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Expert: - 6/3/2010


Question
Hi I was just wondering, is being gay/lesbian a sin? Just in your opinion what do you think. It is unclear to me what it says in the bible and there seems to be a lot of controversy about it.

Also do you think people are born gay (god created them that way) or do they decide?

I just want to know what the bible states about being gay.Is it Right? Wrong? Doesn't matter?

To some point it could be inborn because it was shown that even some animals are gay.

What are your thoughts on this?

Answer
Hey Katherine, I don't really have any opinion on it. I just treat people as they are and let God take care of the rest.

Maybe you could find a Gay/Lesbian forum at this or some other site and discuss these issues.

As for the Biblical links, Leviticus is usually cited:

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination." (Lev. 18:22)

"If a man lies with a male as a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall be put to death, their blood is upon them." (Lev. 20:13).

There's a discussion about Leviticus here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibh.htm

And as an aside, you may find this article interesting:

Is the path to priesthood easier in Canada for gay Catholic men? - thestar.com: http://bit.ly/a7U3Pk  

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I just remembered that there are New Testament references to homosexuality too.

http://www.religioustolerance.org/hom_bibc.htm

More can be found by googling, using keywords >> new testament homosexuality

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Michael Clark, Ph.D.

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I'm a progressive Catholic--not a liberal, conservative nor a single-minded critic of Catholicism. I simply believe that adults in the 21C should use the mind God gave them and not just repeat ancient and medieval modes of thinking.

I can probably help with questions that intelligently and respectfully question those aspects of Catholicism that are not infallible. But if you're looking for someone to vigorously defend or perhaps refute Catholicism as a whole, that's not me. So please ask another expert.

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I run an educational website earthpages.org and know what the web has to offer. I might suggest hyperlinks and/or book titles as I have a Ph.D. in Religious Studies and a considerable personal library.

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Print Media:
My table from "Religions and Cults" at earthpages.org is reproduced with permission in L. Lindsey, S. Beach and B. Ravelli, Core Concepts in Sociology, 2nd ed., p. 157

World Wide Web:
My online article "Letter to God" coauthored with Buddhist monk, E. Raymond Rock, appears on several different spirituality-based websites, including http://tinyurl.com/db7a5o

I've interviewed, as a Christian, a self-proclaimed mystic: http://tinyurl.com/cawykr

My articles appeared at the former New View magazine nuvunow.ca and are published at earthpages.org.

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Ph.D. in Religious Studies
M.A. in Comparative Religion
B.A. Hon. in Psychology/Sociology
For more info, please see my CV and letters of recommendation and my blog at michaelwclark.com.

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