As for being "gay"....

[Featherbop]

Most certainly, definately, absolutely, irrefutably, yes.

 

[Homeskillet]

CAN they? Yeah...sure...many people do.

What exactly does that prove though? Nothing really if you ask me.

 

[Featherbop]

CAN they? Yeah...sure...many people do.

What exactly does that prove though? Nothing really if you ask me.

It proves that noone has to be gay. You aren't forced to be, born with it, naturally inclined to it....

If attraction can be controlled, then everyone has a choice. Which they do of course.

 

[Quath]

If you can choose, can a heterosexual imagine if they had to chose a same sex partner and find them attractive. I don't think I could find a man attractive no matter how hard I tried.

I think you have some choice but not too much. Like I have a hard time being attracted to overweight women (even though I have dated a couple in the past). But I can see through to their inner beauty. But it still makes it hard to feel the attraction.

Quath

 

[Featherbop]

The point is that there is choice at the core of this issue. influence is very strong, and so is attraction, but these things can be overcome.

I have done it myself.

 

[PastorFreud]

Heterosexuality and homosexuality are social constructs. The human experience encompasses many factors. Some people have a very fluid sexuality. Others not so much.

But homosexual attraction and sometimes experimentation is a normal part of heterosexual development. And sometimes a sexual addiction has been misclassified as homosexuality because it happens to focus on the same sex. I'm skeptical of creating these artificial notions of "choice."

 

[Gary]

Droopfeather: The point is that there is choice at the core of this issue.

Gary: Spot on! It is only people who have to try defend homosexuallity who have to be wishy on the very simple question you posed.

 

[PastorFreud]

Droopfeather: The point is that there is choice at the core of this issue.

Gary: Spot on! It is only people who have to try defend homosexuallity who have to be wishy on the very simple question you posed.

Choice is NOT at the core of this issue. You may have choice on how you act on your attractions, but you do not have choice about being attracted.

Now we can hook you up to some conditioning ala A Clockwork Orange and change you, but it IS changing you from what came naturally to you to a new, conditioned response. Sometimes the body has a mind of its own. I could get sexually excited shopping for brocolli when I was 15. That did not make me a veggiesexual.

 

[PastorFreud]

And it is only those bent on attacking homosexuality that oversimply the complexity of sexuality to something like "choice."

They shall know we are Christians by what we attack?

 

[Gary]

Thoughts => actions

Attraction => thoughts => more thoughts => possible actions => more thoughts => more possible actions => action => habit => attraction etc etc

At many points along that line you have CHOICES.

 

[cubedbee]

At many points along that line you have CHOICES.

I agree 100%. But not at the very first point of the line, which is attraction.

 

[stray bullet]

No, you don't choose. Attraction and desireare just something that occurs around puberty, with little choice involved.

 

[willow the wip]

with some people attraction comes after marrage.

when i first saw my wife i was not attracted to her.

She kissed me first, no were in the Bible dose it talk about Boyfriend/Girlfriend relationship

It said that if you cant remain single you should be married.

this is why people are married.

In some countrys married is not a Choice it is arranged in Ghana people do not get married they are arranged if the world did this then prehaps we would not have an out brate of Aids.

 

[JM]

People can choose to continue in sin once they are saved, sin patterns are deep and rooted in our nature but the Holy Spirit can guide and give us the power to over come.

 

[PastorFreud]

At many points along that line you have CHOICES.

I agree 100%. But not at the very first point of the line, which is attraction.

Correct. There are several points where we can choose our response, but the initial attraction may be beyond your control. If it were simple to "choose," then I challenge you to find someone who is unattractive and decide to genuinely be attracted to that person. You might be able to condition yourself over time, but that is not the same as "choosing."

Now on the other hand, I don't trust that everyone who claims to be homosexual is validly homosexual. Some people are terribly confused. As I stated above, homosexual attraction and even experimentation can be a part of normal heterosexual development. A person claiming to be gay, especially if under 25, may just be in a normal developmental phase. Also, those who have been molested or abused may have arrested development. Sexual addicts may become obsessed with same sex relations, but once the addiction is dealt with may or may not be gay. And then some are very fluid in sexuality and more bisexual than either of the extremes would allow. About 2-3% of the population is genuinely homosexual, and for them this is normal and not the result of choices, environment, sin, etc. etc.

 

[bob]

Let's look at facial features. I'll pick two actresses who look nothing alike. Some might think I am goofy, but I find Sissy Spacik(sp) more attractive than Julia Roberts. Why? Did I chose to be more attracted to Sissy over Julia? Did I decide one day that I'll like a particular type of face over another? As it has been stated already, I could not chose to be attracted to men. I am not attracted to men, at all. Well, Tom Sellek perhaps, but who wouldn't be attracted to Tom Sellek? :o

 

[kdet]

And some people are only attacted to underage children but that doesn't mean that we allow pedophilia to take place, now does it?

 

[bob]

And some people are only attacted to underage children but that doesn't mean that we allow pedophilia to take place, now does it?

What the...? What are you talking about? Are you talking to me?
It may be wise to actually formulate a thought from beginning to end before posting it for all to see. I have no idea what pedophilia has to do with Sissy Spacik, Tom Sellek, or homosexuality.

 

[kdet]

It has to do with you making a statement that people can't help who they are attracted to and while that might be true that does not excuse people doing things that are wrong and sinful.

 

[PastorFreud]

This thread is not about that issue, Kdet. This thread has focused on whether you can choose what you are attracted to. You can choose how you act or don't act on your attractions, but the attraction itself is not something you choose. Pedophiles don't "choose" to be attracted to children, btw. Treatment of pedophiles is more a strategy of learning new responses to the attraction, you can't really change it. Likewise, attempts to change homosexual's orientations have been shown as not very successful when the research was done under controlled conditions and with proper definitions of sexual attraction.

If you want to bark up a different tree, that's in a different thread.