Lindsay Good point.
And to be truthful the short answer is I'm not sure. Certainly lifestyle is more than just expressing sexuality, I personally know some gay men, one of whom was a youth group leader of mine before he came out, who have found a freedom in expressing themselves within the Gay community which for some reason they felt unable to express within the Heterosexual community. One of my lecturers in final year was Gay and he and his partner lived a lifestyle that differed from a heterosexual lifestyle in only one visible way, they loved someone of the same gender as themselves. When this lecturer found out I was Christian he was surprised because I believe he would have expected me to judge him and seek to have a little as possible to do with him and his partner. But I was there to learn and this guy has there to teach so why would I seek to place upon him my moral and spiritual standards just so that I would be comfortable learning what he had to teach. And I find that today popular culture tends to label men that are creative and emotionally expressive as Gay. This is not a blanket statement but an interesting observation. As an Architect it is interesting the number of movies that have Architects who are gay in them, implying therefore that to be an Architect, someone with a creative and expressive talents, means you must be gay. And I have certainly found that because I am a 32 year old, single Architect sharing a house with another male and socialising with him, because within our respective churchs there are not many other single people our age with whom we can socialise, that some within the church could question whether I am Gay or not. I fall into this trap just as much as everyone else, but I suppose I try not to act out the instant sterotyping that my culture has trained me in. Back to my ex youth group leader, just because he has decided to live in a sub-culture, that is a sub-set of the society we live in, that allows him to express his abilities and talents does not mean that he should be excluded from particpating in the life of the church and in fact he isn't within the local church that he attends. A possible issue in his case is the fact that he left his wife and children to live out his abilities and talents. For me there is a BUT, which is if this person acts in such a way that is contrary to the moral and spiritual ethics laid down in the bible then that person should not be considered appropriate for leadership positions within the church for so long as they don't believe that their actions are contrary to the moral and spiritual ethics laid down in the bible. This is true for me as much as for Gay and Lesbian people, as much as it is for leaders within the church who are unrepentant of their greed, anger, covetness etc. This understanding from come from my reading of Paul and his letter's especially to the Corithians. So Lindsay I'm not sure if this answers your points, but certainly I will ponder them further to see where I stand in relation to them. cya Andrew Swenson -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Lindsay Brash Sent: Tuesday, 26 August 2003 10:14 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: GLBT? G'day All, Andrew, what would you say are the defining characteristics of the homosexual lifestyle that: a) apply to all (or a great majority) of homosexual people and b) clearly differentiate it from the heterosexual lifestyle and c) are relevant to homosexual members of the Uniting Church. Kind regards, Lindsay Brash. ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/lists.htm ------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------------------------------ - You are subscribed to the mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] - To unsubscribe, email [EMAIL PROTECTED] and put in the message body 'unsubscribe insights-l' (ell, not one (1)) See: http://nsw.uca.org.au/lists.htm ------------------------------------------------------
