Iain wrote, in part: "Society "taught" me homosexuality is disgusting,
but I don't feel nearly as strong a sense of revulsion as others do.
Does that mean that the others have just "learned the lesson" better than
I have, or is there really something biologically inborn that brings out
disgust? I don't think you
can prove your assertion here."
No, I cannot "prove" the assertion, which is not mine alone, but the POV
of many who have studied the issues. But there does seem to be pretty
good evidence that the raciest attitudes of any person are largely what
they are taught, and little to do with heredity.
But even granted that one's revulsion at homosexual activity IS "inborn."
That revulsion is certainly something to fight against, "inborn" or not,
for it leads to an attitude of contempt towards a group of persons.
"I once downloaded a copy of the notorious poem "The love that dares to
speak its name", which was a gay "cause celebre", as the magazine that
printed it got prosecuted under the blasphemy laws. On reading the poem
(which was of considerable literary merit), I gained the impression
directly from the text that the homosexual act was excruciatingly painful
- one of the "moral messages" of the poem was that the sacrifices gay men
make for each other was akin to the pain of crucifixion. Since this
description came from a gay author, it cannot have been an ignorant
attitude that was "taught" by
society."
Interesting. Do you conclude that on the basis of a single poem? I have
never seen it; maybe I'll look for it. There are a number of possible
"homosexual acts," of course, just as there are a number of heterosexual
acts, so I don't see much in one poem to guide my thinking. I could be
wrong.
"In the case of a woman who has had a family, this would appear to be not
the case - a deliberate choice was made (albeit perhaps under
circumstances of disillusionment), to exchange heterosexual for
homosexual activities, and therefore would appear to come under the
category of Rom 1:26."
Or maybe she just "grew up?" The two cases I am most familiar with have
no apparent record of any activities such as led the unfortunates in
Romans 1 to come under Paul's condemnation. In both cases, all the
parties involved are Christians; one is even now in seminary.
John Burgeson (Burgy)
http://www.burgy.50megs.com
(science/theology, quantum mechanics, baseball, ethics,
humor, cars, God's intervention into natural causation, etc.)
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