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After reading your commentary on homosexuality, I must say that you are truly uninformed. First, I am a child of God, secondly I am gay. I didn't. Choose either. By profession I'm a psychotherapist, and therefore have a unique understanding of the human mind. I can attest to the fact and reality that homosexuality is not a behavior. I am who I am and understand who I am with an understanding from God. 90% of the world is on the path to destruction because they are misled with false teachings attributed to the Bible. Beware of false teachers, and profits. Joel, Joyce, creflo, rd Jake's, and the rest of them have secured their spot in the second judgment due to their false teachings of God's word.

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Mark Harris needs to go truly read his bible. Claiming to be a christian does not make you a child of God. A child of God is one who follows the will of his heavenly father. Read Genesis and find out why Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed by the angel of God. I am quoting from both new and old testaments. You studied psychology like I did. When you do not grow out of the anal stage of development according to Sigmund Freud there is a strong tendency that you will have gay inclinations. It is a sickness, a psychological illness that can be treated. And yes people have been treated who used to be gay.


Leviticus 18:22


Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.


Leviticus 20:13


If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.


Romans 1:26-27


For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:


And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.

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I would actually like to thank Peter for his reply to Bruce. Pastor Osteen is correct. I have no knowledge of the interview but hope that he backed it up with scripture as well. You only have to read your bible and make reference to some of the scriptures related by Peter for proof.
God hates sin but loves a sinner. The bible is there for guidance so we don't have to lean to our own understanding of the matter.

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@Mark and @ Peter

Mark you are absolutely right about false teachings. The best example of false doctrine is the claim that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because of the sin of homosexuality. It is a false doctrine that continues to be preached to the masses. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah was the sin of inhospitality, failure to help the
poor and needy, greed and mistreatment of foreigners. They also engaged in many types of sexual sin--but the primary sexual sin was
sex as a form of idol worship and the worshipping of false Gods.

Indeed, if you just read Genesis itself, you can see very clearly that God made the decision to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah before the
incident with Lot, the Angels and the gang rape incident.

My biblical support--(which I always have-when I make a statement about the Bible)--that Sodom and Gomorrah was not destroyed because of
homosexuality but because of inhospitality and mistreatment of the poor is from the words of Jesus himself. In, Mark 6:11--- when Jesus
is talking to his disciples about their being mistreated when they go from town to town, he says "And whosoever shall not receive you, nor
year you, when you depart thence, shake off the dust under your feet for a testimony against them. Verily, I say unto you, it shall be
more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah the day of judgment for that city." He was using Sodom and Gomorrah as an anology because they
were guilty of the same sin.

Also, read the same story similar to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Judges 19---the identical story...but the men in the city surround
the house; demand that the guest come out so they can rape him; but instead the man throws his concubine out to the men to be gang raped.
The women is gang raped all night and then cut up into pieces and her body parts were sent all over...I wonder why this story does not get
as much attention as the story of Sodom and Gommorrah...surely, this story is worse because the woman was actually gang raped and them
murdered.

Another verse that confirms that Sodom and Gomorrah was not destroyed because of homosexuality is found in the Old Testament. In Ezekial 16:49, the Bible tells you exactly what the "sin" of Sodom was---the verse says " Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride,
fullness of bread,and abudance of idleness was in her and her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy."

Interesting, how many people who object to homosexuality, are guilty of this very sin of Sodom and Gomorrah--failure to help the poor and
needy, pride, idleness----this message is consistent with the message of Jesus Christ himself. Nowhere--nowhere---not in one single verse do you hear Jesus talking about homosexuality--because that was not
his concern---his concern was for the poor, needy, etc!!!

The only book that purports to indicate that the destruction of Sodom and Gommorrah had anything to do with sexual sin is Jude 1:7--but that
verse talks about fornication not homosexuality (except in modern translations. When the verse is talking about "strange fruit"--it is
refering to the reference in the book of Genesis when fallen Angels came down and had sex with humans.

People like to pick and choose in the Old Testament what verses they will follow. As Christians today, would we support such barbaric
practices as stoning to death women who engage in pre-marital sex (Deut. 22:13-21), stoning to death men who committed adultery with a
married woman (Deut. 22:22), stoning to death children who are disobedient to their parents (Deut. 21:18), slavery (Deut. 15:12-17),
or beating a man with up to forty stripes with a whip for committing a crime (Deut. 25:1-3)? Do we as modern Christians support the practice
of men having multiple wives (Deut. 21:15) or the practice of ostracizing a woman by separating her from her family and friends during her menstrual cycle (Leviticus 15:19-24, Numbers 5:2)?

Under these same laws, we could not have tattoos on our bodies ( Lev.
19:28) or wear clothes made out of two different types of materials such as linen and wool. (Deut. 22:11) Our judicial system would put
to death a woman who was raped who did not cry out for help (Deut 22:23-24). Kidnappers would also be put to death (Deut. 24:7) and a
woman who grabbed the genitals of the man fighting her husband would have her hand cut off. (Deut. 25:11).

How then does Joel Osteen, who I generally admire, or anyone single out a few verses in the Old testament--out of context I might
add--and will explain later, and criticize the act of homosexuality.

Also, there is not one single verse in the ENTIRE Bible (and I am referring to the King James Version or the original verses in Greek
and Hebrew) that condemn LESBIAN sex or women having sex with other women. The verse itself does not even say what people purport to say
what it says... It says "for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature." This could mean women have
anal sex, women masterbating, women not being in the submissive position---there is a host of interpretations---the verse read on its
face could mean anything other than for the purposes of procreation--indeed, it could even mean heterosexual sex for any
purpose other than procreation-----Contrary to what people say it says, it does not say women lying with women (just as the old
testament versus do not say that)....

Indeed, homosexuality is only mentioned in the Holiness/Purity Code(in Leviticus) and not in the Moral Laws (Deuteronomy) and that is because
the issue was not about morality, it was an issue about procreation and keeping the Israelites set apart from other foreign nations
(because God did not want them to worship other false gods)....just like many of the other Mosaic laws, they simply do not apply today.

Finally, for those truly interested in studying what the Bible really says about the issue, I would recommend reading a couple books called:
"What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality" by Daniel Helminiak (have your Bible with you as you read it) and Dirt, Greed and Sex:
Sexual Ethics in the New Testament by William Countryman. Also, there is a superb DVD that won several awards at the film festival called
"For the Bible Tells Me So." It is available on Netflix too. Have you Bible with you always when people say something is in the Bible.

Although I am not gay, I do not think that the Bible should be misused to discriminate against any group of people. How soon people forget
that the Bible was used in the same manner for centuries to disenfranchise blacks and support slavery and claims of our inferiority, including by major church demoniminations---people
claiming that blacks were less than human and cursed (based upon purported biblical text)...

People should be weary of allowing the Bible to be misused in that way.

The only final comment I will make about Joel Osteen is that he has not been formally trained in the Bible--never studied at any seminary.
I say that only to say, that while I believe him to be a Man of God, I just don't think he is an expert on the Bible. I don't know if he has
studied the original Greek and Hebrew text--many of which has been distorted. I do think he has a pure heart and is a good man and for
that, he will receive God's favor. He is simply wrong on this issue though.

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Hi Bruce, how are you? I agree w/Pastor Osteen as well, in that he stands on the Word of God, and not made it his personal opinion.

But, I'm emailing you to say that its not even behavior. It's a spirit, all be it and evil spirit that comes from satan. Remember, when satan was kicked out of Heaven, he took a 1/3 of the angels w/him. They are now disembodied spirits walking in the earth seeking a house (not a building), but a human body that they can carry out their evil deeds and desires through. That's why we must be born again, just as Jesus preached and its written, so that we can be filled with the Holy Ghost and have power to overcome the wiles of the devil.

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This response is for KIMINCALI. I agree with you on a lot of things that you said concerning the Bible, but I disagree with your reference to the "man lying with man" scripture. It has long been understand that wherever God makes certain statements like this for man, it was also for women. Men were the head of their household, and ran them accordingly so he referenced them first. Joel Olsteen was asked about homosexuality and nothing else. As far as being formally taught the Bible, I would not hold against anyone. If you are truly called by God, he will lead and guide you. Minsters in biblical times did not go to seminaries. Also, Sodom and Gomarrah was not destroyed because of homosexuality. It was destroyed because of many sins that included that, fornication, adultrey, lusting, murder, and many other sins. It is no different from the world today, so we should be careful. There are too many sins that are readily accepted now, and no one is taking God into consideration. The US is the new Sodom and Gomarrah. Children out of wedlock is okay, unmarried people living and having sex together is okay, having sex with married people is okay, even approaching a married person for sexual interest is okay. We do not even have to speak of homosexuality in this day and age because we do enough of other things to be condemned for. Church is just a social gathering now. No one uses it for its intended purpose.

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I am the African American daughter of a southern Baptist preacher. I asked my Pastor some time ago about babies born intersexed (hermaprhodite), at the time I had a co worker who was going through such a birth and spent the next year supporting her. What I learned was startling, that 5K-10K babies are born with the markers of both sexes or genatalia. The following year, the baby was determined best suited for a boy and completed surgeries. We were not allowed to refer to the baby in any gender based way. My Pastor's response, to his credit was, " I don't know."...I respected his statement.

To those who say babies are not born gay or the probability that something occurs biologically that makes sexuality not so black and white...I offer this story. The story of so many of humans born.

@Kimincali thank you for your post.

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I totaly agree with you !

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Bruce sounds like you not only read the Bible but also have "understanding". Of course Mark Harris is going to defend his homosexuality, but if he is really a Christian then he needs to understand and accept that homosexuality is an abomination to God according to Scripture. So, the burden of proof is on Mark Harris to proof where in Scripture it says that it is not! Jesus said that He is the same today, tomorrow and yesterday. So, be it in the Old or New Testament I can't find where Jesus changed or accepted two men or women being together in this manner of homosexuality. Can either of these type of couples procreate as the Lord told us to go forth and do? I think not!!! I am not judging Mr. Harris because God tells us not to judge - He is the judge. We humans have not learned yet to stop changing God's laws to suit our own desires. To make and pass laws that condone this type of behavior is truly going against God's laws and this world will certainly pay for it - it has already begun: violence, greed, corruption, sex, sex and more sex. Satan is the great deceiver and he has certainty deceived the world, especially the so called preachers - who are really blinded to the True Word of God. (Few are called and most of these preachers called themselves to preach - not anointed by God.) Ask yourself which Jesus are they following? Preachers love to preach that God is an unconditional God. Well, God commands us to keep His Royal Laws - sounds like conditions to me. So, Mr. Harris when you meet your Creator, maybe then you will have or get understanding - if it is not too late. You are in my prayers my brother.

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