The hang up on homosexuality in the church...

Last night I was reading stuff on facebook about the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing gay marriage throughout the country.  I have a diverse group of friends-gay, straight, conservative, libertarian, liberal, black, white, latino, Christian, non believers, etc, etc, etc.  My conservative Christian friends have been posting tons of stuff about the downfall of American society because of the SCOTUS ruling because it is against God blah, blah, blah.  I am sure you have all seen and read the propaganda citing various scriptures and talking about the morality as well as the sanctity of marriage.  Here's the thing.  I am insanely tired of the BS.  I grew up in a conservative Christian church where sexuality was defined as only being between a man and a woman who are married.  Where divorce is wrong, marriage is sacred.  Homosexuality is wrong.  All the basics of Christianity 101.  This is where I get really irked about the insane double standard within the church regarding homosexuality vs other sexual sins.  At every single conservative church in the country you will find: young adults who are not married but are sexually active, adulterers, people who are divorced and (often) remarried to a new spouse, single parents (people who obviously had sex outside of marriage)...and nothing is said about these sexual sins.  Just based on the Christians I know-including myself-the vast majority have had sex outside of marriage.  We all know the divorce rate among Christians is the same as that for nonChristians.  As times have changed, the church has adjusted their reaction to these things.  There was a time, not too long ago, where woman who got pregnant out of wedlock were sent away to have their babies in isolation then give them up for adoption to save the family from shame.  According to the Bible, women are the property of men so if a woman were to get pregnant outside of marriage, her father (or husband if the pregnancy was due to an affair) can choose to have her stoned to death.  We don't do that anymore.  Women have choices in life-we are no longer limited to only getting married.  We can get educated, we are not property-so as culture and values shifted, the church's reaction to women's sexuality had to change as well.   The same happened with divorce.  The Bible is clear on the issue of divorce.  God hates divorce.  There are very limited situations were divorce is considered a Biblical option.  Again, as times changed and culture changed, the church's view on divorce changed.  The views evolved because we are learning to focus on grace and love not on archaic laws that were never meant to be applied for all eternity.  Even if you use the ten commandments as your guide for morality-there is no mention of homosexuality in those.  Adultery is mentioned.  Honoring the sabbath is mentioned.  Honoring parents is mentioned.  Sex is not mentioned at all-except as adultery.  Jesus never mentioned homosexuality.  Not once.  Paul does-but he is not Jesus.   We do not accept Paul as our savior, Paul is not the son of God.  And, when Paul mentions homosexuality it is at a specific time and place (as well as when homosexuality is mentioned in the Old Testament).  These commands against sexual immorality and homosexual behavior were in a specific context-people were engaging in various forms of sexuality as worship to other Gods-it was idolatry that was the sin not the act of sexuality.  The sexual issues that Bible speaks to are not about the act of sex itself (homosexual or not) but are about idolatry and worshipping other gods.  Paul is speaking to people who are converting from other religions to Christianity and therefore, need to abandon their old ways of worship and other gods.  He is not talking about sexuality in terms of a relationship.  This is where things get all mixed up.  Conservatives generally seem to see homosexuals as sex crazed maniacs and focus on the sex act, not on the relationship.   I think most Christians would agree that rampant, careless, sexual exploits (homosexual or heterosexual) are not healthy for people and do not bring people closer to God.  But,that is not the issue here.  The issue here is the right to marry.  The right for two people to make a commitment to one another-to form a bond for life.  The ruling is not about sanctioning random sexual acts or establishing a state religion focusing on gay sex.  Its about love and allowing people to build a life together.

I am a single mother-who got knocked up out of wedlock-I'm not a single mother due to divorce.  Lets be clear here, I am a single mother because I had sex outside of marriage.  In Biblical times I would have been stoned by my father to avoid bringing shame to my family.  A few generations ago, I would have been sent off to have my baby and give him up.  Or I would have had an abortion to avoid dealing with the situation all together and not letting anyone know of my sin.  Thankfully, I am alive in a time of grace and understanding where the reality of sex outside of marriage has been accepted and we have moved beyond the act of stoning women.

So, why are we still so focused on homosexuality as a "sin"?  Why can't we move forward and understand scriptures in the time and place and audience the were written to?  As I mentioned before, Paul's writing was advice to new churches that were struggling to figure out what it means to follow Jesus while letting go of prior religious practices.