I am a Christian. I was baptized when I was seven years old and grew up in the Christian church. I believe that the Bible is a holy book - the divine, inspired word of God. I have a wonderful, growing relationship with God and my savior, Jesus Christ. I also reject the church's stance on homosexuality.

I am somewhat trepidatious in changing my opinion on an issue that was taught to me as a child in such a black and white manner, but as I got older and started reading the Bible on my own, I could not understand the issue of homosexuality as simplistically as it was put to me growing up. As I began to study, the more I learned pointed me to a God who loved and created everyone for a reason. How could a group of people be such an abomination? It just didn't make sense.

That truth is that God = Love. That means God loves everyone from Mother Teresa to Adolph Hitler. We as humans cannot fathom a love so deep that it would be the same for these two individuals. Our minds reject such a notion because it just seems wrong. Some would argue, "Yes, but God did not approve of Hitler's life and actions, he can love without approving of his life". This is very true, and I agree, but I am just talking about love right now. The love of God is so deep and pure that it transcends any wrongdoing that we could comprehend. Even vile and offensive people are loved.

Most Christians would agree that it is not okay to hate anyone. They would say that it is acceptable to 'love the sinner and hate the sin'. I don't think that is at all what God's message is. It is not okay for a Christian to hate. The Bible does not call us to hate anything except evil. Some might say - "well, the Bible says homosexuality is an abomination, so that is evil". But is it really?

In Hebrew the word "toevah" means an act that is unclean or outside the ritualistic guidelines of Jewish law, not something that is innately evil, as the word abomination connotes in the English language. So, from this we can gather that the abomination of men lying with men that is spoken of is not evil, but rather unclean, so therefore is not subject to our hate. We are no longer living our lives as Jews did under the Levitical law. If we were, we would all be subject to death, for I fear that we have all broken some laws that in those days were punishable by death.

As for some passages from the New Testament that are often brought up in discussions about homosexuality, namely 1Corinthians 6:9 and Romans 1:26, it is unclear what Paul's actual meaning was in these passages, but it is almost certain that he was not speaking of homosexuals as we think of them today. The Greek words "malakoi" and "arsenokoitai" in our NIV and KJV translations of the Bible are used when referring to homosexuals. If Paul had meant it the way that we think of it today, he almost certainly would have used the Greek word "paiderasste", since that was the usual term in that day for male homosexuals.

Obviously, Paul spoke of this for a reason. He wanted to warn against disobedience. He spoke to the people of the time in a context that was easy for them to understand. We no longer live in that time, so we have to be careful to interpret things within the framework in which it was written, not from our own viewpoints and the standards of today. At any rate, nowhere in that passage does he say to hate anything, he simply warns to guard against our own disobedience.

In all of Jesus' teaching he never mentions homosexuality at all. This is significant because Jesus was very bold in his speech. He was quick to denounce the sin of the Pharisees and the disobedience among his disciples. So, if Jesus left out talking about homosexuality, maybe he had a reason.

Most all of the teachings of Jesus have a central theme - that of love. Jesus was very clear in the Parable of the Good Samaritan that we were to love

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