just exactly what does the bible say about homosexuality.
If you want, I'll look up chapter and verse. However, it says that engaging in homosexual practices is a sin, a forgivable one. It also makes it clear that one, who flaunts their sin in front of others, should still loved but that they are not to serve in public ministry in the church. Note that it's not just sexual sins.
I have a sister, whom I love, but I would not put her in charge of anything other than those things for which she needs to take responsibility. So, I fail to see how allowing or ordaining a pastor, or minister, who is a practicing homosexual, has anything to do with loving them. Perhaps, part of the problem is that some christian churches have become places where people try to show off their righteousness. Personally, I believe that the church is a place for sinners. If I weren't a sinner, I wouldn't need church. In my Bible, it says that I'm to love my neighbor. I can't find anywhere where it gives me permission not to love them if they're sinners. Love does not require approval of what they do or don't do.
One of the biggest rifts in the christian church is between Calvinists, or those who believe in predestination, that there is no free will, and Wesleyans, who believe, that while God knows what choices we'll make, has given us the freedom to make them. So, Calvinists would say that nothing we do is a choice, that we are the way that God made us and that some of us were condemned to be eternally separated from God before we were born. I simply can't believe that a loving god and I believe that God is love would do this.
There's a school of psychology, Skinnerism or behaviorism, that says that everything that we do is controlled by either environment or heredity. Of course, it's impossible to prove otherwise, but it's also impossible to prove. It's an assumption and all science is based on assumptions, which are not provable. The most provable of science are physical sciences such as physics, but even physics is based on assumption and a model. In the case of physics, the model can be tested and, when the tests contradict the model, then either the model is changed, or the deviation needs to be explained.
To say that just because something hasn't been scientifically verified doesn't mean that it won't be hardly is a valid argument for reaching any conclusions about anything. It was also stated that
To me it is WRONG to establish that sexual preference is emphatically a choice IF it is not true.
Isn't it just as harmful to establish that it is a choice if it's not true as well?
The fact is that we simply don't really know. It's also possible that, as someone else said, that for some people, it's less of a choice than for others. I would say that there are certainly some people that struggle with it more than others. However, it's not clear whether they were born that way or it was due to other factors and even those, who unequivocally state that it's not a choice, generally say that it's more than just heredity, that there appear to be other factors.
It seems to me that, especially for those who struggle with same sex attraction, that further research would be helpful and to state that it's fact that homosexuality is not a choice, that one is born that way, tends to suppress that research. After all, why research something that is accepted as a fact?
Finally, don't we all desire certain things that aren't good for us because they feel good for a while? Don't our children ask us for things that we know will harm them in the long run? So, do we give it to them because they must have that desire fulfilled? Are you telling me that homosexuals have such little control that they can't choose whether or not to have sex with someone?
If I found out that one of my sons was doing things which I considered to be wrong, illegal, or immoral, would I stop loving them because I disapproved of what they were doing? Absolutely not!!!!