A lot of Christians these days use this argument when they rail against homosexuality:
A homosexual struggling against the temptation to act homosexual is no different from anyone else struggling to resist a sinful temptation.
John Shore has a great response to this:
Here is that Big Difference between homosexuality and other sins: There is no sin I can commit that, by virtue of committing it, renders me incapable of loving or being loved. I can commit murder. I can steal. I can rob. I can rape. I can drink myself to death. I can do any terrible thing at all — and no one would ever claim that intrinsic to the condition that gave rise to my doing that terrible thing is that I am, by nature, simply incapable of giving or receiving love.
…
When you tell a gay person to “resist” being gay, what you are really telling them — what you really mean — is for them to be celibate.
What you are truly and actually saying is that you want them to condemn themselves to a life devoid of love.
Be alone, you’re demanding. Live alone. Don’t hold anyone’s hand. Don’t snuggle on your couch with anyone. Don’t cuddle up with anyone at night before you fall asleep. Don’t have anyone to chat with over coffee in the morning.
Do not bind your life to that of another. Live your whole life without knowing that joy, that sharing, that peace.
Just say “no” to love.
Be alone. Live alone. Die alone.
The “sinful temptation” that Christians are forever urging LGBT people to resist is love.
Being, of course, the one thing Jesus was most clear about wanting his followers to extend to others.
I want to hear a pastor say that in church one weekend.
How any Christian can claim to follow a religion of love and then deny gay people equal rights is incredible.
I’ve said this before with regard to Andrew Marin: It’s not enough to simply apologize for the way the church has treated gay people in the past.
If you’re not out there fighting in favor of marriage equality, against the notion that homosexuality is a choice, against the absurd idea that homosexuality is somehow sinful (or more sinful than anything else you call a “sin”)… if you’re not out there fighting any rule/law that says gay people are inferior to straight people, then you don’t deserve my respect.