Oxymoronic 'homosexual Christians' focus of report (OneNewsNow.com)

Oxymoronic 'homosexual Christians' focus of Barna report

Jim Brown - OneNewsNow - 6/29/2009 7:20:00 AM

survey A conservative activist is questioning some of the conclusions Christian researcher George Barna reached in his "Spiritual Profile of Homosexual Adults."

The new Barna survey of homosexual adults finds that 27 percent qualify as born-again Christians and 43 percent have an "orthodox, biblical perception of God." According to Barna, "People who portray gay adults as godless, hedonistic, Christian bashers are not working with the facts. A substantial majority of gays cite their faith as a central facet of their life, consider themselves to be Christian, and claim to have some type of meaningful personal commitment to Jesus Christ active in their life today."

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Results from our related poll

Why is it impossible to have a 'meaningful, personal commitment' to Christ

and still practice the sin of homosexuality?

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Peter LaBarbera, president of Americans for Truth About Homosexuality, believes Barna speaks "too cavalierly" about "homosexual Christians."

"My test is [to] substitute another sexual sin and see if it makes sense. Would we be talking about a survey of porn-using Christians or incestuous Christians? That sounds stark, but that's, I believe, the appropriate biblical analogy," he contends.

Barna, LaBarbera says, is naïve if he thinks the homosexual activist movement is not made up of "hedonistic Christian bashers."

"I think there are Christians who struggle with the sin of homosexuality -- but proud homosexual Christians? That's an oxymoron to me in the same way as I would say proud adulterous Christians," he adds. "And so, I think we have to be very careful because I see the tactic of the Emergent Church and the Christian left is to start talking more Peter LaBarbera and more about 'gay Christians,' and what they end up doing is demonizing the so-called 'Religious Right' and saying that the Religious Right is all wrong in the way it has talked about homosexuality."

A book by Barna Group president Dave Kinnaman titled UnChristian contends that "hostility toward gays has become virtually synonymous with the Christian faith;" however, LaBarbera says he does not know any born-again Christians who hate homosexuals.

In his comments on the survey's findings, Barna notes that most homosexuals who have some history within the Christian church have rejected orthodox teachings and principles -- but in many cases, no more than have heterosexual Christians. "Although there are clearly some substantial differences in the religious beliefs and practices of the straight and gay populations, there may be less of a spiritual gap between straights and gays than many Americans would assume," he states. Of the more than 9,200 adults interviewed for the survey, 280 self-identified as being homosexual. (Read Barna's entire report)