Firstly, we must go back to what the Bible says. The Bible is pretty clear about the fate of a practicing homosexual who does not repent: [I]“Do you not know that the [B]unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?[/B] Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor [B]homosexuals[/B], nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.�[/I] (1 Corinthians 6:9-11)

Homosexuality is against the commandments of God in both Old and New Testaments and against the nature God created in us (see Romans chapter 1). It is also a sin, like adultery or fornication, for it involves sexual activity outside of the sacrament of marriage. God created our sexuality for a specific purpose – to be a unique expression of love reserved for just one person in our lives (husband or wife) and no others. Out of this love, if God permits, comes the miracle of new life – children.

As in most things in life, if you don’t follow the maker’s instructions, things can go terribly wrong. There is no doubt, for example, that those children brought up with a same sex couple suffer a serious disadvantage in their relations with the missing gender. Two men who bring up a little boy will find that the little boy has trouble dealing with girls because there has been no role model at home for him to get used to. This is just one example, but there are many more.

But what if it’s not their fault? There has been a long running debate about whether homosexuality is something a person is born with, or whether it is learned as a person grows up. No one has a definite answer as yet. However, the general message that the research has given us so far is that it is not inherited, but depends on things that happen as a child grows up. In a way, that still means it’s not the person’s fault – they couldn’t choose how they were brought up, could they?

Think about this. If a child was born to two criminals – say bank robbers – and they brought him up to think that robbing banks is a normal way of life, could we blame him? Perhaps not, but would we just say, “There, there, you poor child. You just go on robbing banks to your hearts content and don’t you feel guilty about it at all! You can’t help it!� Or would we try to convince him that robbing banks is wrong and try to lead him to repentance? The same applies to kleptomaniacs. A kleptomaniac is a person with a mental disease that makes him steal – he just can’t help himself! We don’t just pat them on the back and tell them that stealing is alright because that’s the way they were born. We tell them stealing is wrong, and you must get help that will stop the stealing. You must repent in other words. The same applies to the sin of homosexuality. Whatever its cause, it is a sin and requires repentance.

So should we treat homosexuals as sinners? Yes, but we should treat sinners the way Jesus treated sinners – with love and compassion. The old saying goes, “Love the sinner, but hate the sin�. There is no doubt you will deal with homosexuals at university, at work, at the shops – anywhere! Don’t make the feel you hate them or look down on them. Treat them as you would treat any other person, but pray for their repentance. And if the topic should ever come up, in a nice way, try to lead them to repentance.

In fact, it is very rare that we can ever say that this particular person will definitely not go to heaven (Judas Iscariot is one of the few exceptions – he’s definitely going downstairs!). This is because we cannot read a person’s heart. Who knows if he repented in his heart at the last minute? Who knows what he went through? Perhaps a person was severely abused as a child and this was the best he could do? Only God knows these things, so only God can judge. What we do know however, is the general rule that God gave us in the Bible: A homosexual who does not repent cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.