Same-Sex Love Isn’t Love; It’s Lust
God Bless you if you can follow the link and actually read the article. I'm not vested enough to actually make a payment to gain access.
What I can say is that lines in the sand like this obfuscate what really needs to happen in the mind of someone who struggles. I'm an unabashed heterosexual with more socially acceptable problems of my own - anger, for instance, and pride - I think higher of myself then I ought. These are just off the top of my head. I don't have a confessor Priest, so this is it; as far as I'm willing to go in a public space.
What I can say is that the desire for sinlessness counts for a lot, in spite of actions on the ground...
51 Have mercy on me, O God,
according to your steadfast love;
according to your abundant mercy
blot out my transgressions.
2 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin!
3 For I know my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
4 Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight,
so that you may be justified in your words
and blameless in your judgment.
5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
6 Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being,
and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart.
7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean;
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
8 Let me hear joy and gladness;
let the bones that you have broken rejoice.
9 Hide your face from my sins,
and blot out all my iniquities.
10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right[b] spirit within me.
11 Cast me not away from your presence,
and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
and uphold me with a willing spirit.
13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways,
and sinners will return to you.
14 Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God,
O God of my salvation,
and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness.
15 O Lord, open my lips,
and my mouth will declare your praise.
16 For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it;
you will not be pleased with a burnt offering.
17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
18 Do good to Zion in your good pleasure;
build up the walls of Jerusalem;
19 then will you delight in right sacrifices,
in burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings;
then bulls will be offered on your altar.
-- Psalms 51
Incidentally, I think this Psalm is sung at every Orthodox Vespers service, without exception. Feel free to correct me if I am wrong.
And remember - this is a song written by a man deemed to be, "after God's own heart". (1 Samuel 13:14) After he has been confronted by his sins of adultery and murder.
Now, I don't know anything about the Homosexual community. Nothing. At all. And, honestly, I don't care to. That is the least interesting aspect of your personality. That is identifying you by your sin instead of by all the other many things you could identify as - an artist, a poet, or a scholar.
"I love my son. He's masculine. Does that make me lustful? Maybe a pedophile?"
"Don't confuse the issue!"
Protestants love to play games with the Greek words agape, eros, philia, and storge - assigning very specific definitions to each use. I heard once that the only use of agape outside the Bible was between a man and a prostitute. I do not know what some of these word games mean, if anything.
If I am attracted to others, but do not act on some of the baser desires that I might want to act on, does that still condemn me? Can I not have a non-sexual, emotional fulfilling relationship with a same sex companion? Is that not theoretically possible?
Do I not still love my son?
One must always be careful to not tempt fate. Sometimes the structured life of a monastic life might be what's required to temper the emotions; the voices; the Logismoi.
Obviously, monasticism and Protestantism mix like oil and water. Avoid Protestants. They don't even want to understand.
At the end of the day, we are not our thoughts.
We are not the Logismoi that harass and assault us. With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can say, "no" to them. Thinking in this way has been liberating in a manner that I cannot express. It makes the struggle easier knowing that it's not the thought that condemns; but rather my attitude towards that thought - "Thinking about thinking", and the resulting action....
My hope for myself is that the, "no", gets easier with time.
Lord, Jesus Christ, Son of God,
have mercy upon me,
a Sinner.
