Hmm. This is always a toughie.

I grew up Conservative Baptist and there was no doubt of the position of my childhood church on this issue. Homosexuality was wrong, but one could promise to "hate the sin and love the sinner". Our church even had a sort of Moral Watchdog Committe, just waiting to jump on some real or imagined offense.

We were lucky enough to have a very intelligent and insightful youth pastor, however, who encouraged us to look critically at the Bible. He introduced to me the concept that the Bible, though inspired by God, was written by human beings who were creatures of their time. That's why the Bible is riddled with scientific inconsistencies; God was working with mortals who had a Ptolemaic world-view and didn't exactly know much in the way of chemistry or physics.

So, when I read the Bible, I look at each statement and ask myself whether I am truly reading a principle that is true for all time, or something that is merely a reflection of the culture prevalent at the time the Bible was written. "Do Unto Others" clearly falls into the first category. For me, issues such as the role of women in the church and how long my husband should wear his hair are clearly cultural, and I do not feel bound by the cultural beliefs of people who lived over 2000 years ago.

Homosexuality fall somewhere in the middle, for me. I do still believe (despite my years of liberal Anglicanism) that sex outside of the context of the marriage commitment ain't such a bright idea. Yet I have enough gay friends to realize that there are a lot of people out there with same-sex partners who are willing to make that same kind of commitment. I cannot find it in myself to call their behavior wrong, and I can only trust that someday I will stand before God and get to ask these questions, and it will all make sense. In the meantime... it is not for us to judge, only to love our fellow man.