Thank you for pointing out the obvious. This is very illogical in fact. There is a solution; submit to Christ completely and be patient. God sometimes will let us fail because He is trying to achieve our utter humility and dependence on Him and an effective way to do that is let us struggle with our sin while He continues to bless us nonetheless. Remember when we recognize the sin we commit, Christ lives with in us.
Romans 7:15
What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I concur that the law is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 18For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. The willing is ready at hand, but doing the good is not.k 19For I do not do the good I want, but I do the evil I do not want. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me. 21So, then, I discover the principle that when I want to do right, evil is at hand. 22For I take delight in the law of God, in my inner self, 23l but I see in my members another principle at war with the law of my mind, taking me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Miserable one that I am! Who will deliver me from this mortal body? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore, I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God but, with my flesh, the law of sin.*
The solution of course is the Cross, but it is not a cure for the suffering caused by this ailment, the ailment of being homosexual, regardless of its origin. It only helps one to put their suffering into a good and redemptive context (not to minimize the Cross in any way). All I’m saying is that the suffering remains and must be endured. Where same-sex attraction is largely one’s fault, I can see attributing some of that suffering to one’s just deserts, but like the man who was blind from birth we cannot always attribute a person’s mental or physical condition to sin. In either case, suffering is a reality for those nailing their sexual appetites to the Cross, especially those who have little hope of ever finding a right expression for their sexuality. I would not snuff out hope for all homosexuals in someday being partially, if not wholly, restored/changed to heterosexuality, but it does not appear to be likely in some cases (I’ll leave it to you to judge what percentage of homosexuals that means).
Nailing our sex drives to the Cross is of course a continually painful thing to do, and even more so when reasonable hope of changing one’s sexual preference seems impossible. The suffering of homosexual chastity seems akin to single person and priestly/religious celibacy, especially the latter, which has no hope of ever experiencing sexual fulfillment due to the permanence of his or her vow. The main difference is that one is always unnatural. Are priests and religious unfaithful to their vows, and single persons unfaithful to chastity? The answer is undoubtedly, “Yes,” in many cases. Just as celibate homosexuals may backslide, priests and single persons may fall. In a way, only the priest and the religious are in a position to fully empathize with the celibate homosexual who sees little or no hope for changing his or her sexual identity, because both have made a deliberate choice for God over their sexual appetites, and both hold no hope for future sexual fulfillment, except by failure to live a chaste life (if that could be called “fulfillment”).
We must never fail to extend empathy and understanding to out homosexual brothers and sisters, because there is true and unavoidable suffering in their living of chaste lives. We who are not celibate, and who enjoy the married life, can only appreciate what they are going through in part. We, too, must rein in our sexual appetites during the many times in our lives when sex in marriage is not available to us. But usually this is with hope and the reasonable expectation of resuming marital relations.
All of this is not to say that God is unfair in doling out crosses to those who wish to follow Christ. All we can be sure of is that each of us is given the perfect cross, custom tailored for us, and sufficient grace to carry it. Where one person’s cross consists in this or that issue, another person’s cross consists in something altogether different. God is a fair judge, a judge who always weighs any mitigating circumstances, but also a judge who demands out complete surrender to his will, no ifs, ands, or buts, knowing that his grace is always sufficient, even for the weakest among us.
The Bible condemns homosexual conduct, and it does so in many places. Always, the Bible is clear that it condemns the behavior, i.e., a person having sex with a person of the same sex, but, as I’ve said before in this thread, in no case does the Bible condemn persons for feeling sexually attracted to persons of the same sex. Sexual orientation is not a sin. It usually is accompanied by temptation to sin. But temptation is not a sin either. Only the act of yielding to temptation is a sin. If a person lusts in his or her heart, whether heterosexual (for a person not their spouse) or homosexual, he sins. And if he or she acts on the lust they have allowed to enter their hearts, they sin again.
In both cases, heterosexual and homosexual, sexual sin is gravely evil. One is intrinsically evil, because by its very nature it is sinful, such as is masturbation. The other is natural but evil by its being outside the bonds of Holy Matrimony. Both are evil, so we shouldn’t get the idea (I’m not saying you or I do) that we’re somehow morally superior because out sins are not intrinsically evil, as if that makes them less grave.
But, that’s not the same as “requiring” that condition to be eliminated.