Skwim
Veteran Member
I'm talking about those who love each other but, for whatever reason, don't engage in sexual activity.James Humphreys said:Are you speaking about someone who abstains from sexual activity, because they have homosexual inclinations, but they think that is wrong? Or are you speaking more generally, for instance, including those who abstain from sex because of a religious discipline, or those who just think that having sex would create too many entanglements and interfere with their lifestyle, so they just avoid it?
So why is homosexual behavior grounded in love a misdirected love? And why should it receive such brutal condemnation? I would think god would be delighted that two people found so much love between them that they were moved to physically express it, even if it is between two people of the same sex. Why should such love be restricted to those of opposite sex? But this is getting off topic, and I'd rather stick to the point of the OP, god's opposition to homosexual behavior.In my view God created love as the strongest force, because he wanted to relate to us through love, rather primarily just through obedience to commandments (master/servant). Sexual love is not the only dimension of love created by God, but it does have extraordinary power to shape our hearts and characters, according to the way it is expressed. If any and all expressions of sexual love that we can see in our world were created by God, we might expect that all would bring him joy equally. I guess an important question is then, is there a force of evil in the world? If so, how does it operate to influence and control people? Because love is the strongest force, and is so engrained into the very structure of human nature, IMO it is primarily through the power of misdirected love that evil can control our minds and hearts. It creates a sphere of love in opposition to God's sphere of love. This kind of view is not so popular nowadays, but it's what I believe the reality is. As we live in a world in which we face a bewildering number of choices about love, and in which inside of ourselves, even in one day, there might be quite a number of different thoughts and feelings pulling us in varied directions, all related to love in some way, if we don't know and feel God's purpose for creating us in our lives, it's easy to end up going in the wrong direction.
Sticking to physical expression, which seems to be the deal breaker for god, I don't see him condemning abstention, at least nowhere to the degree he does homosexual behavior.I don't think abstention from sex in the long term, as a way of life, for whatever the reason, is God's ideal. Nevertheless, even though the dimension of sexual love is missing from one's life, it is still possible to build a bond of love with God in the dimension of parent and child. Bluntly speaking, I think abstention is better than immorality. It is not the best way, but it could open up a way for God's love and power to begin a recreation process inside of ourselves.