Homosexuality assailed

in Adventists' statement

A strong condemnation of homosexual behavior has been issued by leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Robert H. Pierson, president of the General Conference of the Seventhday Adventists, said recently that homosexuality undermines the basic structure of the home.

"Any perversion that weakens the very foundation upon which a Christian nation is built cannot be accepted by the church,” he said.

In an earlier statement issued by the church's Washington Conference,

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four Adventist leaders said the church "views a homosexual relationship as a union which is contrary to nature and to God's expressed will and is generally transitory in nature."

The church has a responsibility, they said, to oppose any efforts to promote pride in a type of behavior that is in complete opposition to biblical standards of morality.

The statement was the first formal declaration of opposition to the aims of the gay rights movement by leaders of the denomination.