In our "enlightened" age, we'd like to think we can do anything we want, not only without moral consequence but without health consequence as well.
We may be able to escape moral condemnation and accountability for a short while, but they will eventually catch up to us...just as health consequences will.
Even when there is no direct consequence from immoral choices, like accidents or disease, there is still a price to be paid. That price often comes in the form of mental and emotional stress.
Unless our conscience is totally seared, there remains something in us that tells us we're going the wrong way. Just as the pain we feel at an injury is there to alert us to a problem so we can fix the injury, so mental and emotional stress serve the same function as physical pain: to alert us to a problem so we can fix it.
What happens if we ignore that mental and emotional alert system? The "injury" gets worse, and the alert system screams louder.
An article from LifeSiteNews.com examines a study done by a homosexual group called Stonewall. They found what other studies have found: homosexual behavior is fraught with health risks.
The habit of "self-harming" is 50 times more likely to occur in lesbians than in the general population of women, a Scottish study has shown. 20 per cent of lesbian and bisexual women, of a total of 500 women surveyed in Scotland had deliberately harmed themselves in the last year, compared to 0.4 per cent of the general population.
The study, Prescription for Change, was conducted by the homosexual lobby organisation Stonewall. It also showed that five per cent of lesbian and bisexual women have attempted suicide in the last year.
Homosexual activists commonly interpret such statistics as support for the doctrine that it is the lack of "acceptance" from the non-homosexual world that causes the problems. Calum Irving, director of Stonewall Scotland, said, "For lesbian and bisexual women the experiences of prejudice, misunderstanding and at times hostility can damage long-term health and wellbeing."
But other research has shown that approaching homosexuality as a serious mental disorder also explains the severe depression, elevated levels of drug and alcohol abuse and self-destructive behaviour that are common among homosexuals.
Even though homosexuality was removed as a disorder from diagnostic manuals in the early 1970s, many in the psychiatric community maintain that homosexuality causes misery and that homosexual activity is a dangerous and emotionally degrading experience.
Christians aren't trying to spoil homosexuals' fun by encouraging people not to do it, just as God wasn't trying to spoil their fun when He said it was wrong.
It's a violation of God's design for human sexuality, first and foremost. But it is also a practice which brings the health risks of disease, physical injury, anxiety, depression, substance abuse and sometimes suicide or suicide attempts.
Quitting smoking or drinking can be tough, but it's necessary for good health. Leaving homosexual behavior behind can be difficult for those caught up in that sin, too. But God tells us (1 Corinthians 6:9-11) that it's possible.
God's family is full of people who once lived a life of sin, sin of varying types. All it takes to join that family of free people is to admit we were wrong, surrender our will to God's, and embrace the way of the Cross.
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