If you found out that a person who provided a service was a homosekual - would you end the relationship?
No.
And
Would you maintain social friendship with a homosekual?
Yes.
Would you bring them to church with you?
Yes.
Suppose you were witnessing to them - and they demanded you stop or that would end the friendship - your response?
I witness with actions and with words. I don't make a sales presentation of my faith or the gospel. I lay it out there as reality, and I make sure I live in that reality. The Holy Spirit takes care of the conviction.
In any relationship of any depth whatsoever, the spiritual issues naturally come up. I don't shy away from those subjects nor beat others over the head with them. The most important thing the other person needs to know is that you love and respect them... and that you are actually listening to and considering what they are saying, not just giving them a canned presentation.
When I am actually having a conversation about spiritual things with a person, I can rest assured that the Spirit has already been working in their lives and continues to work through people like me.
I think we need to distinguish between people who have a same-sex attraction and those who actually indulge in inappropriate sexual activity. As far as I can tell, the scripture does not address the modern concept of "sexual orientation" (same sex attraction), but instead focuses on what we actually do (or don't do) as far as sexual activity.
We could well ask the same questions you asked of heterosexual people we know who are involved in sexual activity outside of marriage. I think there is just as much sin there as in homosexual sexual activity.
One does not have direct control over sexual attraction (to the great frustration of heterosexual and homosexual people everywhere), but we do have control over what we do about it, unless we have given ourselves over to sin and have so damaged our self-control that we need to enter a structured support program. The scripture only condemns the intention to commit inappropriate sexual acts and acting upon inappropriate sexual desires*.
The homosexual community tends to push people to act on their attractions, implying that one is less than human or fulfilled unless they participate in sexual activity. To a slightly lessor degree, popular culture does the same with heterosexual men and women, essentially claiming that sexual self-control is somehow weird or psychologically damaging.
I am friends with a number of people who identify as gay/lesbian/bi-sexual and know the a number of them are likely true believers in Christ. I don't like the way they identify themselves (although they are simply going by the way popular culture likes to pidgeon-hole people, and frankly, the church doesn't really help in this area very much), but know that most of them truly struggle with these issues. Several of them have told me they live a celibate lifestyle, which I heartily approve of for
all single persons. I don't think God condemns people for things over which they have no control.
However there are ways that we can change our desires and behavior. Through the use of simple spiritual disciplines and the action of Christ in our life, we can be transformed and gain mastery over the desires of our flesh so that we can be useful in the Kingdom of God in the power of the Spirit.
And yes, I believe persons with same-sex attraction can have their desires transformed through the transformation of character. The sad thing is that the vast majority of pastors and churches know very little about how to help their congregations enter into true discipleship with Christ. The sheer number of prominent pastors whose lives are out-of-control demonstrates how grave the situation really is.
---
* I know someone is going to rightly bring up the subject of lust. Jesus speaks very strongly on the issue of lust. However many people confuse lust with inappropriate sexual desire. I think what Jesus is really teaching about lust is that lust is the desire and intent to have inappropriate sexual relations who someone if the situation presented itself and the chances of getting caught were negligible. Jesus is talking about the character of a person. There are many people who are murderers in their character, but wouldn't actually go through with it because they know they would eventually get caught and punished. There are many people who are thieves in their character, but they don't steal because of strict accounting methods and constant oversight. There are many people who are adulterers in their character (lust), who don't commit adultery because they think they might get caught. So when Jesus is talking about the issues of murder, lust, etc. in Matthew, He is talking about the issues of character and the way one's righteousness must exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees (those who simply managed to not commit the "big sins"), but instead have a character that would not commit those sins if it had the opportunity.
