not yield your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but yield yourselves to God as men who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace."

We have quoted the Bible at length, to make our case that there is no doubt that homosexual acts are sinful -certainly as long as our society shames those who indulge in sexual acts outside of marriage, as long as the majority of the Church take this view, we cannot interpret the Bible otherwise.

But the point is that all persons do sin. In the Christian understanding of human nature, no one is righteous: "no not one." And St. Paul, after the lengthy statements we have quoted in Romans, then says in chapter 7:

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. . . I am carnal, sold under sin. I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me . . . I delight in the law of God in my inmost self. but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus... We know that in everything God works for good with those who love Him. If God is for us, who is against us? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? . . . Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. The commands

are summed up in this sentence: You shall love your neighbor as yourself . . Love does no wrong to a neighbor, therefore love is fulfilling the law."

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make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires. As for the man who is weak, welcome him . . .

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Let us no more pass judgment on one another, but rather decide never to put a stumbling-block or hindrance in the way of a brother. . . . We who are strong, ought to bear with the failings of the weak, and not to please ourselves . . . Welcome one another. therefore, as Christ has welcomed you.”

Here is the Christian welcome to the homosexual, clearly stated: "What you have done, are doing, and will do, is no worse than what all other men have done, are doing and will do. The Christian community can forgive you as often as you confess to God, and can sustain you and help you in your weakness, if you sincerely wish to forget yourself, and devote yourself to others."

But having said that homosexual acts are sinful, we have not answered the next question: How sinful? Are we dealing with mere peccadillossomething like "white lies" which everyone engages in but no one takes seriously?

From a Christian point of view, one may never, never generalize about a specific sin. What is right in one time and place may be wrong in another. and vice versa. We must answer this question simply by saying that sometimes homosexual acts are trifles like white lies, and sometimes they are serious offenses against human personality. If one is to ask a question of Christian ethics, each specific act must be taken upon its own merit. A sexual act may express love or hate. sadism, masochism, joy, lust, revenge. despair-and no two acts of sexual intercourse are ever quite the same. Even if the same two people are involved, there is always a new time and new circumstances. The essential Christian point is that one may never judge another person, he may only judge himself. What values is he creating in the life of the other, what beauty, goodness and love is he creating?