended, prayed and cried with the students who spoke about how they felt outcast from their churches and from God because they were GLBT. Some said they were told by their churches that they were sin incarnate and that their very existence was an affront to God. Others were told to suppress their sexual orientation, that the only way they could be saved was to live a life of emotional and physical celibacy.

Now---a challenge to all of us who are straight. Can you imagine being told that you can never, EVER have a romantic relationship, sexual intimacy, a marriage, family---because of our sexual orientation? Can you imagine being told that if you love the person you love you will be condemned to an eternity in Hell? Can you imagine people from your faith community, maybe the one in which you have grown up, telling you that you are a mistake because God doesn't make heterosexual people? How do you feel about the statement "love the sinner but hate the sin" NOW?

Please, don't anyone start in on how God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve or about the "biblical" model of marriage as God intended it. Abraham slept with his wife's servant in order to conceive a son. Jacob was a bigamist. Lot slept with his daughters, thinking they were prostitutes. David was a polygamist and his son Solomon apparently had hundreds of wives and concubines. There are indeed verses in the Bible that can be interpreted to condemn homosexual acts but Leviticus also prohibits the wearing of clothing made from different kinds of cloth and says the eating of shellfish is an abomination.

After I left the conservative church, I started going to the United Church of Christ, probably the most liberal Christian denomination. The church I attended was Open and Affirming, which meant that GLBT persons were welcome to worship along with everyone else. I was moved and inspired by the love I saw for the young lesbian moms, the aging gay men who had been together all their lives, and the midlife transgender persons who were starting over in the gender they felt God intended for them. To me, that church embodied what Jesus meant by loving our neighbors.

On the other hand, the homophobia I saw demonstrated at my former church and the college broke my heart. Homophobia is the sin. Homosexuality is not.