Love. Treat others as you would have them treat you. If you feel you are a child of God, then honor your common and equal status with others as children of God. Except (and there are always exceptions with sibling rivalry) if they are women and therefore not qualified to perform the holiest sacraments of the church. Except if two members of the same sex engage in long, committed and faithful love; God may be love, but this love is ungodly.<\/p>\n
Just look, some vigilant Christians say, at the \u201cclear teaching\u201d\u009d in 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 (\u201cFornicators, idolaters, adulterers, male prostitutes, sodomites, thieves, the greedy, drunkards, revilers, robbers \u201d\u201d none of these will inherit the kingdom of God.\u201d\u009d); in 1 Timothy 1:9-11 (\u201cThe law is laid down … for the unholy and profane … for murderers, fornicators, sodomites, slave traders, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to the sound teaching that conforms to the glorious gospel of the blessed God.\u201d\u009d); and especially in Romans 1:26b-27 (\u201cTheir women exchanged natural intercourse for unnatural, and in the same way also the men, giving up natural intercourse with women, were consumed with passion for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in their own persons the due penalty for their error.\u201d\u009d)<\/p>\n
I know that this will offend some Christians, but the notion that Scripture is perfectly clear is wishful thinking, as a recent white paper prepared by the All Saints\u2019 clergy demonstrates. The writers of the four Gospels don\u2019t agree on even so simple a thing as which people were present at Christ\u2019s empty tomb. Considering that, over the centuries, the Bible has been translated into and out of multiple languages, it only makes sense to consider the context of what\u2019s written rather than believe that every word is literal divine revelation.<\/p>\n