Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Christian Faith Should Be Based On Love, Not Hate

Another in the Voices of Venango County series, this excerpted from a letter-to-the-editor in The Derrick, 5/7/04, by Trisha Balmer of Oil City:

In repsonse to a. Roy Aaron's letter ("Bible has final word on homosexuality":)

The first chapter of Romans talks about idolatrous religious practices that were common in the time of Paul. Paul never in his writings addressed same-sex orientation or the expression of love and affection between two people of the same sex.

God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexual practices. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed because they were selfish, greedy isolationists, always suspicious of strangers and outsiders. While the men of the city did come out to rape the two strangers (who were also men), this event is not what caused God to destroy the cities. He had already decided to destroy them before that had happened.

I do agree with Mr. Aaron on one thing. Every one of us shall give account of himself to god. And while Mr. Aaron did not quote anything from Leviticus, Jesus did. The only passage that Jesus ever quoted from Leviticus was "You should love your neighbor as yourself."

While I am a married, heterosexual woman, I do not believe that we should condemn anyone for who they choose to love. I always thought that the Christian faith was based on love, not hate.

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