03 Oct 2007- South Africa- While many gay people coming out of their closets has left communities gaping with disbelief, most people have gradually taken a stance on homosexuality. The church has also made no bones about its opinion on the “scourge of young people” coming out of their sexual shell.

Christianity is governed by the teachings of the Bible and Leviticus 18:22 says: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.”

Two chapters later it continues:

“If a man also lies with mankind as he lyeth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they should surely be put to death.”

The Apostle Paul in Romans 1:26-27 says:

“God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error.”

Gay South Africa Interactive on its website states: “The meaning of these verses remain fairly obscure to many Biblical scholars, especially in the context of loving, committed relationships. Jesus himself said nothing about homosexuality, which leads many people to believe that the subject was not a concern.”

Does the church still believe that homosexuality is abominable?

The Reverend Agrippa Khathide says that homosexuality is a “perversion” and that only the power of prayer can heal it.

He says: “The church is ruled by the Bible and it cannot endorse practices that defy Christianity. We are not anti-gay and as long as gay people come to the Apostolic Faith Mission to receive the word of God and not to express their homosexual desires, they are welcome. We want them to hear the gospel and hopefully help them to transform their ways.

Gay Interactive says: “Interestingly enough, the word homosexual did not appear in any translation of the Bible until 1946 (Blumenfeld & Raymond, 1988).”

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