Dr. Bock,

Thank you for these recent posts, which have provided many insights to the pertinent passages addressed in the Newsweek article. You have done this in an admirable and irenic manner, even in the face of some comments which have been less than charitable towards you. As ever, you provide an exemplary model of 2 Tim 2:24-26.

My only suggestion (if I can make one, with hat in hand) would be that perhaps it might have been helpful to your readers (and to your argument) to offer further insight into the thrust of Paul's argument in Romans 1. Paul describes the practice of homosexuality among the Gentile nations as one aspect of the manifestation of God's wrath upon those nations as a result of their suppression of the truth and knowledge regarding Him. Such practices were the product of God 's just judgment of giving them over to the depraved desires of their heart, by His refusal to restrain their evil in these areas. This sets the stage for the Apostle's assertion that both Jews and Gentiles are under judgment and need the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ.

Understood in this light, Paul's condemnation of the practice cannot be restricted to just the abusive behavior of such emperors as Caligula or Nero, for he is addressing the practice among the nations as a whole. Furthermore, Paul's understanding of the core issue--the suppression and exchanging of the truth about the Creator for a lie, and the resulting loosing of divine restraint upon man's sinful inclinations--provides remarkable insight in understanding the radical shift in thinking about homosexuality in our culture...and what, according to the Apostle, lies at the core of it.

On a separate note, in response to a previous comment, this issue goes beyond gay marriage to the subject of homosexual behavior itself. Over the years I've become friends with many men involved in the gay lifestyle, and have been offered firsthand testimony as to what they've both seen and experienced in the gay community. As a result I can affirm with great conviction that there is much value in resisting any attempts to establish the homosexual relationship as being on the same moral level as the biblical ideal between a man and a woman.