Craig,

Thank you for your email and please forgive me for taking a few weeks to get back to you. I truly appreciate your comments and support of the website. Your objective comments are something that I will take very seriously. I understand that homosexuality will be a mystery to certain individuals. I am a homosexual and it is a mystery to me. Why did God create me with an attraction to my same sex, rather than the opposite sex, is something to question. I understand that I have inherited certain traits and features from my ancestors, but certainly my sexuality must be seen as a gift from God. I know that when some, gay and straight alike, read that, they are uncomfortable.

Perhaps the best thing we can do is to be honest with others of who we are and who we love. We all know individuals who hide their sexual orientation, their relationships, even gay people who participate in gay bashing. How can we expect others to respect us when we do not respect ourselves. I realize that there are numerous situations when someone is fearful to come out, even risking their safety and life. But in many circumstances, we can be out and honest with our family, friends, neighbors and co-workers. This where trusting in God places an immense role for me personally. I trust in Him to guide me when it is safe to come out and be truthful and when to be more cautious.

Thank you again for your thoughts as we continue our journeys.

If you would ever like to write a guest reflection to be posted on the website, please let me know.

I bid you peace,

Andriy

This hypothetical situation presents itself to me: Supposing two gay lovers – both Christian – suddenly, due to advanced age or illness, stop being able to have sex, does their love all at once become elevated in the eyes of God, or are they forever condemned, as they were never able to make that decision when they were still sexually capable? Can you see the absurdities this line of thinking engenders? Your opponents seem to think that madness, chaos, and absurdity are the products of our Lord, who is also Wisdom Itself. Are your opponents honestly suggesting that love resides in a person’s genitals and not in the font of Love, which is The Lord Himself? I find this idea not only extraordinarily disgusting, but also heretical and not a little blasphemous – and they should tremble at the very idea of it.
And Margaret comparing the love – the very real love – of a committed gay couple to liars and alcoholism seems to me to blaspheme the very foundation of human existence, which is God, who IS Love. I encourage you to show a little more respect.

Thank you
Craig

No matter how clever he is or how he promotes his phlosphy. He is a fake and he is gay.

I care less of his writings. He has been defroked long time ago.

I know the idiot.

For your knolowge the rectum was and it is not created for sex.

If you belive in a Creator or just in a natural evolution.

There are parasites that live a fantasy life not the reality.

Now there are parents that are confused and don't know how to raise their childrens.

At seven years old they get to choose teir gender. What do they know about life.

Tragicly there are so many idiots that suport and promote this parasite life stile.

The politiciens have no scrupule or dignity. They are after votes only.

Margaret,

Do you love your husband? Do you make love with your husband? Do you want to live your life with him so that the two of you can grow together spiritually, emotionally? Could you love and make love to your best female friend? No, why not? Because God did not give you that desire.
I love my husband and express my love and want to grow older with him, and grow spiritually and emotionally. This has nothing to do with alcoholism or lying or anything else to overcome. I pray that your heart and mind be open to the possibility that the love I feel for my husband is the same God created love that you feel for your husband.
Andriy

Alcholics also claim they hurt no one, but, if you do not care for the alcholic analogy, then you could also say the same about a liar. Liars think they hurt no one, not even themselves. Also, if you have not heard of a homosexual being converted to heterosexuality, you haven’t looked in the right places for information. It definitely happens!

My brother, repentance is not easy: I too have recurring sins and passions for which at times I beg for repentence, and give up fighting at other times. Each time I end the struggle with repenting and confessing His truth, and He forgives me. God does not give up on me, nor will He give up on you. Let God be true, and every man a liar. Keep His word and truth in your heart. God bless you in His love…fight the good fight.

Here are a couple of very good resources which are more beneficial than me.
http://www.ldolphin.org/twoofme.html
http://www.pravmir.com/is-gay-marriage-just-about-civil-rights/

The things we fight against the most are the things which bring us closer to God. Those weaknesses are the means of our salvation. His power is made perfect in our weakness. Look to the Lord for help. He is our helper and deliverer!

Margaret,
Thank you for your comment. While I hear your comparison of homosexuality to alcoholism, there are numerous differences. Being gay and wanting to love someone of the same sex does not destroy lives, it empowers them through the love of Christ. God does not call the vast majority of heterosexuals to a celibate life, and do He does not call the vast majority of homosexuals to a life of celibacy. We just desire, a desire that God has placed in our hearts, the same love that you do and many of us have found it, again thanks to the direction of the Lord Himself. Christ Himself was not married, to a woman or to a man, and so the reference is not correct. St. Paul also said that women should be silent in the Church and second marriages (let alone third which the Church permits) should be highly discouraged – and yet the Church celebrates them in the temple within the community. Certainly you would not suggest that gay men should castrate themselves which of course does not take away sexual desire or the desire to love someone for that matter. God created us and I can’t fathom that He wants us to mutilate ourselves. Is there any reason that a heterosexual must have sex in order to love? If you married, did you marry and then tell your husband that you would never, ever make love to him? Such people are called to a different life, a monastic life or a celibate life. To be created as a gay man or women does not mean that God gives you the gift of celibacy. Finally there is NO credible evidence of homosexuals being converted to heterosexuality. This is simply folly.
I bid you peace and thank you for your comments.
Andriy

I do know that alcoholics also claim they are born with a predisposition towards addiction to alcohol. But they also learn that abstinance from alcohol is necessary for sobriety. They don’t try to convince the world that because they are born that way, that the church ought to allow drunks into heaven and they don’t say that the law is predujiced and discriminating against them because of drunk driving laws. I do know that alcoholics are grateful for their struggle to have abstinance from alcohol, it what what drew them to Christ. It became their salvation.

I do know St Paul says that marriage is an example of Christ’s relationship with His church. Would Christ marry another man? I do know that Christ said that many make themselves eunuchs for the sake of heaven. This would imply abstinance, similar to the way that alcoholics and drugs addicts are to be abstinant from those things. Is there a reason why a person with homosexual tendencies must have sex in order to love? Is that truly love then?

I also have read of people who had been healed of homosexual urges, who have happy marriages.

Just wanted to put some of these thoughts out there.

Andy,
I thank you for your message and comment. Father Hopko is indeed a very learned man and worthy of respect that should be given to a priest but he is not infallible and therefore not all that he thinks and writes and speaks is without error or closed to interpretation. On the issue of homosexuality he is wrong. For example his views on the subject differ from Bishop Lazar’s. Can there be two right answers from people in holy orders?

While I admit that the comment about picking up a book published after 1970 was flippant, the truth of the statement stands. The Orthodox Church has recognized certain biological facts which contradict tradition and canon law and ignored others. For example, the canons are very strict when it comes to menstruating women and yet what priest today publicly, in lectures and published works, tells women that they can’t commune when they are menstruating? And why would we?
I truly pray for Father Hopko and others who are not only our leaders but have the power to change people’s lives. I pray that they bring consolation and hope instead of shame and guilt for who God created us to be.
I bid you peace and a blessed lent.
Andriy