The Christian Digest [#7] Presents HOMOSEXUALITY--The Biblical Viewpoint
Compiled and edited by The Christian Digest Staff
(This Christian Digest is recommended for adults and EAs only.)
The issue of homosexuality has been in the news a great deal lately. Some people profess it or support it, many people think homosexuals should at least have certain rights, privileges and benefits, and a few others actively campaign against homosexuality.
This Christian Digest will examine the issue of homosexuality from a Biblical standpoint, delving into gay lifestyles, practices and inroads into modern society, in an attempt to discover why God equated the practice of homosexuality with the ancient wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.--Why homosexuality (Sodomy) and those who flaunt it are abhorrent in His sight.
What the Bible Says about Sodomy
"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination. If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."--Lev.18:22, 20:13.
"There shall be no whore of the daughters of Israel, nor a Sodomite of the sons of Israel."--Deut.23:17
"Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, Who is blessed for ever. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet (AIDS and a multitude of sexual diseases). And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them."--Rom.1:24-32
"Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind ("homosexuals" in other translations of the Bible), for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine."--1Tim.1:9-10.
"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate ("male prostitutes" in modern versions of the Bible), nor abusers of themselves with mankind ("homosexual offenders"), nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God."--1Cor.6:9-10.
"And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly."--2Pet.2:6.
"Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities. But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; how that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit."--Jude 1:7,8,17-19.
Why Is Sodomy So Offensive to God?
The starting point for understanding both human sexuality in general and homosexuality in particular should be the account of the creation of man and woman in Genesis 1 and 2. Chapter 1 deliberately notes that the man made in God's image was created male and female, connecting this with the command to reproduce (Gen. 1:27,28). In Chapter 2 sexuality is also related to companionship; the loneliness of man is remedied not by the creation of another man, but by the addition of the woman (Gen.2:21,22). The Lord emphasises this repeatedly in both the Old and New Testament. "Have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female? For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they twain shall be one flesh."--Mat.19:4,5.
The creation of male and female, of husband and wife who bear children together, was meant to be a beautiful physical illustration of the Lord's relationship with His Bride, the Church, out of which would come new souls for His Kingdom. A homosexual relationship, on the other hand, negates the great illustration God has ordained, and is totally sterile. Couples are ideally to "be fruitful and multiply," since "children are an heritage of the Lord, and the fruit of the womb is His reward" (Gen. 1:28; Psa.127:3). A homosexual relationship is totally against God's plan for man and His Church.
Church Leaders Speak Out on Sodomy
St. Augustine said in his "Confessions": "Those shameful acts against nature, such as were committed in Sodom, ought everywhere and always to be detested and punished. If all nations were to do such things, they would (equally) be held guilty of the same crime by the law of God, which has not so made men that they should use one another in this way."
Thomas Aquinas said homosexual practices "...are always an injury done to the Creator, whether or not any offence is at the same time committed against one's neighbour, since they violate His creative intent for human behaviour and destroy the beauty of His work."
Luther considered the prevalence and toleration of homosexual activity among the clergy as one of the worst symptoms of decay in the church, a product of human failure to know and honour the true God. In his "Lectures on Romans," Luther observes on Romans 1:24: "From this text we may therefore deduce that if someone surrenders to these passions, it is a sure sign that he has left the worship of God and has worshipped an idol, or he has turned the truth of God into a lie (Rom.1:25). Those who do not `see fit to acknowledge God' (Rom.1:28) are branded in this way, that they are permitted to fall into all kinds of vices."
Billy Graham has commented: "No matter how we may rationalize the practice (of homosexuality) as a viable alternative to heterosexual relationships, the reference in Romans 1 makes it clearly the product of a reprobate mind."
God's Judgements on Sodomy Throughout History
Homosexuality is almost as old as Man. The first specific mention in recorded history (other than that implied in the story of Noah, Ham and Canaan) concerns Lot and the well-known cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, over 4,000 years ago. The Bible tells in graphic detail how the men of Sodom tried to sexually molest the angelic messengers of God, who looked like men, as they came to warn Lot to flee the city before its impending destruction. God was so furious that not just Sodom, but the entire civilisation in the 100-square-mile Valley of Siddim was annihilated! The word Sodomy (men practicing sex with men) has since become a byword for homosexuality and is obviously derived from that ancient evil city.
Another Bible example of the terrific judgments of God upon a whole people because of homosexuality is found in Judges 19:15-30; 20:1-11, 37-46. After some years, the Israelites forgot the severe warnings given in Leviticus 18:22-30, and multitudes of the tribe of Benjamin began to indulge in Sodomy. A wayfaring stranger lodged overnight in one of their cities and, as happened in Sodom, the Sodomites surrounded the house, demanding to have intercourse with him. They sexually abused his concubine (female slave or mistress) all night long, leaving her for dead. The tribe of Benjamin then refused to hand over these wicked Sodomites for judgment, and as a result, almost the entire tribe of Benjamin--25,000 men--were slain by the sword.
By the 8th century B.C., the Prophet Isaiah spoke out against the leaders of Israel just before their captivity, warning that they had incurred the wrath of God because they not only practiced the sin of Sodom but were flagrantly open about it (Isaiah 3:8,9). He culminated his prophetic indictment by proclaiming, "Woe unto their soul! For they have rewarded evil unto themselves." In other words, the fall of Israel and its subsequent scattering was caused by their Sodom-like sins--including homosexuality. In fact, verse 12 states, "As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead thee cause thee to err, and destroy the way of thy paths." The Hebrew word for women, who ruled Israel at that time, is most interesting. Some dictionaries translate it "womenlike men," or "effeminate," while others render it "men who act like women." In other words, Israel's government had been invaded by homosexuals, thus invoking the judgment of God on the nation.
Judah, the southern tribe under the leadership of King Hezekiah and the preaching of the Prophet Isaiah, turned to God and repented of their national sins; consequently, they were spared the captivity that befell the ten tribes of Israel, but less than 150 years later they again turned to the sins and corruptions of the nations surrounding them until Jerusalem was destroyed and they were led into the Babylonian captivity by King Nebuchadnezzar. In the sixteenth chapter of Ezekiel, he condemns Judah for being a sister to "Sodom" (verses 46-48) and accuses them of being even worse than Sodom. Evidently, one of the rampant sins of the Hebrew people at that time, like that of Sodom before her, must have been homosexuality.
Historians are well-versed in the bisexuality of Grecian culture just three and four hundred years before Christ. Socrates was a practicing homosexual, as were most of the Greek leaders and philosophers. Plato penned an entire section in his Symposium exalting homosexual "love." Even Alexander the Great, often thought to be the greatest military leader of all time, had both male and female lovers. Because Greece was a small country with enormous expansionist ideas, childlessness was made illegal but homosexuality was widely accepted. The Greek warriors spent much of their lives away from home--with their lovers at their side. They felt that homosexuality helped to produce battlefield valor since they fought so fiercely to protect their lovers. This didn't keep the Grecian empire from falling to Rome, of course.
Historians verify that homosexuality was rampant in the days of Rome, particularly in the upper echelons of leadership. Sutonius, in his book The Twelve Caesars, indicated that fourteen out of the first fifteen emperors of Rome were homosexuals. The book chronicles the lives of these Caesars in detail, revealing their homosexual lifestyle and demonstrating how it permeated the empire. King Nikodimes had none other than Julius Caesar as his bed partner, exulting on one occasion that he was "the queen's partner and rival in the royal bed." Caesar Augustus, it is charged, sold his services for 3,000 gold pieces. He even softened the hair on his legs so he would be more desirable to his lovers. Tiberius, a sadist, adopted young boys and used them cruelly. Nero seduced little boys; one, it is said, particularly met his fancy, so he had him castrated, put a bridal veil on him, and married him in an official ceremony. After the death of Nero, the next Caesar adopted the lad and continued the relationship. The baths of Caracalla in Rome were not significantly different from homosexual baths of today; you could get a bath, sex, or both. No wonder both Gibbon and Toynbee concluded that homosexuality was one of the moral sins that contributed to the decline of the Roman Empire. Part of that deterioration included a population decline due to homosexuality.
Homosexuality has found its way, however secretly for fear of discovery, through many cultures and civilizations. During the last three decades there has been a tremendous increase in homosexuality; now some of its advocates claim there are 20 million in the United States alone. They say that being a homosexual or a lesbian is completely natural and normal, and that everyone opposed to it is "homophobic" or suffering from "homophobia." Let's examine what the "natural and normal" homosexual lifestyle entails.
The Homosexual Lifestyle
Sexual promiscuity: Moral fidelity among homosexuals is almost unknown. Despite what the gay rights people would like to have you believe about the acceptability of their lifestyle, the homosexual way of life commonly involves "cruising" or some other form of search for young, fresh sexual partners. During the course of one research study on AIDS, it was discovered the average homosexual interviewed had had 550 sexual partners. The AIDS victims averaged 1,100 different sexual partners, with some reporting as many as 20,000. This means that every day sexually addicted homosexuals are out looking for attractive young men and boys whom they can introduce to the world of sodomy and oral sex. One homosexual quoted in The Gay Report said, "Sex is very important in my life. If I was really hungry and had to make a choice of a steak dinner or a cute young boy, I would take the youth or young male every time." Another said, "I think that sex between older men and young boys is a beautiful thing if the child wants it."
It has been argued that heterosexuals are more prone to molest children because only 30 to 45 percent of all sexual offenses committed against children under fourteen were homosexual. But if homosexuals constitute only 10 percent of the population, then they are very disproportionately involved in child sexual abuse. And if more realistic estimates that homosexuals constitute only 2 percent of the population are correct, their involvement in 30 to 45 percent of crimes against children is quite remarkable!
An insatiable quest for the erotic: Although the homosexual community does not discuss this aspect of their sex life freely with "straight" (non-homosexual) people, the known practices of the homosexual clearly indicate that his sex drive is rarely satisfied. And two men are often given to demanding greater degrees of experimentation than a man and woman. This is often unhealthy, of course. One doctor, an acknowledged homosexual, pointed to an increase in hospital emergency rooms of cases of "rectal abscesses and infections of the intestines." He further stated that "damage to the wall of the intestine can lead to peritonitis, which can develop into a life-and-death-situation, as can a ripped colon. We're seeing a lot of that now, too." Upon questioning, he indicated that this increase was caused by homosexuals forcing objects of larger and larger size into each other's anal canal. Doctors have removed "whiskey glasses, bananas, coke bottles" and almost "anything that will fit." Another doctor, deeply concerned about the homosexual community because he was one himself, said, "There's a near epidemic of syphilis and gonorrhea--in the throat," and he went on to point out that most homosexuals don't realize that the throat is as vulnerable to venereal disease as the rectum. In addition to syphilis and gonorrhea, the gay male community has experienced outbreaks of ailments such as hepatitis (a liver infection) and amebiasis (infection from amoebas), shigellosis (bacterial dysentery), and giardiasis (intestinal parasites).
Not even AIDS slows down many homosexuals. According to two recent studies by the American Psychiatric Association, even if a homosexual has AIDS, he probably won't stop his compulsive behaviour. The majority of the participants in both studies did not change their high-risk activities even after learning they were infected with the virus. Their sexual activities then take on the aspect of mass murder, since AIDS is transmitted by sex and is almost always fatal. "Patient Zero," a homosexual airline attendant who apparently launched the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., intentionally infected people until he died.
Studies have shown, by the way, that 75% to 90% of AIDS cases can be attributed to homosexual contact between men, despite a great deal of media hype about "heterosexual AIDS." In one Australian study, figures available in February 1990 suggest that over 88% of those who have died from AIDS in Australia have been homosexual or bisexual men (National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research 1990). Of the remaining percentages, 5% of AIDS deaths were from blood transfusions, 3% from drugs and 3.8% from other causes.
Bestiality is also increasingly common in the burgeoning homosexual community. Charles Shively, a prominent homosexual, wrote an article for the gay Fag Rag entitled, "Bestiality as an Act of Revolution." The Gay Report, a widely read and lauded book in the homosexual community, reports positive testimonials with no apparent shame and no adverse comments from those having sex with a variety of animals. According to a survey of the gay community, sexual stimulation by or with an animal, including pets and farm animals, was within the experience of 13% of the men, who had tried it at least once.
One of the alarming practices that comes out of this insatiable quest for the erotic is sadomasochism. In recent years doctors have reported an increase of patients who obviously have been brutalized during sex practices, in some cases resulting in murder or accidental death. In his book "Gay Manifesto," originally published in 1969 and reprinted in Out of the Closets: Voices of Gay Liberation, Carl Wittman declared that sadomasochism "when consensual can be described as a highly artistic endeavour, a ballet, the constraints of which are the thresholds of pain and pleasure."
The "coming out" of homosexuals is old news now. The latest news is the "coming out" of the SM community in Europe (the Sadomasochists or "leathermen"), a move which is heartily supported by the gay community, as they are, of course, part of this too. Many experts view homosexuality as the beginner's phase of sadomasochism anyway, since a large percentage of homosexuals in their bid for the "ultimate sexual climax" will go to ever greater lengths to achieve satisfaction for their perverted sexual appetites.
Statistics indicate that rape occurs with alarming frequency in the gay male community. 18% of the responders to a survey among gays said they had been raped. There were several men who filled out the survey who might be called "rapists," or who at least stated they had forced others to have sex with them; 4% said they had raped or forced another man.
Are Sodomites Really Born that Way?
Many studies have tried to prove that homosexuality is simply inborn. Homosexuals have claimed that it's a hormone condition, that it's hereditary, or that it's "just natural," as it seems to take place in the animal world. Let's examine each of these arguments:
1. Scientists who have run extensive tests on male and female homosexuals have found their hormonal level to be the same as heterosexuals. After studying androsterone and the effects of estrogen therapy, two doctors writing in the John Hopkins Medical Journal reported that "when extremely effeminate males (homosexual or heterosexual) have been tested by these means, they have shown entirely normal hormone levels." Other tests have verified these findings, and some have uncovered an even higher ratio of male hormones in homosexuals than in heterosexuals. To date there is no scientific evidence to support the notion that homosexuality is a hormone condition.
Researcher Simon LeVay, himself a homosexual, has recently tried to prove that homosexual brains are different from heterosexual ones. However, many technical aspects of his study are subject to question, as LeVay himself concedes. Although he found minute differences in the brains of heterosexual and homosexual men, it's possible that the difference is the result rather than the cause of homosexuality. "My freshman biology students know enough to sink this study," declared Anne Fausto-Sterling, professor of medical science at Brown University in Rhode Island.
2. Another highly publicised conjecture was that homosexuality is a hereditary condition, but work done by recent geneticists has overwhelmingly refuted the idea. Not only has the view that homosexuality is a chromosomal anomaly been overthrown, but so also have many of the alleged "scientific" methods once used to bolster the view. Techniques developed for viewing all the chromosomes of a cell in connection with chromatin-sexing studies have found no abnormality relating to homosexuality. In other words, it's not hereditary. If it were an inborn condition, why couldn't any other sexual preference be inborn, including pedophilia, necrophilia, bestiality, violent rape, etc.?
3. Finally, the last plank of the theory of homosexuality's biological "normality" has been removed by the most advanced ethological studies, which have shown homosexuality to be uniquely human. For years it was popular to think that many animals engage in homosexual practices, but recently the evidence for such a view has been found to rest on faulty observations. The fact is that no mammal in its natural state seeks and prefers same-sex sexual gratification. This is found uniquely among human homosexuals. Therefore, among many contemporary scientists the theory that homosexuality is a biological condition (congenital, hereditary, or constitutional) is deemed a theory without support, a conjecture demolished by hard empirical evidence. Homosexuals are made, not born!
God's Word teaches that homosexuality is not "natural" at all. Whatever physical factors may influence it, homosexuality cannot be viewed as inborn. It is artificial and learned, contrary to what a man is by God's creation. The occasional homosexual defense, "I can't help it," cannot be acceptable in light of the Word of God. Homosexuality is not a cross to be borne, but a pattern of behaviour to be thrown off with the old man and his lusts.
Is It Really Gay?
Historian Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., objects to this synonym for homosexuality by saying, "Gay used to be one of the most agreeable words in the language. Its appropriation by a notably morose group is an act of piracy." "Gay" isn't gay for the majority of homosexuals, not even some of the time. It is more of a propaganda word than a definition, an illusion to hide the loneliness their way of life imposes upon them.
If from 2 to 6 percent of the U.S. population is homosexual, then homosexuals face a suicide rate several times higher than that of the straight community. One writer claims that 50 percent of the suicides in America can be attributed to homosexuality. Homosexuals themselves were asked, "Have you ever attempted or seriously contemplated suicide?" and yes answers were given by 40% of the men and 39% of the women. 53% of the men and 33% of the women who had attempted suicide said it was related to their homosexuality. (Despite this survey, however, many homosexuals and even authorities try to blame their suicides on religious values that condemn homosexuality. A recent report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blames "traditional religion" for gay youth suicides and demands that Christians in particular accept homosexual behaviour as normal. It even suggests that those who refuse to alter their theology should be punished by the law.)
Leaders of the gay liberation movement use every modern means at their disposal to flood the minds of today's youth with the notion that homosexuality is a "gay" lifestyle. To help counteract this devious concept, here are several reasons why "gay" isn't gay:
1. Loneliness. Murray Nonis, a reporter who has studied the California homosexual scene, states: "One of the biggest problems with homosexuals is their own loneliness. In homosexuals' own publications, in the writings of psychiatrists who treat them, in the words of the ministers who try to help them, there is this constant repetition of the loneliness of the homosexual life." This loneliness has led many homosexuals into drugs and alcoholism. One psychologist said, "Not every alcoholic is a homosexual, but every homosexual is an alcoholic."
2. Deceit. Only two options are open to homosexuals. They can "come out," announce their homosexuality to the world, and face the rejection and ridicule that many people subject them to, or they can hide it, which is the way all homosexuals begin and which remains the lifestyle of the majority. Anyone "in the closet" about his homosexuality must learn deceit to keep his closet door closed.
3. Guilt. A natural stigma of shame and guilt seems to be attached to homosexuality. The psychological community tries to blame that on culture or religion, but it is so basic and consistent that we must find a better explanation: It is intuitive and God put it within them.
4. Strong tendency toward selfishness. A Chicago psychiatrist reports, "The two most selfish clients I deal with are the alcoholic and the homosexual. Of the two, I think homosexuals are prone to be the more selfish."
5. Produces poor health and an early death. Dr. Daniel Cappon, a Canadian psychiatrist at the University of Toronto, has treated several hundred homosexuals. In his book Toward an Understanding of Homosexuality, he states, "Homosexuality, by definition, is not healthy or wholesome... The homosexual person, at best, will be unhappier and more unfulfilled than the sexually normal person. There are emotional and physical consequences to this protracted state of mental dissatisfaction. At worst, the homosexual person will die younger and suffer emotional, mental and physical illness more often than the normal person. The natural history of the homosexual person seems to be one of frigidity, impotence, broken personal relationships, psychosomatic disorders, alcoholism, paranoia psychosis, and suicide..."
6. Increased hostility. A large percentage of homosexuals reveal an excessive amount of hostility. Anger is a natural defense response to rejection. This could explain why many homosexuals are hostile at police "for infringing on their rights," at psychiatrists for calling them "mentally ill," at the church for labeling them "sinners," or at straights for calling them "perverts" or "deviates." Many are openly hostile toward all who oppose or disapprove of them, and remain in a state of constant discontent. And angry people are not "gay" people.
Homosexual Anger, Violence and Crime
Gays have become increasingly militant and violent. One graphic example of this is how the homosexual community viciously harassed and badgered singer Anita Bryant and her husband a number of years ago after Ms. Bryant took a public stand against a Dade County, Florida, proposal that would give special legal status to homosexuals. Followed from city to city by gays, Anita and her manager/husband Bob Green received repeated death warnings, had concert after concert broken up by bomb threats and were locked out of contracts to perform. Even now, years later, they are often harassed by gays at their public appearances.
This propensity for violence can also lead to crime. A northern California police officer assigned to the vice squad said that homosexual crimes in San Francisco have "doubled in the last three years. Over 40 percent of all violent crimes in San Francisco involve homosexuals." If that is true, their violent crime rate must be five or six times that of the straight community.
More than any other organisation, ACT UP ("AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power") has become the voice of gay rage. ACT UP uses tactics that shock and often offend many Americans. The group has halted trading on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange to protest drug pricing by pharmaceutical companies, staged traffic jams from Boston to San Francisco, disrupted Congress, tossed stink bombs in the hallways of the Capitol Building, and even necked in Jesse Helm's Capitol Hill office. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York shortly before Christmas one year, one member stomped on a Communion wafer--a desecration of what Roman Catholics believe to be the body of Christ. At the St. Patrick's incident, leaflets attacked the "fanatic followers" of a church that "teaches hatred" and a cardinal who "wants to obliterate us" and "fosters genocide."
ACT UP will attack those who oppose it at their office, church or home with picketing, poisonous phone calls and face-to-face abuse. Press coverage of their attacks is muted, because publishers and editors do not enjoy being harassed as anti-gay bigots and murderers. Other groups quick to defend homosexuality, sometimes violently, are Queer Nation and GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation.
Homosexual Inroads in Government
In most nations, Sodomy was officially against the law for hundreds of years; it is only in recent years that laws have been passed making it legal. In the Bible, the good kings "did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord" and "took away the Sodomites out of the land" (1Ki.15:11,12; 22:42-46; 2Ki.22:1,2, 23:7.) The laws of modern Man, however, are not only tolerating Sodomy, but even encouraging it! There is no longer a stigma attached to being a Sodomite; it has become a perfectly acceptable and legal "philosophy" or lifestyle.
In the last three decades, homosexuality has grown from an obscure subject, almost too embarrassing to mention, to a movement which has many political candidates falling all over themselves, trying to secure its backing without alienating their other supporters. Even "born-again" President Carter, who realized he would be elected by a thin margin, did everything he could to cultivate the homosexual vote. He promised he would move immediately to federally decriminalize Sodomy and related sexual acts. His stand was advertised to the homosexual constituency in full-page advertisements appearing in gay publications.
Former President Gerald Ford refused to cultivate the homosexual vote and lost the election by three percentage points (representing less than the registered homosexual voters). This lesson did not go unnoticed by politicians, who now cater more and more to the homosexual lobby. During the 1992 presidential campaign, a Newsweek poll reported that an amazing 40% of Americans held the issue of gay rights "very, or somewhat important" to their presidential vote. 27% felt that Bush had gone too far in opposing gay rights. Clinton, on the other hand, openly sought gay votes, and says he will lift the ban against gays in the military and sign gay rights legislation. His support was obvious at the 1992 Democratic National Convention, where 13 pro-gay speakers addressed a Madison Square Garden audience that included 108 openly gay delegates, alternates and party officials. Gay activists were as important to Clinton's effort to get out the vote--and to his election--as the Christian Coalition was to Bush.
AIDS has done more in recent years to create sympathy for the gay community than anything else. By and large, the devastation AIDS has created has led to great sympathy in the straight world. According to a Gallup poll taken in 1990, 47% of all adults believe that homosexual relations between consenting adults should be legal, up from only 33% in 1987.
The gay community now has real political clout in the U.S., with more than 9 million voters. There are more than 61 openly gay elected officials around the U.S., compared with fewer than half a dozen in 1980. Homosexuality is certainly no hindrance to reelection: Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank disclosed his homosexuality in 1987 and was re-elected the next year by a 70% majority. The Human Rights Campaign Fund, a gay lobbying group with 60,000 members, was the ninth largest independent PAC (Political Action Committee) during the last presidential election, and contributed up to $1 million to campaigns.
Homosexual Inroads in Education
* A school sex education program produced by the National Center for Health Education in New York City notes that "most people fall somewhere on a continuum between ... homosexual and heterosexual orientation." The program's target audience: kindergarten through seventh graders. Its first-grade textbooks feature passages about "daddy's roommate" and a girl who has "two mommies." The books are designed to accustom first-graders to the idea of homosexual parents. This program is used in 45 U.S. states and 8,000 schools, according to a spokesman.
* Britain is following the same path in educating its children. Some children's libraries feature books such as "Gloria Goes to Gay Pride," about a girl with two mommies who goes to a Gay Pride meeting and how happy she is. This is just one of a series of books, part of a campaign to "change the traditionally negative and hostile environment in which young homos find themselves in school," according to Hugh Warren of the London Gay Teenage Group.
* One of the most striking examples of homosexual influence is a sex counseling program for homosexuals in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Called "Project 10," it is a program that has been introduced into numerous Los Angeles high schools since 1984. The aim: To target students who may be homosexual or who "express conflict over sexual orientation." The program purports to "break the wall of silence" surrounding homosexuality. It teaches that homosexuality is simply another normal variation of sex and seeks to "develop a philosophy that is non-judgmental with regard to sexuality." Project 10 is going strong in Los Angeles schools today, offering counseling, books and lectures on the homosexual lifestyle. "The only opposition," said school district spokesman Shel Erlich, "is from so-called family-oriented groups who prefer to hide their heads a little bit."
* A proposal for health education from the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene notes that "a range of sexual orientations is normal." And in a program called "About Your Sexuality," distributed through the Unitarian Universalist Association, junior high-age youngsters are shown explicit filmstrips that depict various homosexual acts.
* New York has a special high school for gay and lesbian youth, cross-dressers and transsexuals: Harvey Milk School. Located in Greenwich Village, which has a large gay community, Harvey Milk has two full-time teachers and two classrooms for 40 students, only a handful of whom show up at the three-story waterfront building on a given day.
* San Francisco boasts the Lesbian and Gay Parenting Group, storytelling hours for tots at gay bookstores and Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, a largely gay synagogue with a Hebrew School for members' children.
* Gay power is burgeoning at Harvard. For the first time, an assistant dean has been delegated to deal with gay issues on campus. A tutor specializing in gay concerns has been assigned to each of Harvard's undergraduate houses. Lesbian couples now appear at Radcliffe's formal Senior Soiree, and gays routinely dance together at Harvard events. That can sometimes lead to friction. In February a ruckus broke out when a gay student asked the younger brother of a straight student to dance. Gay students soon after staged a "kiss-in" to protest alleged harassment.
* Homosexual teachers in Switzerland enjoy total freedom of operation and are virtually untouchable as they spread the gospel of the pleasures of gay life into the minds of unsuspecting and innocent youngsters. To illustrate how liberal thinking has become the norm among intellectuals, here's a statement from the principal of one of the most prestigious high schools in Switzerland, Dr. Lscher: "I'm not interested in what kind of sexual beliefs my teachers subscribe to. This is their private affair. If they choose to reveal their homo or heterosexuality to their students, that's entirely their own business. We can't stop them from doing this! If they would `come out' and make statements to the class like, `Some people are heterosexual, others are homosexual; personally, I fancy the homosexual way of life', they'd be perfectly within the bounds of legality and are merely exercising their legal rights of freedom of expression." Consequently there are several gay teachers associations which meet, convene and plot very openly how to further their cause, sowing the seeds of sodomy into the hearts of their young students. Their phone numbers are proudly advertised in brochures.
Switzerland begins its sex education classes in the 5th grade in some cantons, and addresses homosexuality very openly. The head of one education department said, "We endeavor to present our students with a liberal view of these matters (homosexuality). `Normalization', not `Polarization', is our concept here. We ... want to present this to our students as normal and nothing out of the ordinary."
In a recent issue of "SLZ" (an influential Swiss magazine for teachers), the writer gave a discourse on how to deal with the growing rate of youth homosexuality: "We have to learn to view youth homosexuality in a positive light. If any given youth seems to have homosexual tendencies, they should be encouraged to stand by their convictions and not feel condemned about these feelings. We advocate directing them immediately to an appropriate group or association of like-minded homosexual youth, where they can find the help and assistance they need to lead a normal life. We further suggest that more assistance and support should be given to such organizations and associations of young homosexuals, modelled after the example of the Northern European countries such as Denmark and Holland, where such associations receive substantial governmental funding and support."
* Australian homosexuals object to the fact that "The education system presents children with a heterosexual, nuclear family oriented lifestyle model." They insist that the education system accept and teach that homosexuality is "a normal variation of sexual behaviour." In "Young, Gay and Proud," a book published for high school students by the Melbourne Gay Teachers and Students Group, students are told: "You have probably been told as you have grown up that your anus is a dirty place and shouldn't be touched. This is stupid. People should be happy with all parts of their bodies, and if they aren't, it means they can't like themselves very much."
In a 1982 report on Discrimination and Homosexuality, the New South Wales Anti-Discrimination Board specifically recommended that non-government (including Christian) schools should be forced both to employ openly homosexual teachers and to revise curricula to present homosexual behaviour in a positive light.
Homosexual Inroads in Religion
* The Metropolitan Community Church is a church founded specifically for homosexuals, and now has over 267 churches in 11 countries. It was founded by Troy Perry, who claims to be an Evangelical, but has reported that at one of the crucial junctures in his life, an occult minister directed him by prophecy to leave the gay world and return to the Christian ministry as an active homosexual.
* One-third of the bishops of the U.S. Episcopal church now knowingly ordain homosexuals and lesbians.
* The United Church of Christ in America also knowingly ordains homosexuals and lesbians.
* The Unitarian Universalists openly welcome gay clergy.
* After three years of study and debate, a special committee of the 8.9 million-member United Methodist Church said it was unable to agree on whether homosexuality is compatible with Christian teaching. In a report to the nation's second largest Protestant denomination, the 24-member committee did say the church should be "a place of acceptance and hospitality to all persons."
* Homosexuality has apparently made tremendous inroads in the Roman Catholic Church. Father Andrew Greeley complained in a recent article that regard for priestly celibacy is being undermined by a "national network" of actively homosexual clergy. "In some dioceses, certain rectories have become lavender houses," he grumbled. (Lavender is a common homosexual theme colour.) Theologian Richard McBrien of the University of Notre Dame contends that homosexuality is so widespread that "heterosexual males are deciding in ever increasing numbers not even to consider the priesthood." Just how common is homosexuality among the Catholic clergy? A Washington Post article cited the figures of a Baltimore therapist, A.W. Richard Sipe, who, after 25 years of interviewing 1,000 priests, concluded that 20% of the nation's Catholic clergy are gay, half of those sexually active. Sipe also estimates that 4% of priests are sexually attracted to adolescents and an additional 2% to children under 13.
Catholic spokesmen in Basel, Switzerland, commented, "We have arrived at a point where it seems unavoidable that we have to accept the officially still abnormal practice of homosexual love as normal. We can't help but accept that love can exist between consenting homosexuals of legal age. And since the prerequisite for marriage is love, there shouldn't be any reasons why we can't let them marry." (Sorry, pet-lovers, it's still out of the question for you!) On the issue of homosexuality and Catholic priests, he said, "Since Catholic priests are supposed to abide by their vows of celibacy, it makes no difference to us whether or not a priest has homosexual inclinations or not. Even if certain tendencies are known to us, as long as we receive no complaints and things don't get out of hand, we won't act on this."
* Leaders of Canada's largest Protestant denomination, the United Church of Canada, have decided that homosexuals can be considered for the ministry.
* Many Danish theologians believe homosexuals shouldn't be condemned for their "weakness." One said, "No one can stamp homosexuals as degrading or non-Christian without at the same time stamping himself as being degrading and non-Christian."
* The organization of Reform rabbis broke with 4,000 years of Jewish tradition and endorsed homosexual rabbis as qualified leaders of congregations in the United States at its 101st annual convention.
* The media spokesman for the Uniting Church in Australia said they "have every sympathy with homosexuals" and that it is only a matter of time before they ordain professing homosexuals.
* In the Anglican Church of Australia, the Archbishop of Perth ordained their first homosexual minister in 1992. This was front-page news in many Australian papers, but didn't cause much of a reaction from the public.
* The utter contempt with which many homosexuals hold Christianity is illustrated in the first issue of Homosexual News Service, which was compiled and published by the Australian Union of Students. This newsletter contains the poem "The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name," which was outlawed in Great Britain when the magazine that published it there was convicted of blasphemy by the British Crown prosecutor. (The poem describes a Roman centurion engaging in varied and repeated homosexual acts on the "still warm" body of Christ after it had been taken down from the Cross.) The publication of the poem was bad enough, but the reasons given by the AUS were as follows: "We reprint it not for any necessary artistic or political merit in the poem itself, but as an act of solidarity with English homosexuals and as an act of blasphemy against Christianity and all religious idiocy."
The contempt of many homosexuals for Christianity is further illustrated by a Sydney group calling themselves the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. Adopting names like Mother Inferior, Sister Malicious Intent, Sister Disgrace, Sister Ophelia Dick, they dress in nun's habits and perform mock religious rituals at homosexual functions and rallies.
Of course, their attack on Christian freedom of belief is best illustrated, not by their act of blasphemy, but by their demands for access to Christian schools and churches as teachers, priests, and role-models.
Other Homosexual Inroads in Society
* In the last 21 years, legal battles have produced major changes in the status of gay men and lesbians. The repeal or reform of Sodomy laws has taken place in half the states of the U.S., comprising over half the nation's population. According to a recent Gallup Poll, public tolerance for homosexuals is now higher than support for racial integration was 40 years ago. The gay community's goal is "integration--just as it was with Martin Luther King," says Harry Britt, president of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. "We want the same rights to happiness and success as the nongay."
Most Americans now seem to feel homosexuals are entitled to those rights. An August 1992 poll by Newsweek magazine found that 78% of the public believes gay men and women should have equal rights in job opportunities. Getting down to specific jobs, 64% believed homosexuals could or should be hired as members of the president's cabinet, 59% as members of the armed forces, 54% as high-school teachers, 51% as elementary-school teachers, and 48% as clergymen.
* More than 140,000 people marched in "Gay and Lesbian Pride" parades across the U.S. in June, 1992, on the 23rd anniversary of a police raid on a New York bar that helped fuel the gay pride movement. In the New York parade, one of the grand marshals was a homosexual with the AIDS virus recently elected to the city council. In Chicago, dignitaries and politicians joined the marchers. And in West Hollywood, California, the parade went on as planned despite two severe earthquakes in the region. More than 200 groups ranging from the Gay Bankers to the Radical Fairies to a Shriners marching band signed up for the Fifth Avenue march along a lavender line painted down the center of the parade route. The marchers included drag queens and disco floats led by the "Dykes on Bikes" brigade of motorcyclists in leather regalia.
* In the U.S. there are 1,580 gay and lesbian organisations nationwide, including political, social, activist and student groups.
* More and more, homosexuals are coming out on television. U.S. television shows such as "Cheers," "Northern Exposure," "Roseanne," "The Golden Girls," "Designing Women," "L.A. Law" and "Thirtysomething" have all depicted non-heterosexual characters. Chris Fowler, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, or GLAAD, said television is miles ahead of films in the positive portrayal of homosexual characters. "The incidence of gay characters in episodic television series is phenomenal," he said. Hollywood is changing its act, though. At least six major gay or AIDS-themed films are in development now.
* The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force in Los Angeles is a major force in Hollywood, and many studios submit movie scripts dealing with homosexuality to them for approval before shooting takes place.
* A homosexual who was fired from his job with a Shell Oil Co. subsidiary won $5.3 million for wrongful termination in what is believed to be the largest award of its kind by a U.S. court. Jefferey Collins was fired after he prepared a "house rules" flyer for a "safe-sex" homosexual party on a company word processor and mistakenly left a copy of it in the company's copy room, where it was found by his secretary the next day and passed on to his superior.
* Since April of 1990, a group called Queer Nation has staged mass "kiss-ins," as they term them, at heterosexual bars and demonstrations outside the homes of accused gay-bashers. Another group, the Pink Panthers, organizes late-night patrols of Greenwich Village to protect homosexuals from assailants.
* In Florida, a prisoner has sued his jailers for more than $50,000, saying they discriminated against him by separating him from the gay lover he was arrested with.
* A society for the defense of pedophilia exists in England; it has recently been encouraged by a visiting Catholic monk who is a child psychologist. A priest who finds nothing harmful in a homosexual practice with consenting children is currently ministering to gays in the Boston area.
* A new credit card issued recently, the "Pride Card," is the first in the U.S. designed expressly to help fund activities and causes dear to the gay community.
* Gay and lesbian literature has become one of the book industry's hottest niches. Even the staid Book-of-the-month Club is touting homosexual titles. Many gay bookstores generate impressive revenues. Norman Laurila's three gay and lesbian bookstores in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco gross more than $2.5 million a year, above average for specialty bookstores.
* An estimated 10,000 children in the U.S. are being raised by lesbians who conceived them by artificial insemination. Other lesbians make arrangements to have children with gay "uncles." In New South Wales, Australia, the Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby has embarked on a campaign to improve the chances of homosexual people to be able to foster or gain custody of children.
* The European Parliament has urged EC member states to abolish laws against consenting sexual relations between people of the same sex, introduce an equal age of consent for heterosexuals and homosexuals, ban the keeping of special records on lesbians and gay men by the police and other authorities, and reject the classification of homosexuality as a mental illness. An EC-wide delegation of lesbian and gay groups has also urged the European Parliament to appoint a senior official with formal responsibility for homosexual issues and liaison.
* Delegates to a 1990 International Lesbian and Gay convention in Copenhagen claimed their peers numbered up to 30 million in the 12 nations of the European Community, or 10 percent of the region's population. Whatever the case may be in the rest of Europe, homosexuals are certainly very numerous and active in Denmark, where an estimated 10,000 homosexuals are now able to get married in Danish town halls, and benefit from many of the legal advantages given previously only to heterosexual couples.
Danish homosexuals also have various teams which specialise in going to schools, youth clubs and institutions to give speeches on the homosexual lifestyle and share details on male prostitution. For those interested in more information, there's the homosexual library in the center of Copenhagen, which features more than 700 different gay magazines from around the World, as well as around 4,200 books and publications in Danish and other languages. Copenhagen also has a daily gay and lesbian radio show called "Rosa," gay and lesbian saunas, discos, video centers, and a few male escort services.
* Homosexuals are setting up their own organisation in the Dutch armed forces with Defense Ministry approval. The main Dutch homosexual organisation estimates there are half a million to a million homosexuals in a population of 14.5 million people.
* Switzerland has been a leader in homosexual legislation, with laws passed as early as 1942 allowing consenting partners to "enjoy" homosexual relationships. This led to an influx of German gays and laid the foundation for the current situation in Switzerland where just about "everything goes." With the freedom of a new sex law, any adult can entertain a homosexual relationship with a 16-year-old teenager without having to fear any repercussions or legal implications.
The gay community of Switzerland boasts about being one of the few countries in the World to have had two consecutive annual "coming out days." "Coming out" is a phrase commonly used for the process in the life of a homosexual where he begins to confess openly and publicly his sexual leanings. On October 10, 1991, thousands of gay youth took to the streets of Switzerland and let an astonished nation know that they were a force to be reckoned with and that they were going places. In an information campaign they presented themselves as an alternate "fun" lifestyle, laced with pictures of homosexual couples having "fun" together swimming, dancing, strolling down a sidewalk, talking, discussing, or relaxing. In Basel, much to the shock of many disgusted onlookers, they presented a gay couple lying in a bed, in the middle of the street, while others were passing out leaflets to passers-by. It's certainly no coincidence that Switzerland, with 2,500 AIDS casualties so far, leads Europe on a per capita basis.
* The Israeli Parliament (Knesset) has legalised homosexual acts between men over the age of 18 despite a Biblical ban on Sodomy.
* A recent poll by AGP Australia showed that 45% of Australians said they believed that all Australian States and Territories should remove laws that make sex between consenting adults of the same sex illegal. In their lobbying to change the laws, gay activists have insisted that even silence was discriminatory in their attempt to force organisations to make statements supporting the legalising and acceptance of homosexuality. They've also fought against reforms to the law which were in their favour when they felt they weren't strong enough.
Courts have generally supported the homosexual cause. A recent front-page article in the Sydney Morning Herald announced an endorsement by the courts for a "sex on premises" homosexual club with the headlines "Gay Sex Club Gets the All-Clear." The article went on to say, "A gay club which offers private rooms for its members to have sex is fulfilling social and public health needs."
Sydney's Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras is now in its 15th year and has grown to become one of Sydney's premier social and tourist events, promoted as being the largest such gay and lesbian event in the World. Advertising for the event features such groups as Toyota, the New South Wales police and the State Transit Authority. The Toyota ad shows two men with their dogs and a Toyota Seca. It is headed "The Family Car." Reaction to the ads has reportedly been "overwhelmingly positive," a situation the advertising executive puts down to a more tolerant society. "People who might have been morally aghast a few years ago appear to be far more accepting now," he said.
In general, gays reject the "family values" that many politicians espouse nowadays. Dennis Altman, an Australian writer and academic, himself a homosexual, notes that "The homosexual represents the most clear-cut rejection of the nuclear family that exists." He also notes that, "By and large it seems true that as long as the concept of the nuclear family remains the central reference point of social organisation, the homosexual will necessarily be excluded from society. Because of this, the radical wings of the homosexuals' and womens' liberation movements came together in common opposition to the nuclear family concept." Homosexuals repeatedly and indignantly point out that, "One of the ideological functions of the family is to impose the values of heterosexuality and monogamy."
Homosexuals are childless, of course, and most of them report feeling "very positive" about the fact. As one man interviewed in The Gay Report commented, "Straight people concerned with the problem of overpopulation ought to be happy there are gay people. Of course, some people need to continue having children, but I don't think heterosexuals are an endangered species." (By the way, many homosexuals contemptuously call normal males "breeders.")
Conclusion
The homosexual lifestyle is directly opposite the Scriptural lifestyle, and while some homosexuals openly detest Christians, other homosexuals are secretly infiltrating the churches, schools, government and society at large to change attitudes towards sodomy. This homosexual "Trojan Horse" carries evil men who are often against Christianity, and will seek to destroy it in any way they can. Christians, beware! God's judgments have fallen heavily on past civilisations that tolerated or promoted homosexuality.
Many homosexuals will say that this is a bigoted perspective on homosexuality. But disagreeing with homosexuals about their rights and disapproving of their behaviour does not make someone a bigot. Opposition is not necessarily a violent hatred or exaggerated fear, rooted in unfair and irrational attitudes based on blanket preconceptions; it is not an evidence of "homophobia."
Viewing something as immoral is not the same thing as being bigoted; for example, someone who condemns the killing of innocent people is not a bigot toward murderers!
Some gays claim that those who criticise homosexuality are guilty of having a judgmental attitude. It has been said that "surely it is neither the Christian's responsibility nor prerogative to judge other people's lifestyles." But when God's Word has condemned something--in fact, made it a crime punishable by death--the Word itself, Jesus, has already judged it and found it guilty. Remember, in the Old Testament "every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense."--Heb. 2:2. Homosexuality is so contrary to Creation and to God's Will that every hint of wiping out the created distinction between the sexes was also forbidden. Even impersonating the other sex by one's clothing was abominable. (Deut.22:5).
To be true to God and His Word we cannot be uncritical of or neutral toward those things Scripture prohibits. People must be warned against attitudes and behaviour that are displeasing to God. Homosexuality was so heinous that in ancient Israel it called for capital punishment. Accordingly the child of God must be repulsed and outraged at this vile behaviour: "Therefore I esteem all Thy precepts concerning all things to be right, and I hate every false way."--Psa.119:128.
If you believe that Sodomy is wrong (against God's Will for humanity), then you must oppose it, or help those who are involved in it. Homosexuals can escape from their lifestyle, if they want deliverance. Groups like Homosexuals Anonymous and Exodus International are having success in 30 to 50% of the cases they treat. There is 100% deliverance through Jesus for those who want it! Jesus said, "I give you power over all the power of the Enemy."--Luk.10:19. And "as many as received Him (Jesus), to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe on His name."--John 1:12. Jesus calls all men to become "new creatures," "denying ungodliness and worldly lusts" (2Cor.5:17; Tit.2:12), and He gives us the power to do so. Receive Jesus today and see what He can do for you!--He will help you!