Not everyone is going to agree with this post and that’s ok. This is my blog and this is what I believe.

Leviticus 18:22 “Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.

Leviticus 20:13 “If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

Romans 1:27 “And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense  of their error which was meet.”

1 Cor. 6:9-10 “Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind….”

Romans 1: 26-32 ” For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: and, likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another: men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

1 Timothy 1:9-10 Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine.

The Bible clearly considers homosexuality a sin.  First, it goes against the natural order of God’s creation. He created man and then woman, not two men or two women.   This is what God has said is normal and how we carry out his command to fill the earth. I believe in the God of the Bible and believe what He has said, NOT what sinful men/women are trying to persuade us is normal and natural.

I believe that homosexuality is a sin that God will punish by giving homosexuals over to their own lusts and hardening their hearts so that they don’t even realize what they are doing. Without this knowledge, there can be no repentance of sin and without that, there can be no forgiveness. Without forgiveness, there can be no salvation.

As Christians we have a responsibility to pray for the homosexual, just as we would pray for anyone else trapped in sin.   It is a loving thing to do.  We don’t want anyone to be lost due to their sin.  We should not hate them, yet we are not to approve of their sin.  We are not to compromise our witness either. To me, this means that I will not have a known homosexual over to my home to influence my children. Some will say I am judging or discriminating.

Discrimination is not automatically bad. I discriminate on the kinds of foods I eat, on the programs I watch, and what movies I let my children see. In fact, we all discriminate. We all have criteria by which we judge what is, and is not, acceptable. I discriminate against child molesters, and I will not let them be with my children unattended. I discriminate against different theology that is not backed up in the Bible.  I discriminate all the time, and so do you.

I believe that God has condemned homosexuality as a sin. But my agreeing with God that homosexuality is a sin is not the same as discriminating against homosexuals.

To say that homosexuality is wrong is a statement dealing with morality, not with legality. There might be different laws for and/or against homosexuality, but saying that homosexuality is wrong is a moral issue. My question  would be, who says  something is right or wrong and what justifies that standard as being valid?

If someone says that the majority of society determines what is morally right and wrong, that is called the fallacy of Argumentum ad populum.( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Argumentum_ad_populum) Just because a majority of people think something is right or wrong doesn’t make it right or wrong. So, if someone disagrees with my Christian viewpoint that homosexuality is wrong because “everyone” else says so, all they are really doing is giving me their opinion and their opinion is not and should not be the standard for me and everyone else.

In fact, statistically, only about 3.8% of the entire population claims to be homosexual, so why are those in the minority trying to push the majority to accept something that is clearly not normal?

Some may say it is normal because it occasionally occurs in the animal kingdom, but it is practiced by only a small percent of the animal populations….and this is below the norm. This also implies that whatever occurs in the animal kingdom is normal for us. So, why don’t we eat our young, or eat other creatures alive, or sniff other people’s butts, or throw up food to give to our babies or even eat our own feces? But then, I guess, they will just simply select which part of the animal kingdom they want to identify with.

If I believed in evolution and that people evolved into being, then how could homosexuality survive since it doesn’t produce offspring? How could it be considered normal, evolutionary speaking? The answer is simple…it’s not normal.

What about those who say they were just “born” that way? Wouldn’t that imply that those who were born heterosexually should be protected by law and society as well? Then why all the lawsuits against those of us who really are normal? Why all the hate directed towards those of us who don’t go along with the 3.8% minority? What about those who were “born” pedophiles? Should they be allowed to go with their “natural” tendencies to have sex with young children? Or what about those who would prefer to have sex with animals? Where do you draw the line? I guess it’s just a matter of selective statistics and discriminatory reasoning to justify sinful behavior.

Some homosexuals say they are not hurting anyone. But this is simply not true. The very lifestyle that they lead is promiscuous and full of disease.

• LONDON – A new study in the United Kingdom has revealed that homosexuals are about 50% more likely to suffer from depression and engage in substance abuse than the rest of the population, reports Health24.com.
  After analyzing 25 earlier studies on sexual orientation and mental health, researchers, in a study published in the medical journal BMC Psychiatry, also found that the risk of suicide jumped over 200% if an individual had engaged in a homosexual lifestyle.These findings strongly support the results of similar studies conducted in the United States, which have unveiled the severe physical and psychological health risks associated with homosexual behavior.  Drs. Paul and Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute revealed in 2007 that research shows that the lifespan of a homosexual is on average 24 years shorter than that of a heterosexual.  As a health threat, even smoking pales in comparison, as studies show smoking can shorten one’s life by only 1 to 7 years on average.

  While the Health 24 article suggested that homosexuals may be pushed to substance abuse and suicide because of anti-homosexual cultural and family pressures, empirical tests have shown that there is no difference in homosexual health risk depending on the level of tolerance in a particular environment. Homosexuals in the United States and Denmark – the latter of which is acknowledged to be highly tolerant of homosexuality – both die on average in their early 50′s, or in their 40′s if AIDS is the cause of death.  The average age for all residents in either country ranges from the mid-to-upper-70s.

  Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons, a psychiatrist and member of the Catholic Medical Association, says there is evidence that homosexuality is itself a manifestation of a psychological disorder accompanied by a host of mental health problems, including “major depression, suicidal ideation and attempts, anxiety disorders, substance abuse, conduct disorder, low self-esteem in males and sexual promiscuity with an inability to maintain committed relationships.” (http://www.onenewsnow.com/Culture/Default.aspx?id=255614)

Then there is the argument that being homosexual is a civil rights issue…like being born with brown skin or blue eyes. This is simply not true. The color of your skin or eyes is considered an unchangeable. Being a sodomite is a behavior and therefor a choice. AND homosexuals have civil rights…they are allowed to vote like everyone else….they are allowed to marry someone of the opposite sex like everyone else. They can own businesses and property. But, they want more…they want to redefine what marriage is for the rest of us. Political protection for men to have sex with men and women with women is just plain stupid.

Oh…you are such a hater they will say. But is saying that something is a sin spreading hate? What if I said lying was a sin, would I be spreading hate?? No, I am just saying that it violates the word of God and is a sin. Hate speech is an expression of hatred for some group. It is really they who are spreading hate for the Christian community because Christians do not usually welcome them with open arms, approving of what they do. Well, if someone is a true Christian they will not accept what God clearly says is wrong.

Whether or not anyone in this century thinks homosexuality is acceptable or not has absolutely no bearing on whether or not it is sinful before God.  God exists, and He is the standard of righteousness.  Whether or not anyone believes this has no bearing on truth.  God has condemned homosexuality as a sin in the Bible.  It is a sin that needs to be repented of, the same as any other sin, and the only way to receive forgiveness is through Jesus Christ.

Time seems to go by so fast around here and it seems I hardly have time to think, let alone blog about it! Almost all the kids came down with a nasty cold about two weeks ago. We have had orthodontic appointments, dentist appointments, a cleft lip clinic in Boise, the local fireman breakfast (where the kids sang)  and doctor’s appointments. We have been walking the dogs at the animal shelter and went to one of their meetings to give our ideas on fund raising for the shelter. AND we have adopted another dog! Charli is going to be a gift for Grandma when she comes in December.

Charli was found tied to a tree at an R.V. park! The baling twine was so tight, they had to cut it off. She was born with just one eye and it turns out, was pregnant. She is home from the vet now and settling in. The kids just love her to pieces and she weighs just 8 and a half pounds and is supposed to be a Lhasa Apso . We can’t wait for Grandma to get here to meet her.

Anyway, that is the Reader’s Digest condensed version of what has happened this past month in our family. A dear friend of mine asked me to write about large families…what we have to give up because we choose to have a lot of children and what we gain instead. Here are a few of my thoughts on the subject.

When a child comes out of trauma, any kind of trauma, life is hard. Trauma doesn’t necessarily have to mean living in a third world country in an understaffed orphanage, or living through an earthquake or other natural disaster. Trauma can simply be a young mother who doesn’t know how to properly care for her child and that child going to foster care.

When a child is taken from the biological family, for whatever reason, there is trauma. No. Matter. What. It’s just the way it is. However, if the child is loved and properly cared for and their needs are consistently met, there can be healing. However, in our family, the healing is happening at a snail’s pace most days.

RAD children can look SO charming and cute to the person who doesn’t live with them. Often, they are so good at what they do that the blame for the problem in the family is often put on the mother, since she is the person who has the most contact with the child and can see the manipulation and the lies. But beneath all that charm and cuteness lies a beast just waiting to be unleashed.

There are so many layers of hurt and rejection that the child finds it difficult and even physically painful to allow themselves to be loved. If they let themselves be loved, then everything that they have believed up to that point has been a lie. They can’t let go of the lies of the past because that would be like letting go of their dream of being reunited with a family that either doesn’t want them or isn’t equipped to care for them.

We have a child who is in a major struggle right now. For the past few months, this child has had to earn each privilege. Even the privilege of going upstairs alone to put their laundry away or get their school books off the shelf. The reason for this is because of the sneaky, deceptive, and destructive behavior that has been shown in the past. She has been doing great being right by my side. And slowly, she has been earning things back. First, being allowed to read books or play by my side. Then, in the past few weeks, by being trusted to go upstairs alone to put laundry away and get school books. The past two days, she has been allowed to go upstairs alone to get the yarn and crochet hook to crochet.

I am also leaving for a few days to visit my Mom, so that means a change with just Dad here. Dad has no routine, so life is very unpredictable, which is scary for a child who has had enough of an unpredictable life. So, to show me that she is feeling kind of scared about the change coming up, she cut some of the blanket her sister had been making since June and then lied and said she didn’t do it. MAJOR meltdown…feeling sorry for herself…beating herself up…saying she always ruins everything. But..this is all a choice…it’s all believing the lie that she had been told for most of her life. Believing that she is bad because the only mom she ever remembers having told her that nearly every day of her life!! It wasn’t enough that she lost her biological family, but the family she was given to that was supposed to protect and love her…damaged her even more!!

So, while I am loving her and showing her how a Mom should react…with calm and love and mercy…towards a child who messes up…I AM ANGRY!! I am angry that the family she was given to for adoption was even allowed to have a home study in the first place. I am ANGRY that no one stopped the physical and emotional and mental abuse that my daughter suffered for 6 YEARS at the hands of these people, who got her as a one year old baby!!!

So, we are working on instilling in our children that they do NOT have to let their past define who they become in the future. They have choices in how they will behave and if they continue to make bad choices, there will be consequences. For my daughter, she is back to no privileges…which isn’t that bad since she loves to be my shadow anyway…just like a toddler would.