[PLUG-TALK] USA today piece

[Someone]

Bible's view on sexual immorality has never changed, never will
Bill Richards, church elder - Peace Lutheran Church, Port Charlotte,
Fla. 

I am amazed at how some writers think they know exactly what went on
inside the heads of scholars who are now deceased. Then these writers
try to make their opinions sound authoritative. This is exactly what
Mary Zeiss Stange did in her commentary about Martin Luther ("When it
comes to gays, 'What would Luther do?'," The Forum, July 9).


Instead of asking how Luther might have felt about the gay lifestyle
today, I think Zeiss would have come to a more revealing conclusion by
asking, "What did Jesus Christ say?"

Jesus never spoke specifically about homosexuality, but he did preach
against sexual immorality. 

What is sexual immorality? 

Well, God makes it clear what it is in the Old Testament. In Leviticus
20, God outlines sins such as adultery, incest, bestiality and
homosexual acts as sexual immorality. Because God never changes, his
word never changes. That's why this command against sexual immorality
doesn't change in the New Testament. 

In the books of 1 Timothy and Titus 1, the Apostle Paul makes it clear
that elders and other church leaders are to live their lives above
reproach. 

That doesn't mean they ban gay people from church. But church leaders
are called to bring those who are struggling with sexual immorality and
any other sin into a right relationship with God. 

Not allowing gay people to be in church leadership positions isn't a
matter of discrimination. 

Rather, it is the same as not allowing anyone the power to lead other
Christians when they are living in open defiance of God's word.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/oped/2007/07/bibles-view-on-.html