And I’ll do that, right now! But my question, Laurie, is why it would be harder to pray for a homosexual than for any other sinner. Granted, the “anchovies on pizza” analogy makes sense; it’s repulsive in ways that some other sins aren’t…but is that because we (perhaps subconsciously) go too easy on other sins, rather than that we go too hard on that particular one?

Email communication, which is how I’ve done it so far, was pretty easy; I had time to ponder my approach, choose my words carefully, etc. I didn’t have to worry about my facial expressions (that’s my biggest problem!) or tone. You are very right that Christians have done a poor job, on the whole, in their approach to this, so I stopped for a minute to think about why that is.

I grew up in a conservative, Christian household; homosexuality was not something we encountered, knew much about, or thought about very often, but there was no doubt in my mind what my parents, church, society thought about it. The idea of homosexuality is a square peg to the round holes in my brain, it doesn’t fit, and there’s not much incentive for me to try to make it fit; it goes completely against my conscience and is about as attractive as nails on a chalkboard or anchovies on pizza. I can’t help my reaction to it any more than they can probably help theirs, so the only thing I can do is try to control it. For me it’s not a prideful issue: I don’t think of it in terms of I’M glad I’M not like the homosexuals, but more of a thankfulness that it’s not something I’m drawn to because I see what a powerful temptation it is for some.

I agree with Jack Brooks statement on Treatise #6, about homosexuality not being a private issue if God has destroyed whole communities because of it; for that reason I pray against it, asking forgiveness for our nation for its growing acceptance of this sinful lifestyle. At the same time, though, praying for that doesn’t help my attitude toward that sin, and by association, the sinner. What I probably need to start doing is praying for the sinner himself, as it’s difficult to have a poor attitude toward someone you’re praying for. It’s not an easy balance to achieve, for me anyway, so what I would ask is prayer from all of you for God to help me achieve the right balance.

I don’t have a clue, Laurie, I honestly don’t. If you can’t get it to work, send it to me via email, and I’ll post it myself, and DARE it to call my post spam!!!