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It is awesome to know that the Catholic Church has a newly elected Pope Benedict XVI who is Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, a staunch believer that homosexuality is a sin and espouses values different from Rainbow Alliance and Student Government Board when it comes to sexuality.

Walking through the William Pitt Union, I ran across a poster board with colorful shirts and one liners promoting homosexuality through a free T-shirt giveaway. The sponsors of the event Rainbow Alliance and yes, Student Government Board has used your activities fee to fund a T-shirt drive to promote homosexuality across campus.

They handed out 1000 free T-shirts in front of the William Pitt Union on Mon, April 18, 2005 to be worn on Tues, April 19, 2005 to “Show PITT’s campus that you don’t stand for homophobia.”

It is very interesting how promoters of being homosexual automatically label those against homosexuality as bigots and homophobic.

Homophobic is defined as being afraid of those who are homosexuals.

I am not afraid of homosexuals but I am afraid for the person who engages in homosexuality. There is no problem with me befriending homosexuals but I do worry about the consequences, a life of homosexuality can bring in a person’s life.

It is a shame that there is a support group to support people engaged in a sin of homosexuality. Usually support groups are there to help people overcome a negative situation but not to condone a situation.

No one should hate homosexuals and belittle them just as no one should hate people committing other sins. But to say, it is ok to someone in what they are engaged in even when someone knows it is wrong is wrong.

My values of right and wrong are taken from biblical scripture and Scripture speaks so many times against the act of homosexuality. It also speaks against the act of premarital sex and so many other vices. Just because we are in the 21^st century does not change the absolute Truth of the Word of God.

Living in a world of sin, we do encounter people engaged in acts of sin that are contrary to the Word of God. I am no different because I have sinned and am saved only through the grace of Jesus Christ. This however does not mean if I know what I am doing is wrong, that I continue to do it. Instead, I repent and ask forgiveness of God and His help to help me overcome those sins.

We need to love everyone including homosexuals but need to hate the act itself and not the person.

Am I wrong when I don’t wear a T-shirt stating, “Gay, fine by me?”

It is not fine by me just as other vices such as premarital sex, adultery, idolatory, etc. What Rainbow Alliance wants people to accept is that being gay is fine! It is not fine!

I make a distinction of being gay different from struggling with their sexual identity. A person who struggles with homosexuality but does not commit the sin itself is not wrong.

I have a good friend who has shared with me his struggle with homosexuality but his love for Jesus Christ and the Word of God keeps him from engaging in the act of homosexuality.

People who are struggling may say “why would God want me to suffer with this struggle when it would be easier to give in”

Yes, it is easy to give in to struggles than enduring the struggle. There are a lot of things I like to do but keep away from even if it becomes a struggle because God’s Word to me is more important. I want to obey God’s Word. My friend does too!

There are those that believe that they are born with homosexual tendencies and should not be expected to change nor should be prevented from engaging in sexual acts with the same partner.

As a member of SGB or Rainbow Alliance, would you say that babies born to drug addicts are born with an addiction?

If you say, yes, then is it right to have a support group to support the addiction of the babies because it is not their fault they were born that way?

No doctor who works to save lives will take that position but will do his/her best to have the babies in detoxification or whatever will help them overcome this addiction to drugs.

So if a person is born with homosexual tendencies, should SGB and Rainbow Alliance ask the Pitt community to support homosexuality?

No, they should not! Those that do not support it do not become bigots and homophobic. Both drug addictions and homosexuality can involve death!

Jesus Christ is the Great Physician and loves you so much. He can heal you and change you! I know that for a fact because I know of people who have been homosexual but now live joyfully a life of heterosexuality as God intended.

Jesus said, “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.” (Mark 10:8-11,NIV)

It is not up to human beings to decide that it is ok to have same sex marriages or same sex partners. Jesus spoke against it and how can we make our own laws!

If you are open-minded there is a wonderful book called “Straight and Narrow” that addresses issues of homosexuality from different perspectives: psychological, medical, spiritual, emotional, etc and what an individual can and should do.

Instead, the poster board also stated, “Know someone who is gay? Do you have a problem with that? SGB doesn’t.”

Well, SGB is not God! If SGB does not have a problem with those who are engaged in the act of homosexuality, it does not change the fact that God does!

Remember it is the act of homosexuality and not the struggle that God has a problem with. It was wrong for SGB to be associated with that statement. Then again organizational politics could have put SGB in a corner. There are two members of the board who are also members of Rainbow Alliance.

“Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6:8-11, NIV)

People can be changed and God has the power to change us. God loves you and when God does not want something for us, it does not mean He is against us or does not want us to have fun. We look at the temporal situations but God looks at the big picture. The question is, are we willing to suffer and wait for deliverance in God’s timing without giving in!

I believe the Bible is the Word of God and take it literally. I do not believe the Bible becomes the Word of God or the Bible contains the Word of God but that the Bible is the Word of God.

It would have been better for SGB to invest in shirts that remember the Oklahoma City Bombing victims who died 10 years ago to this date.

May you come to know the love Jesus Christ has for you and may you not automatically think those that disagree with you are automatically bigots or homophobic!