I wrote a book about the gay rights
movement because I was appalled by the
oppression and the discrimination
against homosexuals in my America um and
this questioner asks what do so many of
the churches have against homosexuals
and what about your Church's approach to
homosexuality is it a sin are they going
to
hell um let's talk with my about my
church first which will be a little EAS
than than trying to answer for all the
other churches of the world but I'll
try I'm representing all the churches of
the world all right you know yeah but
Christianity I mean yeah I know me let's
start with M you you you you go to the
Bible quite often and there are many
evangelicals who will say it is listed
as a sin in the Bible and these people
are going to hell right now what you
first uh let's talk about my church
again let's go back here what we would
say is I think it's un avoidable I think
most Protestant and Catholic and
Orthodox Christians over the years have
said you read the Bible and the Bible
has reservations the Bible says
homosexuality is not God's original
design forom for sexuality okay there
you have it the Bible also says love
your neighbor the Bible also in fact the
Good Samaritan Parable which is how
Jesus tells us to love our neighbor you
put a Jew and a Samaritan there so what
Jesus is trying to say is everybody is
your neighbor gay people are your
neighbors uh people who are of other Fai
are your neighbors people other other
uh races are your neighbors and it's the
job of a Christian to do what Jesus did
on the cross which was to give himself
for people who were opposing him and
people who were diff believe didn't
believe in him even and so a Christian
is supposed to say I serve the needs and
interests of all of my neighbors in the
city whether they're gay or straight
whether they're Hindu or Muslim I mean
Hindus for example don't believe in the
Trinity it's a different view than what
the Bible says gay people have a
different view of sexuality than
generally what you see in the New
Testament I'm supposed to love my
neighbors so what I don't see is at this
point I see some churches that are
basically ignoring the places in the
Bible that talk about homosexuality in
order to love their gay neighbor and I
see other Christian churches taking very
seriously what the Bible says about
homosexuality but in a very
self-righteous way way so they actually
do single out gay people I mean there
are a number of conservative churches
that will love their Hindu neighbors and
will love their Muslim neighbors and not
their gay neighbors and I really don't
think there is any excuse for that so
that's what's it I mean I I I therefore
I have to take some responsibility of
being a member of the Christian church
for the oppression of homos are
committing homosexual sexual acts sin
against God uh what do you mean by sin
but the answer is yes yes now the reason
see here's the problem with that no you
don't go to hell for being a homosexual
but committing homosexual acts will go
get you to go to hell no wait a minute
wait wait right no because you know some
people will say well it's not the
homosexuality or being gay it's being
doing gay stuff that's the problem no no
first of all heterosexuality does not
get you to heaven I happen to know
this right
so how in the world could homosexuality
send you to hell I just and actually uh
the Bible listen this is this is true
Jesus talks about
greed 10 times more than he talks about
adultery for example now one of the
problems Christians have here is partly
let's be nice to Christians you know
when you're committing adultery I mean
you don't say oh you're not my wife I
mean you know you're
committing but but almost nobody knows
when they're greedy nobody thinks
they're greedy you know mean because
everybody is comparing yourself to other
people and so it's a frog in the kettle
kind of thing uh However the fact of the
matter is the Bible is much harder on
Greed materialism and it's a horrible
sin terrible sin well will greed send
you to hell no what sends you to hell is
self-righteousness thinking that you can
be your own Savior and Lord what sends
you to heaven is getting a connection
with Christ because you realize you're a
sinner and you and you and you need
intervention from outside that's why
it's a it's very misleading actually to
say even to say homosexuality is a sin
because most people yes of course
homosexual is sin because greed is a sin
because all kinds of things are sins but
what most christians mean when they say
that and certainly what non-christians
think they hear when they hear that is
if you're gay you're going to hell for
being gay it's just not true absolutely
not true so then what's the how is
homosexuality a sin I'm not well homos
greed's a sin in other words it's not
doesn't help human flourishing basically
Christianity has an account of what we
think human beings were built to do and
what will therefore help human
flourishing so he would say if you spend
all your money on yourself that's bad
not only for your own soul but for
everybody else's we would say
homosexuality is not the original design
for sexuality therefore it's not good
for human flourishing we want people to
do things that are good for human
flourishing but that's not what sends
you to heaven or hell now there maybe we
ought to talk about that
uh what sends you to heaven or hell
really has to do with your faith in the
gospel which is that you can't uh be
your own savior through your performance
and your good works now here I'm I'm
coming at this at a pro like a
Protestant now you know um everybody's
got to be a particular kind of Christian
and there's difference of opinion within
Christianity about this but uh no being
gay doesn't send you to hell and and and
sin doesn't send you to hell like that
uh the sin underneath the sin is I am my
own Savior and my Lord and that's the
reason why phariseeism
moralism Bible believing people who are
proud and think God's going to take them
to Heaven because they're good that's
sending them to hell I mean I know this
is a lot to take in at once it's a lot
well yeah I mean I want but inside our
church there therefore there's just not
going to be this the stain of
homosexuals can't be not when I'm
teaching the gospel like
that for more information about the
Veritas forum including additional
recordings and a calendar of upcoming
events please visit our website at
veritas.com