Christians need to re-evaluate homosexuality and scripture

Editor,

Let’s talk homosexuality and religion.

For most of my life, I have heard many Christians speak in a derogatory manner about homosexuality. I think it’s time for someone with an education in both fields to give her best opinion of how Christians should judge it. I have gone to many Christian camps growing up and have also been close to members of the gay community.
So to start off, the Bible teaches that stealing, lying, cheating, covetousness, worshipping other gods, and many more things, including homosexuality, are sins. Some Christians try to say that homosexuality is more of a sin because in the Bible, Sodom and Gomorra were burnt to the ground because the cities were filled with homosexuals, when in fact the Bible does not place any more emphasis on homosexuality than it does any of the other sins that the people were committing (Genesis 18-19).

It also says in the Bible that if you commit one sin, you are guilty of all (James 2:10). For some reason, though, people aren’t always against gossiping, lying and some forms of stealing and cheating. Unfortunately, many ignorant Christians make a huge deal out of homosexuality. Because it is an issue of sex, people are up in arms about it. The Bible says in Song of Solomon that sex is a beautiful thing that really should just be for the one you truly love and plan on spending the rest of your life with.

Those verses are open and beautifully depict how amazing sexual love can be. Since the Bible says that homosexuality is a sin, though, it is hard to view it as something beautiful. Well, one way of looking at it is by realizing how truly sinful this world is. Usually in politics, people get in an immense amount of trouble if they are caught lying, stealing or cheating. How did these rules come to be? The Bible says it in the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21) that it is wrong. I think that most of us can agree that those are probably good rules to keep, but if we are going to keep those from the Bible, we should keep them all.

Although it is not a law to not take the Lord’s name in vain or put any gods before Him, we continue to stress the importance of same-sex marriages as being illegal. This is obviously a conflict of church and state. Why is it that some rules from the Bible are good to have, yet some are okay to overlook?

As I stated earlier, the Bible clearly says that all sins are equal. Consequently, if you are guilty of just telling a little fib, you are also guilty of homosexuality. Why do so many Christians harp on how wrong homosexuality is? He that is without sin among you let him first cast a stone (John 8:7).

It is appalling to hear what is going on in society today with the news constantly announcing scandals, rapes and murders. If being homosexual leads to a happy, content and loving family, it should not be judged so harshly. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged (Mark 4:24).

We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Why should we place more emphasis on one sin than another? For God so loved the world that He gave his own Son (John 3:16). All this world needs is a little more love. Maybe if we spent more time looking at ourselves and what we can do to be better people, there would be a lot more love and understanding in this world. As a Christian and always being in the pursuit of becoming more Christ-like, love all as He did, regardless of ethnicity, gender and sexual orientation.

Alexina Pepin
UNM student