Dear Editor:

Earl C. Apel argues that there is no difference between heterosexual unmarried people who are dating, holding hands and kissing and homosexuals doing the same. He asks, "what constitutes acceptable intimate behavior between two people (gay or straight) who are single?" In the case of homosexual couples the answer is very straight forward. Nothing. All homosexual activity is an abomination according to the Bible. There are no exceptions.

Genesis 2:21-24 tells us that God created woman to complete man. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and they will become one flesh." Woman was made for man and a man cannot complete himself sexually without a woman. There are fundamental biological complementarities between men and women that reflect God's design for human sexuality. Same-sex intercourse is contrary to nature because our sex organs fit male to female not male to male or female to female. Paul makes this point quite explicitly in Romans 1:26-27, "Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion." As for "other forms of expression that may be used"... that is irrelevant. Any and all expressions of homosexuality are sinful.

Believe it or not, most sessions take their responsibilities very seriously when it comes to deciding who to invite into leadership positions within the Church. The third chapter of Paul's First Letter to Timothy provides excellent guidance on who is qualified to lead the Church. I would direct Mr. Apel to versus 2-4: "Now the elder must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to much wine, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him with proper respect." Presbyterian Church in America congregations follow this prescription and these verses are read before congregations vote on nominees to the session. We could learn from them because they certainly seem to have learned from our mistakes.

Finally, Mr. Apel points to some mythical "Presbyterian tradition of agreeing to disagree agreeably..." What is he talking about? Have we "agreed to disagree" on the ordination of women? In fact, evangelicals have been far too agreeable in the past and we shall answer for that in God's time. For now, it is our calling to compel the PCUSA to live by Scripture and to take itself seriously as a Reformed church in the Calvinist tradition. That is what is unique about being Presbyterian, not how accommodating we can be to the whims and lifestyles of a sinful world or to what extent we can lolly-gaggle around musing mindlessly about "unity in diversity."