Page 175 – All Christian churches once recognized homosexual behavior as a sinful aberration. Today, many Protestant groups not only accept such behavior as normal, they endorse (even conduct) same-sex marriages. This is just the latest domino to fall – after contraception and premarital sex – in the collapse of traditional Protestant sexual morality, which has become ever more compromised by the spirit of the age.
Note: Homosexuality has been a problem in the Catholic Church for the last 1,000 years.
In 1102, Saint Anselm of Canterbury demanded that the punishment for homosexuality should be moderate because 'this sin has been so public that hardly anyone has blushed for it, and many, therefore have plunged into it without realizing its gravity. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

Pages 175-176: The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) is the largest set of Lutheran communities in the United States with more than four million members. In 2009, the members of the ELCA voted to endorse clergy who are in homosexual relationships, opening “the ministry of the church to gay and lesbian pastors and other professional workers living in committed relationships.” In doing so, they realized they were overturning centuries of Bible-based Christian moral teaching, but they believed that Jesus wants them to do so, as a matter of justice and equality for all people. The ELCA was following in the footsteps of the Episcopal Church, which had ordained an open homosexual as bishop in 2003, and which adopted a resolution in 2009 to allow individual bishops to decide whether to bless same-sex unions, and would three years later designate an official liturgy for such blessings. With civil law throughout the Western world rapidly redefining marriage to include same-sex couples, many other Protestant groups have followed suit or are in a period of evolution.
Note: The Catholic Church is currently undergoing an evil evolution.
In 2012, a group of sixty-three former Catholic priests in the USA publicly announced their support for Referendum 74, which would make Washington the nation’s seventh state to legalize marriage between same-sex couples. "We are uneasy with the aggressive efforts of Catholic bishops to oppose R-74 and want to support the 71 percent of Catholics (Public Religion Research Institute) who support civil marriage for gays as a valid Catholic position," they said in a statement. More recently, in 2013 in England and Wales, 27 prominent Catholics (mainly theologians and clergy) issued a public letter supporting the Government's move to introduce same-sex civil marriage. The group included Fr James Alison, Tina Beattie, and Fr Kevin T. Kelly. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

Page 176: This evolution logically follows from another historical change: Protestantism’s acceptance of contraception. Beginning with Anglican Communion in the early twentieth century, nearly all of Protestantism has come to embrace the idea that marriage is about sex and companionship first, procreation second. Once marriage and babies were so divorced, Protestants had no principled objection to unions of same-sex couples, who could argue that they offer each other the exact same kind of partnership that heterosexuals do.
Note: Main-line Protestant denominations are fading away due to sinful advocacy.
Since the 1960s, however, mainline groups have shrunk as a percentage of the American population as increasing numbers of American Protestants have come to affiliate instead with fundamentalist, evangelical, or charismatic churches, or with no church at all. Mainline denominations peaked in membership in the 1950s and have declined steadily in the last half century. From 1965 to 1988, mainline church membership declined from 31 million to 25 million, then fell to 21 million in 2005. While in 1970 the mainline churches claimed most Protestants and more than 30 percent of the population as members, today they are a minority among American Protestants, claiming approximately 15 percent of American adults among their adherents in 2009. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Do you have a relationship with Jesus Christ or a church?

Page 176: It is not just on contraception that Protestants have waffled. Even historically conservation Evangelicals are turning away from longstanding Christian opposition to fornication. In a recent survey, an astounding 80 percent of Evangelicals ages 18 to 29 claimed to have engaged in premarital sex, and a large majority were sexually active in the past year. This reality has prompted many Protestant leaders to take the incredible step of encouraging these unmarried Christians to use contraceptives when they have premarital sex.
Note: The Catholic Church has the same problem as mainline Protestant Churches.
Many Western Catholics have voiced significant disagreement with the Church's teaching on contraception. Catholics for Choice stated in 1998 that 96% of U.S. Catholic women had used contraceptives at some point in their lives and that 72% of Catholics believed that one could be a good Catholic without obeying the Church's teaching on birth control. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.

Page 177: Interpreted accurately, the Bible supports the traditional norms for sexual morality. St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians that “neither the immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor sexual perverts … will inherit the kingdom of God.” Jesus tells his listeners that even looking lustfully at a woman in one’s heart, let alone committing physical adultery with her – is evil. And for hundreds of years, Protestants agreed with the Catholic interpretation of these verses. That has changed.
Note: But there is hope and redemption in Jesus Christ.
And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:11.
Note: Have you repented of your sins?

Pages 177-178: Examining the history of contraception and same-sex acts shows us the Christians universally rejected them as immoral. Contraception was condemned by all churches and ecclesial communities until 1930. No Christian church recognized the morality of homosexual relationships or the validity of same-sex “marriages” until recent years. Premarital sex is still officially taught to be immoral by most Protestant churches, but clearly the young people in those churches aren’t receiving the message.
Note: But there is hope and redemption in Jesus Christ.
When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw no one but the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.” John 8:10-11.
Note: Have you repented of your sins?

Page 178: These radical reversals in Protestantism’s beliefs on sexual morality stem from a rejection of the natural law and their embrace of nominalism: They reject the idea that humans can recognize the nature of things, that the body has inherent meaning because it reflects the person. Even Protestant pastors fall to this error, because, following Protestantism’s bedrock principle of sola scriptura and individual interpretive authority, they choose to believe that only those practices that a Christian interprets to be explicitly condemned by the Bible are off limits. Everything else is fair game if both parties consent to it.
Note: Why doesn’t the author talk about the continual Catholic homosexual problem?
Although homosexual sexual acts have been consistently condemned by the Catholic Church, a number of senior members of the clergy have been found to have had homosexual relationships. Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who retired in 2002, was alleged to have been in a relationship with a former graduate student; Juan Carlos Maccarone, the Bishop of Santiago del Estero in Argentenia, retired after video surfaced showing him engaged in homosexual acts; and Francisco Domingo Barbosa Da Silveira, the Bishop of Minas in Uruguay, resigned in 2009 after it was alleged that he had broken his vow of celibacy. In 2012, Cardinal Keith O'Brien, described as the Catholic Primate of Scotland, was forced to retire prematurely because of complaints that he had made "inappropriate approaches" or "inappropriate contacts" of a homosexual character. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Have you repented of your sins?

Page 178: Because they hold to sola scriptura, Protestants can look only to the Bible itself for binding arguments for or against same-sex relationships.  Though some Protestants claim to recognize Christian “tradition,” what happens in practice is that these Protestants pick and choose in an ad hoc way from Tradition when it suits them (for example, opposing homosexual acts) but reject that same Tradition when it does not (contraception, premarital sex, and so on). These examples provide strong evidence that the Bible was never intended to be an exhaustive manual for faith and morals.
Note: Catholic Tradition has been filled with sin.
A number of Popes were rumored to have been homosexual or to have had male sexual partners. In the 11th century, Pope Benedict IX (1044–1048) was forced out of the papacy amidst a series of scandals, including his sexual orientation toward men. Pope Paul II (1417–1471) was said by detractors to have died while being sodomised by a page boy. Pope Sixtus IV (1414–1484) was called a "lover of boys and sodomites". Pope Leo X (1475–1521) was believed to have engaged in "unnatural vice". Despite having fathered a daughter, there were contemporary suggestions that Pope Julius II (1443–1513) was homosexual. The reputation of Pope Julius III (1487–1555), and that of the Catholic Church, were greatly harmed by his scandal-ridden relationship with his adopted nephew. Wikipedia Encyclopedia.
Note: Have you repented of your sins?

Pages 178-179: Catholics, on the other hand, draw from Scripture and the Apostolic Tradition, building upon the natural law, to know truth in its fullness. The natural law can get us as far as heterosexual marriage, and Scripture and Tradition, as interpreted authoritatively by the Church’s magisterium, can reveal to us the full beauty and splendor of God’s design. The husband and wife make a total gift of themselves to each other, becoming a communion of life and love that images the communion between the divine persons of the Holy Trinity. Within the total, lifelong commitment of marriage, children find the ideal environment to learn to love.
Note: Though Tradition changes over time, Scripture remains forever.
Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband. 1 Corinthians 7:1-3.
Note: Christians should follow the advice of the Apostle Paul.

Pages 179-180: Catholics can argue in the public square, even without using Scripture, by appealing to natural law, the law written on our hearts by God himself. We can offer principled objections to same-sex “marriage,” but in doing so we also point out to our Protestant brethren that contraception and premarital sex are against our nature and against divine law. Protestantism in recent times has not only shown the failure of sola scriptura to uphold sexual morality but in fact has deployed arguments from (biblical) silence against Catholics and others who still hold the line against these evils.
Note: Christians will worship God instead of something else.
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. Romans 1:24-27.
Note: Most sexual diseases have come from the gay community.

Page 180: If Protestantism is true, then traditional Christian standards of sexual morality have either been wrong for two millennia or they can change with the times. If they’ve been wrong, what other teachings could be wrong? And if they can change, what else can change?
Note: Though Tradition changes over time, Scripture remains forever.
So then, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath; for the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. James 1:19-25.
Note: Have you repented of your sins?

MAIN INDEX

BIBLE INDEX

HINDU INDEX

MUSLIM INDEX

MORMON INDEX

BUDDHISM INDEX

WORD FAITH INDEX

WATCHTOWER INDEX

MISCELLANEOUS INDEX

CATHOLIC CHURCH INDEX