What the Bible really says about homosexuality

Matthew Vines writes for the Huffington Post:

I love God. I also happen to be gay. In a better world, this would be no more interesting or noteworthy to people than loving God and happening to love, say, cheesecake. But of course, we all know that that isn't the world we live in. And for some reason, a lot of people have a big problem with anyone who believes in God and is gay. As someone who grew up in a conservative Christian church in Kansas, I am all too aware of the problem of religious homophobia.

So when reality won out during my sophomore year of college and I finally had to admit to myself that I was gay, I was both relieved and crushed -- relieved because everything that hadn't made sense about my life finally did, and because love no longer seemed like an impossibility for me, but crushed because of the likelihood that I would be rejected and lose the community I had always called home.

Two years ago, I took a leave of absence from college and committed myself to thousands of hours of research and study about the Bible and homosexuality. I wanted to figure it out, to resolve this contradiction. But as someone who has always upheld Scripture as authoritative for Christian faith, I didn't want to accept easy answers that failed to do justice to the biblical text. It took a lot of time, to say the least.

If you have an hour to spare for a worthwhile debate, watch Vines' full presentation after the jump.