Quote:
Originally posted by Jim Cesiro
Religion is funny like that. Double standards. I worked with a Catholic guy that refused to eat meat on Friday but would fornicate with his girlfriend daily. How is eating meat a bigger wrong that fornication. I could never understand it.
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Admittedly I'm not Catholic, but I'm not aware of the bible ever saying it's a sin to eat meat on Fridays. Was there an 11th Commandment that I missed? I know that the 8th Commandment says something about not committing adultery though.
As far as homosexuality is concerned, you could say that actions speak louder then words (see Genesis 19 verses 1 through 29). To paraphrase: The men of Sodom asked Lot regarding a couple of male guests that he had " Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them". Obviously a bad situation at many levels. Anyhow, Lot even offers up his own daughter (!) to the mob to try to distract them from assaulting his guests, but the mob pays no attention to his offer. Anyhow, we all know what happened to Sodom. At a minimum this suggests that God is pretty violently against unsolicited or forced homosexuality. I think that most people would agree with God in that matter -- Rape is just bad. Earlier in the previous chapter, God is visiting with Abraham, and says " The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know". Alas, the specifics of this sin are not described.
On the other hand, the Biblical tradition* is that God created Adam and Eve, not Adam and Adam, and a then endorsed the relationship of Adam and Eve to procreate. Homosexuality has never received such an endorsement in the Bible. It will take a little more searching to find other references to the subject. It's not clear to me if Jesus ever discussed the subject. So this would suggest certainly that God's preference for people (if you care about such things) is for sexual relations to be between a man and a women.
I guess my point is that when someone (or many people) claim biblical support for their specific view, it never hurts to check it out. At the least you may learn something.
* I'm trying to avoid the whole truth of the bible debate by answering the question within the context of the Bible. Naturally, if you dismiss the Bible, then none of what I've said will mean anything, so just let it go.