Perhaps the best way to introduce this topic is to share a letter I received from one of my avid readers of Reformation Rumblings, my e-mail column.

"Buff, your column [about homosexuality] is so timely because I've been wanting to write to you about this subject. I have had contact with a friend of mine via conversation the last couple of days. I haven't spoken to him since 1997. He and I were heavily into drugs in our younger years. He straightened himself out while I hadn't, and we lost contact with each other. Now I'm a born again, Spirit-filled Christian, and he drops this bombshell on me by saying, 'I'm gay.'

"If he has been gay all of his life, he fooled me. He dated and had relations with women, but he finally (now) is able to accept who and what he is since he got off drugs. I've always believed homosexuality was learned behavior and that people aren't born this way. Believe me when I tell you that his parents are wonderful people. There was never any sexual abuse by a male relative, and no domineering mother or father.

"He has fought and denied his feelings and says it would be so much easier if he were not homosexual, but that's just the way he is-'always has and always will be.' I love this guy as a dear friend. We poured our hearts out to each other the other night. He didn't want to face me because he felt he couldn't tell me, as he knows how I feel about homosexual behavior. I told him that I love him and even though I can't condone what he does, I won't turn my back on him.

"I don't know what my role is going to be in this relationship. I just feel like he needs a real friend and I hope I can minister to him, some way. Do you believe people can be born that way, that there is some kind of chemical makeup in their personalities that causes them to be that way, and there is nothing they can do about it? I'm starting to lean toward that theory. Your comments will be greatly appreciated. If you decide to print this, please don't use my name."

My Reply Your concern allows me to approach this subject from an angle I haven't employed previously in my column. This phase of the topic is certainly in need of attention.

You are doing the right thing by loving your friend in spite of his perversion. And your willingness to somehow minister to him is admirable. Homosexuals need Jesus as much as voyeurs, exhibitionists, those who have sex with animals (bestiality), child molesters, adulterers, liars, and idolaters. So, yes, please try to reach him with the saving message of Jesus.

As to the possibility that a biological or mental deformity at birth placed him more in the realm of the feminine gender than in the masculine gender, I won't argue the point. We do know that many people were deformed at birth in various ways-not because God "created" them that way, but because of the Fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. So, yes, it is possible to be sexually deformed at birth. Place the blame on wicked Satan, not on a righteous and merciful God.

But in your friend's case, considering his history and lifestyle, I entertain doubts of his being deformed in any way at birth. I think-as is the case with many others who have adopted homosexuality-his lifestyle contributed heavily to his decision to sanction and practice a perverted form of sex. If I am correct-and I'm only shooting at him in the dark at this point-his homosexual behavior has been learned. And what is learned can be unlearned.

This brings me to a vital point. You and I know that the vast majority of homosexuals were not deformed at birth, just as voyeurs and exhibitionists and child molesters were not deformed at birth. Homosexuals have adopted their lifestyle because "every inclination of the thoughts of his [man's] heart was only evil all the time" (Gen. 6:5). So be careful, lest you be convinced by your friend that all homosexuals "are born that way." It has been shown that most homosexuals are quite convincing and cunning.

One more thought. How many of the homosexuals in Sodom and Gomorrah do you think might have argued, "But I was born this way!" Well, we know the answer. Apparently, God didn't think they were "born that way," because He wiped those cities off the face of earth (Gen. 19). I think this historical event gives us a good idea how many modern-day homosexuals were truly "born that way."

The Supreme Court's Ruling

On June 26, 2003 the Supreme Court of the United States struck down a Texas law prohibiting sex between two persons of the same gender. The case was based on two homosexual men who had been "caught in the act." Even though the sex acts between these two men were done in an environment of privacy, does any human court have the authority to overrule what God has condemned? Let's cut at the root of the Court's ruling and simplify the matter as best we can.

1) The ruling, of course, favors the homosexual agenda. In essence, the Supreme Court has adopted the homosexual agenda.

2) The ruling gives credence to a perverted lifestyle and encourages sexual perverts to opt for more laws to protect them and their depraved way of life.

3) The ruling will further the homosexual's resolution to fight for additional preferential treatment, which means that if they're successful in getting even more laws passed in their favor, the time will come when you and I will be arrested and fined or perhaps incarcerated for speaking out against homosexuality. A few countries have this rule and practice already.

4) The ruling will reinforce the perverted lifestyle of homosexual and pedophile Catholic priests by giving them the message that homosexual behavior is acceptable with the United States Supreme Court. In other words, instead of deterring a vile lifestyle among Catholic clerics, the ruling gives credibility to sexual perversions practiced in the name of the Lord.

5) The Court's ruling sanctions incest between consenting family members "in the privacy of their homes." But God denounces incestuous acts between family members or close relatives. Read about it in Leviticus, chapter 18.

6) This ruling revolved around a Texas law which prohibited sex with the same gender. Some would say that States cannot legislate morality. This is nonsense. There are many State and Federal laws on the books pertaining to morality. God has granted nations and kingdoms the authority to enact decent laws for the well-being of the populace. Governing "authorities are God's servants and agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer" (Rom. 13:1-5).

7) Does God endorse all governing authorities and their legislation? Of course not. Many governing agents go wrong, as did our Supreme Court on June 26, 2003. Six of the Court's Justices will be held accountable as our nation marches even closer to moral extinction. But the core of the whole matter revolves around #8, which follows.

8) The Supreme Court of the United States elevated themselves to a level higher than the God of creation by ruling against His judgment. For it was God who said:

"If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable" (Leviticus 20:13).

"In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire" (Jude 7).

The six Justices who ruled in favor of the homosexual lifestyle will carry the burden of their decision upon their shoulders and be held responsible for this nation's march toward the sewer.

What Others Are Saying About The Court's Ruling

"Some morality, however, is more private in nature. Since government cannot really enforce private morality, it would be a mockery to institute laws governing it. This includes sexual conduct in private between consenting adults, whether homosexual or heterosexual. For such conduct, individuals will answer to God, but they need not answer to earthly governments."-Myrtle.

"What people do in the privacy of their own homes is not something the government, nor the people of God, should get into."-Nelta.

My chief point is that the Supreme Count cannot justifiably undo what God has established, regardless of side-issues such as privacy. Nor can they rightfully justify a sin the Lord condemns. Yet this is precisely what they have attempted to do.

Homosexuality is wrong, whether performed in the privacy of one's home or in some homosexual "bathhouse." When legislators formally enact a law prohibiting it, as the State of Texas did, they are doing nothing more than enforcing a law that has been in existence since the genesis of the human family-a law conceived and given birth to by the greatest of Lawgivers-God. But I agree that private bedrooms should not be monitored by "sex police," for this would be an intrusion into one's private life.

It seems to me that if the Court intended to convey the idea that police may not intervene in what goes on in the privacy of one's bedroom between two or more consenting adults, they should have spelled it out in precise terms. But as usual, their language is concealed in shadows, leaving the average person befuddled.

As to God directly involving Himself in governmental affairs, He and his children always have. Ask the prophet Daniel! God directed the nation of Israel up until it was reduced to fragments in 67-70 A. D. He and Daniel engaged themselves in the affairs of Babylon and its king (Daniel 4). The haughty king was brought to his knees when God placed him on the "psychiatric ward" of the cow pastures of Babylon, and for 7 years the king spent his time in the school of insanity, living among wild animals and eating grass like cattle. God told the king:

"You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle. Seven times [years] will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes" (Daniel 4:32).

In this new era, the era of Grace, God has not relinquished his control over nations and kingdoms. Heavens, no! We must get ourselves involved. For, after all, if we do nothing but sit on the side-lines and watch as the Sodom-Gomorrah perverts parade through our living rooms and do nothing to halt legislative action by the homosexual community, we will soon be swimming in the same sewage as those who promote it. As for me and my house, we will never hide our heads in the sand and hope for the best.