I think homosexuality has given society a remarkable topic about which we can discuss deep and often hard to comprehend aspects of religion and sexuality and human existence. We too often discard that opportunity for deep and enlightening discussion by arguing about how hateful or wrong the other side is. I hope more articles from various angles will treat the subject more like this article has. http://www.squidoo.com/best-double-jogging-strollers-reviews

God should be worshiped without any evidence....... and if someone wise starts finding the evidences then he will find alot alot and alot ........ because our life is also an evidence of God......... barca Tickets

This is the one true God giving all credulous irrational religious people the last and final revelation. I have decided in my omniscience and omnipotence that my joke on homo sapiens has gone on quite long enough. It is now time for you to grow up and get over all religion. So my final commandment is renounce all religion and religious faith and wholeheartedly embrace self-responsibility, science, education, vegetarianism and secular humanism.

Hello, if this has been written before I apologise, I have not read all comments. Surely to be given an honest choice would be to be bought up without any knowledge of any Faith and then get to decide.

As an American, I love the fact that I live in a country and in an age where I can seek & worship God as I please, without any official Church interference or middlemen to dictate to me. Pure freedom as a seeker with freedom of information. Love others & love God. Obey the Bible's instructions like a child- it's that simple. In reality, no one has it figured out, we are all guessing what is right.

Please provide evidence for how faith or religion is not a choice? If it is not a choice as you say then that suggests it is forced upon people, effectively abuse and indoctrination.

So where do you religious people who reject reason stand on the matter?

Is faith a choice? Where you are allowed to pick your god(s) objectively given free information about what each religion means.

OR

Is faith not a choice? It is something that is forced on you without your conscious involvement?

Either way, you have to be absolutely crazy to accept it.

NELSON;

"There's no reliable evidence that the therapy being promoted by the Core Issues Trust is effective in changing people's inner sexual drive; there's some evidence that it has helped some people to suppress their gay feelings and to function more comfortably in heterosexual relationships."

This hogwash cannot be permitted to go unchallenged. You are effectively guilty of dihonesty and disingenuousness by omission here.

I have never seen any evidence that these so-called "therapies" work by making anyone able to suppress their sexuality. In fact these "therapies" are not supported by any psychological or psychiatric theory at all and therapists have been disciplined for attempting them with clients.

There is a lot of evidence that most those subjected to these "therapies" have ended up being depressed, suicidal and sufferiug from low self-esteem. Indeed these appear to be the most common outcomes of these "therapies" such that people subjected to them can more reasonably be described as "victims" than patients.

There now exists a growing number of people in the US, where these 'Therapies" have been used for a longer time, of ex-ex-gay people coming out and telling the world that these therapies do not work.

These are all inconvenient facts which you have omitted from your article, an article which I find dishonest and disingenuous in the extreme for these reasons. I also find your (unevidenced) justification for these methods quite offensive since they are still used, in parts of bible belt North America on transgender children.

In the end your religious belief is a matter of choice, your sexuality and gender identity is not. I find particularly disturbing the way you have deliberately misinterpreted the Stonewall slogan "get over it!". It is the leaders of these religious groupings who need to change their ways, and to stop insisting on narrow and highly disputed interpretations of minutiae of small print in religious texts rather than following the headline recommendations.

Thank you so much for this. Literally, an answer to my prayers on this subject, which has been tearing me apart in mind and soul, if not in body. I'm very glad that someone is at last writing about what it's like to be gay, or bisexual, and a Bible-believing Christian. Even if we leave aside the Old Testament, we cannot ignore the words of Jesus on marriage (Matthew 19). When I've posted about this before, the proponents of same-sex marriage, including some calling themselves Christians, have seemed ignorant of these. Is this not a clear example of prejudice? Also, many of us have campaigned in our churches for decades, sung in public that we're 'glad to be gay' and argued with less tolerant members of our congregations, long before many aggressive church-bashers were born. All humans are religious, just as we all have a gender. If anyone is deluded enough to think that spiritual space in their life is empty, they should look again. Maybe it's full of hatred of Christians or organised religion. That's why they have to make such a point of it! I'm all in favour of civil partnerships for both heterosexual and same-sex couples who don't believe in Christian marriage and all in favour of Christian marriages for couples who want to start families and Christian covenants for those who simply want to form a partnership of equal spouses in the sight of God, whatever their gender, or blessings for those who want their civil partnership to have a Christian blessing in Church. I'm also in favour of 'common law' marriage for those who simply want to live with each other, even have children, without involving either the Church or the state. Does that make me a bigot? Because I try to live my life according to the words and actions of Jesus in the gospels? When he spoke from the cross he said, 'Father, forgive them, for they don't know what they are doing!' Those who accuse Christians of not caring for, or loving their gay brothers and sisters, should ask themselves if it is not they, themselves, who lack understanding and compassion. As Christians, we are called upon to take up our cross, be crucified and forgive. By comparison, it's easy for non-believers to stand by the cross, laughing and hurling hatred and abuse at the crucified Christ, who forgives them.

Perhaps we could look at this Core Issue Trust -- as promoting and perpetuating the so-called "core issues" too many people trust in first ie before the true love and mercy of God.

I understand the bible has no word for homosexuality. The old testament tells a terrible story of a bunch of people trying to break into Lots house so they could get to "know" his visitors - But who are we to assume the story is about predatory sexual practices? I've read that bit loads of times and what strikes me as most important is the fact that Lot's hospitality and his ability to safeguard the privacy of his visitors in his own domain was at risk ( full stop).

Further, the word "unnatural" used at times in the Bible to describe relationships could mean anything - Let's face it, in those days and even now there are cultures that simply cannot handle anything, especially production and reproductive practices out of the proverbial box - by which I mean the boxes, forms and classifications normally used..o dear.