I hate to rain on your parade, but if you read the standard english translation of the Bible, neither of those things are mentioned in the bible. It is correct that the Catholic translation of the bible is the closest to the original out there, other churches and religions tend to warp the words for their church (not saying other churches are bad, it's just how it is often times). there are about 10 - 20 different translations of the bible, it just depends which translation you are reading from.Ooh I talked with bb about this before and I did a bit of research into it. It turns out that the quote people always use (the one along the lines of "man shall not lie with man as he does woman") is actually in Leviticus, which is in the Old Testament. This is important because when Jesus came down to Earth, who is, let's not forget, God incarnate and thus his word is final, he actually disregarded the Old Testament, more specifically all of the random laws spread throughout there. This is why Christians ignore all of the things talked about in the links spread throughout this thread, like not shaving, going to church testicles or no testicles, and not eating bacon. This means that that quote in particular isn't even relevant any more.
Also during my research I found out two more interesting things:
1) The Bible has two gay couples in it -- Ruth x Naomi and David x Jonathan. I don't know a huge lot about them, but Ruth has her own chapters in The Bible somewhere, and David was a king. This proves that Christianity was always at the very least tolerant of gays, but I would go as far to say they advocate it...
2) There is a story in The Bible of Jesus meeting a roman soldier. This roman soldier was actually really nice, modest etc., and he talked to Jesus about one of his servants, saying that he was sick. Jesus questioned why the roman soldier cared for this servant -- after all, romans saw servants as disposable at the time. The soldier explained that he was in a relationship with this servant. Jesus then healed the servant and actually commended the roman for following his faith and beliefs despite it going against his "honour" as a roman soldier. Jesus literally praised a guy for being gay (and for approaching Jesus about his servant being sick). God, the whole point of Christianity, wants gays to follow their urges. If Christians want to be like Jesus, hating on gays is going against their faith. It's kinda funny, really.
I just found it interesting, so I thought I'd post it. n~n
Here is the English Standard Version from Matthew 8
5 When he had entered Capernaum, a centurion came forward to him, appealing to him, 6 “Lord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, suffering terribly.” 7 And he said to him, “I will come and heal him.” 8 But the centurion replied, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I too am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. And I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 10 When Jesus heard this, he marveled and said to those who followed him, “Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith. 11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven, 12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” 13 And to the centurion Jesus said, “Go; let it be done for you as you have believed.” And the servant was healed at that very moment.