by Milton Johanides

Created on: May 15, 2009

The Christian Church is the holy body of Christ. It was given to the apostle Peter by Jesus as the foundation of righteousness and the arbiter of who gets in to Heaven. Righteousness means right behaviour in th eyes of the Lord, a comprehensive definition of which is given in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. One of the things which is consistently marked out as wrong behaviour is the act of homosexuality As such homosexuality must rank with all those things which are seen as damaging to our relationship with God, the Father and the creator. There are many such things: stealing, adultery, disloyalty, being disrespectful to one's parents. The Bible is an entire workshop manual on the best way to behave in the matter of our faith walk.

A Christian faith walk is simply a free will expression of one's intention to follow Christ as one's saviour. It is not compulsory, it is not the only way to live one's life, but it is strongly recommended. The Christian Church is the guardian of all faith walks; it dictates behaviour and attitude towards God our Father. If it were to condone homosexuality it then finds itself on a slippery slope. If it accepts homosexuality as righteous behaviour, then why not adultery? If adultery then why not casual fornication? At what point does the church then become just a mirror of secular society? Society needs a standard bearer for moral values. Who do we turn to when our parliaments let us down, or Congress, or when our leaders have strayed from the path? Who will tell us when things are wrong? Unless we have a moral conscience then when influential people at every level in society fail to live up to good standards there will be no reproof, because nobody will any longer be sure what those standards are.

It is wrong to victimise homosexuals and wrong to single them out as a special case. They are no more or less afflicted as anyone else on this planet. We all have our cross to bear. But it is the job of the church to point out that certain behaviour is contrary to the will of God, and then leave it up to individuals to make their own minds up and take their own chances with the merciful Lord. It is wrong to ban homosexuals from worship, or ban them from the church, or (I suggest) even ban them from preaching. Jesus made it absolutely clear that His church was for EVERYONE. But he also said that we should help and support each other, share each other's burden.

What the church must not do is pretend that homosexuality is not a sin, because then it puts itself at odds with the very scriptures that are the bedrock of its faith,. Once the church's beliefs become different to the teachings of the scriptures then it no longer has moral authority as the body of Christ and becomes just another false prophet.

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