Selaphiel
Well-known member
Yes, you do. See below.
SAME-SEX SEXUAL BEHAVIOR (SSB) is immoral. That's been a Christian belief from the birth of the Church, as shown in the New Testament. That there are Christians who are not in communion with the Church's supreme pastor who have differing views from him is a fact, but doesn't take anything away from the fact that it's an ancient belief. Not recently made up, not like believing that SSB is not immoral; that's an innovation, and that it's an innovation is proven by even glancing historical research.
There you go again. This is why the problem.
That is a shallow understanding of theological history. It is a great fairytale, usually told by conservative representatives, that Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox or any other denomination of Christianity (Lutheran as well, which is my tradition, when it pretends to be some original form) represents some unbroken tradition or form without any innovation of thought, a fairytale that serves as a shallow pious marketing ploy for the denominations that use it. Anyone who actually studies theology knows that this supposed uniformity of belief and doctrine is all make believe, a smoothing over the bumps of actual history.
Abolition of slavery would be an innovation as well then. Since the New testament and many of the church fathers represents views that upheld this institution. They simply could not imagine a society without it. Is the abolition therefore a bad thing? Because it certainly is an innovation. The motivations for opposition to same sex relations have changed through history, from the more concrete ancient understandings of biology and physiology to more medieval and modern understandings of teleology and natural law to simple divine voluntarism which simply refers to the dictates of scripture. Understanding changes. A religion that is incapable of relating to new and more refined understanding of human life is doomed to become nothing but a dead relic.
Thankfully, there are plenty of theologians (from all denominations) that understand this basic fact and does not try to continue this dead religious worship of the past. Tradition has value, but tradition for traditions sake is worthless.