Page 8B Herald-Sun Durham, N.C.
Title: Church leaders nix sex ban for singles Associated Press
RALEIGH - Presbyterian church leaders across eastern North Carolina rejected a policy Saturday that would have barred ministers and church officers from having sex outside of marriage.
Church leaders voted 172-140 against an amendment to the denomination's constitution that would require ministers, elders and deacons to be faithful in marriage or chaste in singleness.
[An interesting quote was also contained later in the article]
"I bear witness to the ministry, leadership and faithfulness of gay and lesbian Presbyterians," said Jeanette Stokes, a Durham minister who pinned a piece of purple cloth to her black turtleneck as a sign of solidarity. "They are our ministers. They are our elders. They are our deacons. They are us. Do not vote to exclude these people who are already an integral part of our body."
Some related scriptures follow:
Leviticus 18:22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it [is] abomination.
Leviticus 20:13 If a man also lie with mankind, as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood [shall be] upon them.
Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature:
Romans 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:28 And even as they did not like to retain God in [their] knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
I Corinthians 6:9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor EFFEMINATE, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
Steve Winter