Steph:

I love how critics like to use the term gay bashing and say the Bible is being treated as a reference book by those who want to discuss moral standards and then import ideas they like into what it says, ignoring aspects of what the Bible actually says. God was there for all, in Jesus' work. It is to be appropriated; it is not the product of entitlement. Jesus said as much to Nicodemus when he spoke of the necessity of being born again. Part of that appropriation is recognzing that we sin, all of us. Paul described where we were when he commented on the state of Roman culture in his time at the end of Romans 1 (vv 18-32). Part of what is so painful about the current discussion (and yes, tedious) is that people are slow to recognize we all have need of what Jesus provides, but that it is not something we get simply by being born. Receiving what God offers in Jesus also means gaining a moral sense about what pleases God. You can't have Paul saying it is there for all and ignore what he says about morality. 

dlb