::In the end, since I acknowledge a different authority and one Holy, Universal* and Apostolic Church, and that the Orthodox Church IS that Church, your arguments are non-sequiter for me. The sooner everyone acknowledges that most of us share neither Church nor authority, the sooner this thread will die. The only reason the topic even pops up is because of the modern insistence by many on establishing the normalization of HB in society. And that's the reason these threads keep popping up. And on it goes, in a great circle.
The thread keeps popping up because your side does not listen very closely.
I acknowledge the authority of the Church. The Church forbids a very particular act. The church insists on defining that act as "homosexuality." But people who claim to be "homosexuals" as an identity thus claim that there is something more than, and in fact potentially entirely separate from, the act to being homosexual.
What is the stance of the church on this identity? It has no stance because it does not acknowledge it's existence. What is the stance of the church on two men who pledge their lives to one another but do not express it in one very particular act? They have nothing to say according to principle, but much to say according to person. What is the stance of the church on the concept of romantic love and affection between men? It has no stance, because it is too busy talking about a specific sex act.
Finally, if the church ever decided that not only this particular act, but even the pledge and the love between men was sinful, it would have to ask itself, how have we failed our own sons?
In my estimation, if the act, the pledge, and the love are all sinful, it does not make the Church right, it makes the Church all the more culpable for a multitude of sins of ommission.
And the bottom line is, if I lie down in bed next to another man each night, I am violating no code or principle or law or doctrine, but I know that I could find plenty of Christians lining up to condemn it, and still more who would at least insist it was "creepy" or some such visceral nonsense. The heart of the problem, and the reasons discussions like this continue, is that members of the Church rarely even understand their own doctrinal positions on the matter, and still less understand that "homosexuality" is separate from the type of act they censor, and in fact often does not include it at all.
So please, stop insulting me with your cry that we don't share an authority. It is contempt disguised as patience. The Church is my mother too, but you do not listen to her very closely, and you do not know your brother like She knows Her son.
