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Originally Posted by Spoticus
My question is: How do you make the jump between homosexual feelings being natural and homosexual relationships being amoral? Many human emotions are natural, and at the same time are lead to immoral behavior. It is natural for humans to fear/hate that which they don’t understand, and I (as a homosexual growing up in a very conservative environment) have been victimized by such “normal” human reactions to the issue of homosexuality. There are many emotions that are very natural, yet acting upon them is wrong. Greed is one of them, hate, jealousy, anger; all of these natural human feelings can lead to sin if acted upon.
So, again, How does homosexuality being natural automatically imply that acting on those feelings is alright?
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Hi Spoticus,
You being up a matter which I thought about when I was coming out and dealing with my fundamentalist environment.
One word you used caught me eye. Here's how one source- Answers'.com defined the word: a·mor·al (?-môr'?l, ?-m?r'-) adj. 1) Not admitting of moral distinctions or judgments; neither moral nor immoral. 2) Lacking moral sensibility; not caring about right and wrong.
Do you mean to use the word in its first meaning? Is so, the answer to you question is in the definition itself: 'amoral' is not the opposite of 'immoral' (im·mor·al (?-môr'?l, -m?r'-) adj. Contrary to established moral principles.)
What we're talking about here is something that goes much deeper than the emotions, which are mutable. Being gay is just that, a state of being and carries with it no more meaning that hetersexualty does. This is hard for heterosexuals to understand, because, human beings, being what they are, tend to be very self-referential and think and want everything to be just like they are. And there are more straight people than gay people in the world. To be reductionistic about it: straight people often get hung up in matter of conformity and forget- and don't understand- the nature (to uuse a pun) of diversity. And contrary to popular opinion and misinformation, gay people- especially those of faith-care a great deal about moral matters.
A close observation of nature tells us that there is much diversity- homosxuality is one characteristic of that diversity. But diversity, I hasten to point out, is not the same thing as perversity. That's the trap many find themselves in. To be different is not to be bad. Plain and simple.
Being gay causes no one harm like getting angry and killing someone. They are not of the same order at all. And it is the order of things that is the issue as well: Often these matters get turned around in the stangest ways. For instance- those who dreamt up the Defense of Marriage Act- to point out one such act of misperception- are defending nothing. It is illogical on it's face: gay people aren't stopping anyone from getting married. Being gay doesn't cause anyone to go out and get divorced.
I don't know that this answers your question in any depth, but there are others much more skilled in these matters than I. You are sure to get many a cogent reply.
Daniel