I don't generally comment upon gay rights threads other than in a very general way because, well, just like abortion no discussion ever really changes minds. I concur with you that the Scriptures CLEARLY and indisputably teach homosexuality as a sin, and I've said so here, and I've also dismissed those who try convoluted arguments to say 'well it really means' something else. (Keep in mind also that Jon is an atheist and rejects that worldview and many others - just information, not a criticism).
But now let's jump out of the frying pan and into the fire (pardon the pun).
Why do so many Christians who say that homosexuality is a sin ASSUME that this makes it a choice? Why the assumption that God would not make somebody that way? (Yes, I just opened up a Pandora's box, but I try - I REALLY do - I try to consider whether a critic of my view has something to what he or she says. I can completely understand why a person rejects the authority of the Bible or that homosexuality is a sin or even that God doesn't exist. I don't agree, but I actually understand them to varying degrees).
But I don't understand why so many Christians, evangelicals like myself, make the assumption that if there is a God and He has declared it a sin, why assume He did not make them that way? Didn't He make other sinners inclined to OTHER sins as well? Or is the problem that drunks can already marry fornicators and our other cherished sins?
Don't take my question as a criticism of you, but I actually can understand Carson believing it is NOT a choice but IS a sin. I reject a 6,000-year old earth because even if one assumes a biblical worldview, not only is it based upon erroneous assumptions but also Christians for hundreds of years believed the earth was older than 6,000 years even long before Darwin. They at least had an Earth (in some cases) of over 200,000 years old based upon what little they knew before
I will try to answer the "homosexuality is a choice issue" now. I will try to get to the others tomorrow.
I can understand and sympathize with anyone's lack of clarity regarding this issue, especially since there is no direct statement about this, i.e., it must be inferred. But we both know that a choice is made. Even a heterosexual chooses to have sex when he does, whether it is legitimate, that is in the bonds of marriage, or illegitimate.
That any sin is a choice is supported by the process of temptation turning into sin. "But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own desire. Then when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin..."
Anyone who reads Rom 1 must conclude that a choice is made. V24 "therefore God gave them over in the desires of their heart to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them. " v 26 "For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of a woman and burned in their desire towards one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, ...greed,...envy,...deceit, ...arrogant, ...unloving..."
Also, God would never make someone to sin, He "...is too pure to behold evil". "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God', for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt any one" OTOH, He obviously allows sin.
There are other approaches to demonstrate that man always chooses to sin and that the Lord would never have anything to do with it.
Let me add that homosexuals are created in the image of God and are to be accorded the respect due such a creature. Nevertheless, sexual perversion is a sin, as is selfishness, pride, adultery, resentment, being unforgiving, unkindness, etc. More importantly, the same salvation: by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, is needed by all and available to all, including homosexuals. There have been sodomites saved and delivered from their sin.
Myself, I became an atheist at age 12, was convicted of possession of LSD at age 21, and guilty of much more, then saved by the grace of Jesus Christ at age 24 in 1974. I should say nothing from a perspective of self-righteousness.
