Forcing One's Morality on Others - Part I

On May 28, 2008, the following letter to the editor by Paul Holmes appeared in the Columbian (Vancouver, WA) newspaper attacking Christianity's view of homosexual behavior. My comments are in italics.

This is part one in a four part series.

Keep morals to yourself
I must disagree on so many levels with David White’s positions in his May 23 letter, "Agenda is morally wrong," and his question "Do you think His will … is to promote a lifestyle that he calls an abomination?"

First, Christ never called the homosexual lifestyle "an abomination." That was Paul, who never knew Jesus.

This is a sign that the person really doesn't know much about Christianity. First, Christ called himself the Son of God. That is a claim to deity. Not any deity but the God of the Hebrew Scriptures, which very clearly calls homosexual behavior an "abomination".

Further, Jesus stated "I have not come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." (Matthew 5:17) Clearly, Jesus called the homosexual lifestyle an abomination.

Holmes provides no evidence to support his claim that Paul never knew Jesus. Luke writes of Paul meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). In Acts 26:15-17, Luke recounts the words of Jesus to Paul, "I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen of me and what I will show you."

This is the same Paul, who repeatedly calls himself an apostle and servant of Christ (see the beginnings of Paul's letters, e.g. Romans, 1 & 2 Timothy, etc). An apostle is one who is commissioned by Christ. How can Paul be commissioned by one he supposedly never knew?

So Holmes' very first claim is false.

Next post: Holmes' claim that there is no reference to homosexuality in the four gospels.