<I>Oh, contrare. There's a difference between "can't" and "won't." You don't want to change what you are, but there are some who not only want to leave their homosexuality behind, but succeed. Aineo can attest to that fact.</I>
Maybe he can. But I've met a lot of ex-"ex-gays," too. From all the evidence I've seen, the majority of people <I>cannot</I> change their orientation - even when they are highly motivated to do so. The most they can change is their <I>behaviour</I> -- they just "avoid the gay lifestyle," as you put it, and call that "success."
The vast majority of ex-gays keep their past to themselves. I also know some ex-ex-gays but the ex-gays outnumber the ex-ex-gays in my experience. The ex-ex-gay's I know are men and women who lacked the commitment to finish what they started. It is easier to say "I was born gay" than to seek the power to be transformed. It is also easier to go with emotions, hormones, and desires than to "take up your cross and follow Me", or do deny yourself.
<I>Maybe not directly, but you are hurting me. Have you ever heard of Sodom? That city had become so corrupt, and was buried so deep in sin, that God destroyed it. Only a handful of people made it out alive, because they had chosen not to partake in the sinful lifestyle of those around them. I don't want our country - our world, in fact - to suffer the same fate.</I>
Allow me a hypothetical: Say a robber walks into a bank, draws a gun, yells "Nobody move!" Say someone freaks out, tries to run. Say this bank-robber's a little crazier than most, and shoots the runner and couple other people too, for good measure. Who is responsible for the resulting deaths, in this scenario - the person who ran after "nobody move," or <I>the person doing the shooting?</I>
The person with the gun is responsible for pulling the trigger, and had this hypothetical person not tried to rob a bank he would not have been in any position to shoot another human being. The bank robber created the situation not the person who allowed fear to overcome common sense.
As to Sodom, it was not destroyed because of homosexuality. Ez. 16:49 gives us God's reason for judging Sodom and her sisters. If you take the time to study Genesis 18 and 19 you will find God had already judged Sodom before the situation with Lot. Also here is a link to a few teachings by Rabbi's and why Sodom was destroyed and it has absolutely nothing to do with gay sex:
What was the sin of Sodom
In case you <I>didn't</I> see my point: I think the God you believe in is a monster. No one deserves eternal torment - not you, not me, not Matthew Shepard, not Fred Phelps, <I>no one.</I> But I guess if I were you, I'd be afraid to do anything or say anything or even <I>think</I> anything I thought God didn't want me to, too.
John 3:16-21
16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. 17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. 18 "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil. 20 "For everyone who does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 "But he who practices the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." NAS
God simply affirms our decisions, we judge ourselves by what choice we make.
But I love you as my fellow human being... despite your belief and worship of a God who would condemn me to eternal suffering for choosing the wrong "lifestyle."
<I>"Why is homosexuality a sin?"
The following Scriptures will answer this question nicely.
Quote:
1 CORINTHIANS 6:13 - The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
1 CORINTHIANS 6:18, 19, 20 - Flee from sexual immorality, All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body. Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.</I>
No, it doesn't answer the question at all. You're assuming your conclusion - you're assuming that homosexuality is, in fact, sexual immorality. If it isn't, then these verses have no bearing on the question. But even if you can prove that the Bible <I>says</I> that homosexuality is a sin, you've yet to even try to address why it <I>is</I> a sin. <I>Why</I> does God forbid it? Is it arbitrary? Is sin whatever God says it is, is that all there is to it?
The Bible references Linda quoted are for teaching and correcting the Body of Christ, so since you are not of our faith they are meaningless to you.
Have you studied the Bible and do you know who Jesus Christ is?