Transscript:
I wrote a book about the gay rightsmovement because I was appalled by theoppression and the discriminationagainst homosexuals in my America um andthis questioner asks what do so many ofthe churches have against homosexualsand what about your Church’s approach tohomosexuality is it a sin are they goingtohell um let’s talk with my about mychurch first which will be a littleeasier than than trying to answer forall the other churches of the world butI’lltry I’m representing all the churches ofthe world all right you know yeah butChristianity I mean yeah I know me let’sstart with mine you you you go to theBible quite often and there are manyevangelicals who will say it is listedas a sin in the Bible and these peopleare going to hell right now what youfirst of uh let’s talk about my churchagain let’s go back here what we wouldsay is I think it’s un avoidable I thinkmost Protestant and Catholic andOrthodox Christians over the years havesaid you read the Bible and the Biblehas reservations the Bible sayshomosexuality is not God’s originaldesign forom for sexuality okay thereyou have it the Bible also says loveyour neighbor the Bible also in fact theGood Samaritan Parable which is howJesus tells us to love our neighbor youput a Jew and a Samaritan there so whatJesus is trying to say is everybody isyour neighbor gay people are yourneighbors uh people who are of other Faiare your neighbors people other other uhuh races are your neighbors and it’s thejob of a Christian to do what Jesus didon the cross which was to give himselffor people who were opposing him andpeople who were diff believe didn’tbelieve in him even and so a Christianis supposed to say I serve the needs andinterests of all of my neighbors in thecity whether they’re gay or straightwhether they’re Hindu or Muslim I meanHindus for example don’t believe in theTrinity it’s a different view than whatthe Bible says gay people have adifferent view of sexuality thangenerally what you see in the NewTestament I’m supposed to love myneighbors so what I don’t see is at thispoint I see some churches that arebasically ignoring the places in theBible that talk about homosexuality inorder to love their gay neighbor and Isee other Christian churches taking veryseriously what the Bible says abouthomosexuality but in a veryself-righteous way way so they actuallydo single out gay people I mean thereare a number of conservative churchesthat will love their Hindu neighbors andwill love their Muslim neighbors and nottheir gay neighbors and I really don’tthink there is any excuse for that sothat’s what’s it I mean I I I thereforeI have to take some responsibility ofbeing a member of the Christian churchfor the oppression of homos arecommitting homosexual sexual acts sinagainst God uh what do you mean by sinbut the answer is yes yes now the reasonsee here’s the problem with that no youdon’t go to hell for being homosexualbut committing homosexual acts will goget you to go to hell no wait a minutewait wait right no because you know somepeople will say well it’s not thehomosexuality or being gay it’s beingdoing gay stuff that’s the problem no nofirst of all heterosexuality does notget you to heaven I happen to knowthis rightso how in the world could homosexualitysend you to hell I just and actually uhthe Bible listen this is this is trueJesus talks aboutgreed 10 times more than he talks aboutadultery for example now one of theproblems Christians have here is partlylet’s be nice to Christians you knowwhen you’re committing adultery I meanyou don’t say oh you’re not my wife Imean you know you’recommitting but but almost nobody knowswhen they’re greedy and nobody thinksthey’re greedy you know I me becauseeverybody is comparing yourself to otherpeople and so it’s a frog and the kettlekind of thing uh However the fact of thematter is the Bible is much harder onGreed materialism and it’s a horriblesin terrible sin well will greed sendyou to hell no what sends you to hell isself-righteousness thinking that you canbe your own Savior and Lord what sendsyou to heaven is getting a connectionwith Christ because you realize you’re asinner and you and you and you needintervention from outside that’s whyit’s a it’s very misleading actually tosay even to say homosexuality is a sinbecause most people yes of coursehomosexual is a sin because greed is asin because all kinds of things are sinsbut what most christians mean when theysay that and certainly whatnon-christians think they hear when theyhear that is if you’re gay you’re goingto hell for being gay it’s just not trueabsolutely not true so then what’s thehow is homosexuality a sin I’m not wellhomos greed’s a sin in other words it’snot doesn’t help human flourishingbasically Christianity has an account ofwhat we think human beings were built todo and what will therefore help humanflourishing so he would say if you spendall your money on yourself that’s badnot only for your own soul but foreverybody else’s we would sayhomosexuality is not the original designfor sexuality therefore it’s not goodfor human flourishing we want people todo things that are good for humanflourishing but that’s not what sendsyou to heaven or hell now there maybe weought to talk about thatuh what sends you to heaven or hellreally has to do with your faith in thegospel which is that you can’t uh beyour own savior through your performanceand your good works now here I’m I’mcoming at this at a pro like aProtestant now you know um everybody’sgot to be a particular kind of Christianand there’s difference of opinion withinChristianity about this but uh no beinggay doesn’t send you to hell and and andsin doesn’t send you to hell like thatuh the sin underneath the sin is I am myown Savior and my Lord and that’s thereason why phariseeismmoralism Bible believing people who areproud and think God’s going to take themto Heaven because they’re good that’ssending them to hell I mean I know thisis a lot to take in at once it’s a lotwell yeah I mean I want but inside ourchurch there therefore there’s just notgoing to be this disain of homosexualsjust can’t be not when I’m teaching thegospel likethat for more information about Theveritos Forum including additionalrecordings and a calendar of upcomingevents please visit our website atveritas.com
