1. The Sin of Homosexuality Recently some preachers in Huntsville were interviewed about the movie Brokeback Mountain, about two homosexual cowboys. I want to make some comments on that interview.

2. The homosexuals that I have dealt with, when they came out of the closet, so to speak, the first thing they did was to sever all relationships with the church. Then they begin to justify themselves and to condemn everyone who would criticize them and help them, accusing them of having homophobia – fear of homosexuals.

3. For Bible believers, it has nothing to do with fear of homosexuals but with disapproval of a sin regarded in the Bible as an abomination to God.

4. One of the preachers was the minister for the Disciples of Christ. He is quoted as saying that “his denomination, Disciples of Christ, resists making doctrinal statements and considers the issue of human sexuality to be an area where the church is still in a ‘period of discernment,’ and conversation.”

5. He went on to say that “whether or not homosexuality is a sin... what he saw in the movie is the result of people not having a way to talk about a relationship that became central to their lives.”

6. The problem with many today considering counseling about lifestyle is that do not want counseling that will condemn what they do, but which will countenance it. They basically reject Biblical teaching and then criticize people for not helping them. Most homosexuals want everyone to approve of them.

7. The preacher to whom I have referred is quoted as saying that “on Paul’s laundry list of sins in Romans 1:29-31, homosexuals aren’t listed – but the list does include gossips, slanderers and the heartless.”

8. First, Rom. 1:29-31. “Being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant- breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful” (Rom. 1:29-31).

9. Now is it correct that we did not see the homosexual listed there? Yes, that is correct.

10. But now I want to show you what was said in the paragraph immediately before that passage. “For this cause God gave them up unto vile passions: for their women changed the natural use into that which is against nature: and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another, men with men working unseemliness, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was due” (1:26-27).

11. Now either the preacher quoted did not know that this passage was there, in which case he ought to be ashamed of his ignorance, or he did know it was there, in which case he ought to be ashamed of his hypocrisy.

12. Also, what about Paul’s laundry list of sins in 1 Cor. 6:9-10? “Or know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.”

13. In this passages let’s look at the meaning of the terms, “effeminate” and “abusers of themselves with men.” Effeminate is from μαλακοι, which is defined by Thayer as, “soft; soft to the touch. Like the Lat. mollis, metaph. And in a bad sense: effeminate, of a catamite, a male who submits his body to unnatural lewdness, 1 Co. 6:9” (p. 387).

14. Abusers of themselves with men is from αρσενοκοιται, (composed of two words: αρσην a male and κοιτη a bed), one who lies with a male as with a female, a sodomite (Thayer p. 75). The point is that none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.

15. In the Old Testament the Bible teaches, “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination” (Lev. 18:22). In chapter 20, penalties are set for most of the sins listed in chapter 18. “And if a man lie with mankind, as with womankind, both of the have committed abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them” (20:13).

16. Stories such as the destruction of Sodom (Gen. 19) and the Levite and his concubine (Judges 19) are further examples of the condemnation of this sin in the Old Testament.

17. The homosexual can repent of his sin, and he can change his behavior and be saved, but he cannot expect the approval of God or of God’s children as long as he continues in his sins.

18. Our efforts to convert a homosexual should arise from our love for his soul, not any approval of his lifestyle.