Hi there, 

The whole debate hangs on what you personally believe in and adhere to. For some of us it is God´s Word, understood as the Bible and all that it has to say on any particular issue. 

If you are a Bible believing Christian and want to personally live your life in accordance with God´s word and the light you receive from it, then it is pretty difficult to ignore the fact that nowehere are same sex relationships actually condoned. But there are a number of passages that do condemn such relationships. 

Now, as we are not living in a closed shop society like the Israelites did, we cannot compell our view on any collective or group if their base belief is not Bible based. That is obvious. We can only pray that more and more people will come to a saving knowledge and submission to God in His Word and live in the power of the Holy Spirit. Incidentally this is the power that "empowers you" to live a life that pleases God. You cannot even hope to win over sin if you are not filled with the Spirit. That is the key and the message. Living a christian life in your own human strength is absolutely useless AND VERY FRUSTRATING TO BOOT!. You have no power to sustain victory in your own strength. For that reason ALL sin can only be defeated by living constantly under the power of the Holy Spirit. And when you do you begin to discern God´s heart on all such matters and you begin to see things from God´s point of view in a clearer way. So I say to those who are calling themselves Christians and yet indulge in same sex relationships that this is because you lack the power to win over this particular weakness. So you have to try and find a reason that condones something you can´t change in your own power. The key then is to submit to the Holy Spirit, adore Him as you do the Father and the Son and tell Him you want His infilling to win over sin and to be made more like Jesus. 

I guess some of you will think I´m mad. Believe me, I know from personal experience about this and I know it is the heart of the Gospel and the heart of God´s victory over the sin we founder in. I don´t condem anyone, I encourage you towards victory and towards hearing God´s heart on these issues. But I have yet to see any heated Christian debate about the current world economic crisis and the inmense greed we have nurtured in our midst and allowed in our society go unchecked. Comparatively speaking the effects of greed have had a much wider damaging effect than the ethical debate about same sex partnerships. My main worry is that, like the abortion debate, Christians have lost the battle, we lost it in many other areas. We are losing the battle over sin generally. The ONLY way to win is Spirit filling. 

I hope to have helped here. If I haven´t or have offended anyone the offence is only because I hold very firm views, not from personal animosity towards any of you or what you believe or do.