Ake says: Joe, in my part of the world and in very many others, most people, both Christian and secular see sex between people of the sex as a perversion. Is it "bigotry" to oppose this "perverted behaviour" being accepted into the church and integrated into the traditional marriage ceremony?

Ake, I have to say, despite opposition from the hardline liberals here, that I think you have a point. Many cultures have taboos against sexual contact between people of the same sex, and these taboos have lasted for ages. The taboos are gradually lifting in North America and Western Europe, although many people in those places and most people in other parts of the world, still hold onto these anti-homosexual taboos. The taboos aren't particularly hateful for the most part - some people of good will just can't find it within themselves to think that same-sex sex is OK. Now, one could condemn these people as horrible bigots, but they really aren't. Once they get used to the idea, they'll at least tolerate it, although they may not support it enthusiastically. Yes, there are some people who are hateful in their hardcore bigotry, but that doesn't describe most of the people who hold onto anti-homosexual taboos.

Rather than condemn these well-meaning people as bigots, the homosexual community needs to reach out to these people in a non-threatening, non-condemning way, and show them that homosexual love can be a good thing. And Ake, several homosexual couples have convinced me by their example that this is true - that their love is pure and wholesome, not something to be seen as perverted.

But just because somebody holds onto a taboo that his/her culture has held for centuries, is no reason to condemn him/her as a bigot.

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Musket says: Snag is, you say it isn't a Christian thing. Other Christians say it is.
You can't both be right. They quote from the bible. Both Pope and Archbishop of Canterbury have views about being gay that don't sound like "nothing to do with anyone else."

So, Musket, why can't both of us be right? Christians are a huge and vastly diverse group. Why is it that you think that Christian opinions on homosexuality must be uniform?

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And of course, this goes back to the idea that has been proposed here that is so repulsive to our "militant atheist" participants. Very often, it seems to us in the middle that the militant atheists and the fundamentalist Christians share a perspective. Both groups believe in absolutes, and the rest of us aren't so sure of that. Both groups appear to believe that there can be only one right answer to any given question, that there can be only one correct decision when a choice is presented, that there can be only one correct way of looking at things, and that people are either good or bad (but never both).

Well, many of us disagree. We don't share the "clarity of vision" held by the militant atheists and the Christian fundamentalists. We see diversity. We see that every question has a variety of answers, and every issue has a huge number of valid perspectives. The militant atheists and the Christian fundamentalists are convinced that they possess the Truth, even though their truths are very different from each other. The rest of us spend our lives trying to balance various perspectives, and we know that all we can hope for is a changing balance of perspectives that can only be an approximation of the truth.

-Joe Offer-