Hi Blackstone,

Rainboy>> But for me, who believes that homosexual desires are not to be acted on (because that would be sinful), it would be crossing the line (if only in my mind/heart).

Blackstone>> The bible only condemns homosexual acts. It is only the sexual component that is sinful. If you have romantic feelings but they are never expressed in a sexual way, then how is this sinful? Note that I never claimed that sexual fantasy is ok, that would obviously be lust and therefore sinful. We are talking about romance here, not sexual fantasy.

OK, it probably wouldn't be sin. I overstate that. I wouldn't want to go there, though, because, as I just wrote in another post seconds ago, I feel it would be "feeding" the "broken" aspect of my sexual identity. The things that I feed tend to grow; the things I don't feed tend to fade away. [I want to feed the parts of me that will lead to wholeness in all areas of my life, including sexual.] Well, that's my perspective -- I can see both sides of the issue, though.

Rainboy>> But, I do think it would be cruel if He chose to specifically "smite" a baby with disfigurement. I just don't believe He does that, and I hope you don't either!

Blackstone>> Actually, I do. When a bill crosses the president's desk and he chooses not to veto it, he is equally responsible for the passage of that bill. In this case, God has the veto power; it is absolute and cannot be overruled, and everything that happens in the world has to cross his desk and survive the veto before it can occur.

Blackstone>> I do believe that God often chooses specific handicaps for specific people in order to fulfill certain things. I believe God specifically chose for Moses to have a speech impediment so that Moses would be unable to say it was through his abilities at oratory and persuasion that he freed the people of Israel. I also believe that he chose to give Paul a physical handicap (the eye problem we know of only as his "thorn") so that Paul would be humbled by it.

There is debate as to whether or not the "thorn" was physical, or perhaps another person giving Paul trouble of some sort. At least that's what I have been taught.

I find the view that God intentionally chooses to give people diseases VERY difficult to accept. Maybe in certain very specific circumstances He does (Moses?), but to say that every deformed baby is that way because God singled it out. Woah! That's harsh! [I'll pray about it, though...]

Rainboy>> I didn't say I was proposing the ultimate answer to life, the universe, and everything.

Blackstone>> Of course. Otherwise you would've simply said "42".

Quite right :-)

Rainboy>> [By "very earliest years of life" what ages are you referring to?]

Blackstone>> The first few critical years. The years during which you learn how the world works, who you are, the difference between boys and girls, how to walk, how to talk, etc. The first 2 to 5 years of life.

OK.

Rainboy>> Would you say that there can be NO sexual development during the teenage years?

Blackstone>> Not in terms of who or what you are attracted to. By the time you are a teenager your sexual orientation is already set. Events might confuse you and falsely lead you to believe that your orientation is something other than what it truly is. But your true orientation will not change.

Human beings are so complex, that to make a blanket statement that NO change to sexual identity is possible after, say, the first 5 years (to use your numbers), is, I think, kinda dubious. But, we can agree to disagree.

Thanks for the comments.

Blessings,
Rainboy