I really don’t want to get sucked into a “Gay sex is evil” debate, but in basic bullet points I’ll lay a few statements against these “capacities”, judging from the hundreds of arguments on this forum concerning homosexuality I’m sure your all familiar with the pro-gay research…
Homosexuality is a natural tendency that affects approximately 5-10% of mammals of any species, including humans. The cause is still hotly contested, but most have come to accept it to be primarily genetic. We allow disabled parents to retain children (I don’t think homosexuals are disabled) but it shows the church is willing to tolerate unorthodox lifestyles and parental faults.
Homosexual sex is not going to create new life, but neither is sex between a man and a woman without a womb. Unless the latter is also barred from marriage no fair block may be brought against the former. I myself would rather see the range of people eligible for marriage widened than narrowed (I disagree that sex actually needs to be part of a marriage, it’s a nice aspect but not essential).
Yes, I am one of those moral relativists you people seem to dread so much. I agree there are some “natural” laws all human society develops (Don’t kill, Don’t steal ect) but on Homosexuality I have to disagree that it is unnatural. Until the rise of Christianity, there was no negative view placed on homosexuality at all in Celtic, Classical, Native American, Indian or even Aztec society. Indeed, the opposition to homosexuality is an almost uniquely Hebrew feature (and even then you can find some pretty homoerotic stuff in the Tanakh).
Until Christianity swept across the globe, homosexuality was not viewed as evil (There is a wonderfully detailed account from Plutarch describing Homosexual marriages, thats right, marriages in the 4th century BC in Thebes, Greece). Certainly the passive partner in male or female parings would be the butt of jokes or in the case of Athens lowered to the status of a woman (in the case of very old gay men) but they weren’t seen as morally evil by a long shot.
It seems absurd to many that God is silent on the matter of slavery but is up in arms and enraged by the idea of consensual homosexual relationships and women reading from the gospel or teaching men. It’s funny how we overlook that but fight to the death over a pair of lesbians raising a child.
Times do change, and what was once acceptable is no longer so, and what once was is no longer.