Question:  Dear Greg,

            Thank you very much for providing this chance for people like me to ask openly and learn openly.  I’ve read your comments about the practice of homosexuality being sin without debating the issue of how the orientation came about.  My question is: what is “practice”?  Is it the act of sex?  What if there is no sexual activity between two members of the same sex who were “practicing” before but not any longer, but are still unable to part ways out of deep affection?

            Jay

Answer:  Dear Jay,

            You are welcome.  We believe that Jesus was open, that he listened and that he cared.  As he enables us (sometimes in spite of ourselves!), we here at PTM will try to follow in his steps.

            By “practice” we mean the sexual act, for it seems clear in the Bible that homosexual sexual activity does not have a place in a Christian’s life.

            Jesus told the woman who was “caught in the act” of adultery in John 8 to “go now and leave your life of sin” (John 8:11).  He did not condemn her, but he did tell her to leave her life of sin.

            It would seem that in order to do what Jesus said she would not have been able to return to a platonic relationship with the man with whom she had committed adultery.  Common sense and experience would tell us that such a relationship would probably be beyond what she (or he) could withstand and that it would certainly strain the boundaries of the forgiveness and compassion Jesus had displayed.

            How close does AA say that a recovering alcoholic should get to alcohol?  Go to the bar every night but do not drink?  Take a little wine and gargle with it but don’t swallow it?  AA counsels, on the basis of experience, that alcoholics should remove themselves from the environment that leads to their weakness, for surely that weakness will be exploited if the conditions are right.

            God is love, but his love is not some vague sentimental love that allows us to do whatever we like.  His love is a love with instructions.  He forgives us and loves us without conditions but he also provides us with clear directions.

            Hope this helps, Jay.

            In Christ,

            Greg Albrecht