CHENG: As an openly-gay theologian, ordained Christian minister and seminary professor at the Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, I agree that the truth will make us free. However, the anti-gay Christians have it backwards. As the groundbreaking events of 2010 have demonstrated, it is actually the truth of the fundamental goodness of LGBT people and our lives that will make us free. Ironically, this truth also will free anti-gay Christians of their own heterosexist prejudices and theological blind spots.

VOL: There is none righteous no not one...So He (Jesus) said to him, "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. (Mt. 19: 17). The main point that Jesus taught the rich man was that he couldn't achieve God's state of perfection. Therefore, he couldn't obtain eternal life by his own good works.

No, the orthodox don't have it backwards at all. The truth indeed makes us free and it can liberate homosexuals and lesbians from their sexual bondage. There are numerous stories of liberated people Cheng doesn't want to hear or know about. It is his, not the orthodox's fault for not listening to their stories. (Full page newspaper ads were taken out several years ago by redeemed couples to make that point). So-called "groundbreaking events" neither prove nor disprove Cheng's case. No, we don't have "heterosexist prejudices and theological blind spots" that require liberating, either. The blind spots and the rewriting of Scripture to make it fit the gay agenda is what Cheng is doing.

CHENG: What were some of the truths about the goodness of LGBT people and our lives that were demonstrated in 2010? In August, the first fully-litigated U.S. federal court trial about same-sex marriage concluded that there was no rational basis for prohibiting LGBT people from entering into civil marriage. The trial court struck down California Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot initiative that stripped LGBT people in California of the right to marry. Judge Vaughn R. Walker's ruling demonstrated the truth that LGBT civil marriages are grounded in the same ethical values of love, mutual caring and commitment as non-LGBT civil marriages.

VOL: No, it only proves that the highly funded, well-oiled gay PR machine did a brilliant job conning the masses into believing that their behavior, which shortens men's lives and can cause premature death, has worked its way into the warp and woof of American culture. Also, Judge Walker is gay. Why did he not recuse himself? Furthermore, there are many levels at which heterosexual and homosexual marriages are not remotely the same. See information at this link: http://www.catholic.com/library/gay_marriage.asp or here: http://tinyurl.com/2ezbkmo

CHENG: In September, after a rash of horrific suicides by young gay men across the United States, the openly-gay author and syndicated columnist Dan Savage and his husband Terry Miller started the "It Gets Better Project." This project has resulted in more than 5,000 Internet videos of LGBT people and our allies, speaking directly -- and giving hope -- to suffering LGBT young people around the world. Each video tells the truth about how even though many of us suffered at the hands of bullies and bigots while growing up, our lives ultimately have become better in the process of coming out and speaking the truth about our lives to the world.

VOL: Suicide is a tragedy. Bullying and bigotry is wrong. No Christian calling themselves a Christian should have any part in such activity. Perhaps, if these young men had sought reparative therapy taking a long hard look at their failed parental relationships, the outcome might have been different. Stop blaming straight people for the distorted sexuality of gays and lesbians.

CHENG: In December, the U.S. Congress authorized -- and President Obama signed into law -- the repeal of the Don't Ask, Don't Tell statute that had prohibited openly lesbian and gay soldiers from serving in the U.S. military for the past 17 years. The repeal was based upon overwhelming evidence that allowing lesbians and gays to serve openly in the military would have no adverse consequences to national security. In fact, the evidence showed that encouraging truth telling by lesbian and gay soldiers would actually enhance the effectiveness of our armed forces.

VOL: A lot of Americans believe Obama did neither the military nor military chaplains any kind of favor. 23.7% of surveyed Service members (38.1 percent of Marines) said repealing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" would cause them to leave [the military] sooner than they planned or think about leaving sooner than they had planned. Some 44.3% of combat veterans (59.4 percent of Marines) said that having an open homosexual in their immediate unit in the field or at sea would "negatively" or "very negatively" affect their "unit's effectiveness at completing its mission".

Chaplain Gordon James Klingenschmitt commented thusly, "...pass strong laws protecting the rights of Christian troops (especially chaplains) to openly speak their opinions about what the Bible calls sin, to refuse common showers, sleeping quarters and 'social re-education' without repercussion, guaranteeing religious freedom even outside of chapel services. If free speech and free religion rights of Christian chaplains and troops are not protected, then the military is not ready to certify or implement repeal, and will quickly begin to persecute good people of Christian conscience."

While this new morality may be orthodoxy among our elites in the academy, media, culture and the arts, Middle America has never signed on and still regards homosexuality as an aberrant lifestyle, both socially and spiritually ruinous, opined another orthodox voice.

CHENG: As most of us learned from an early age, telling the truth is a virtue and not a vice. There were a number of other encouraging examples in 2010 of speaking the truth about LGBT people. For example, in September a Florida state court struck down an anti-gay statute that expressly prohibited LGBT people from adopting children in that state. Shortly thereafter, the Florida Department of Children and Families declined to appeal the decision, thus conceding the truth of that ruling.

VOL: There is increasing evidence that children growing up in same-sex households are at greater risk for abuse than heterosexual couples. See this scholarly report here: http://tinyurl.com/2apkuuq

CHENG: In December, the United Nations spoke the truth by voting to protect LGBT people around the world from extrajudicial killings and arbitrary executions, notwithstanding the strenuous objections of a number of member countries. Even Pope Benedict XVI, in a recent book-length interview with a German journalist, took a first step toward speaking the truth about LGBT people by saying that the intentional use of condoms by a male prostitute to prevent HIV/AIDS infection could be the "first step in the direction of moralization."

VOL: We agree with the UN resolution. Homosexuals should not be killed or executed just for being gay. The Pope's words on condoms have been misconstrued. Allow me to correct the record about what he said and meant. "Some commentators have interpreted the words of Benedict XVI according to the so-called theory of the 'lesser evil'. This theory is, however, susceptible to proportionalistic misinterpretation (cf. John Paul II, Encyclical Letter 'Veritatis splendor', n. 75-77). An action which is objectively evil, even if a lesser evil, can never be licitly willed. The Holy Father did not say - as some people have claimed - that prostitution with the use of a condom can be chosen as a lesser evil. The Church teaches that prostitution is immoral and should be shunned. However, those involved in prostitution who are HIV positive and who seek to diminish the risk of contagion by the use of a condom may be taking the first step in respecting the life of another - even if the evil of prostitution remains in all its gravity. This understanding is in full conformity with the moral theological tradition of the Church."

CHENG: Interestingly, anti-gay Christians love to cite over and over again the half-dozen or so verses in the Bible that purportedly condemn same-sex acts as sinful. However, they ignore the nearly 200 verses in the Bible that emphasize the importance of truth-telling from a theological and ethical perspective, not to mention the explicit prohibition of bearing false witness against one's neighbors in the Ten Commandments.

VOL: There is no possible connection between the Scripture's condemnation of homosexual behavior and "bearing false witness." Exactly what false witness are orthodox Christians declaring? Saying that sodomite behavior is unbiblical, unhealthy and distorted behavior? Is the Pope bearing false witness in his church's condemnation of this behavior as "objectively disordered?" Is telling the truth that anal sex has within it 23 known sexually transmitted diseases (See CDC website) "bearing false witness". Rubbish.

CHENG: These anti-gay Christians would do better to heed the stern biblical warnings against bearing false witness. Recently, the venerable Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) officially designated 13 anti-gay Christian groups -- including the American Family Association, the Family Research Council and the Traditional Values Coalition -- as "hate groups" for spreading "known falsehoods" against LGBT people. Another five groups -- including the Concerned Women for America, Liberty Counsel and the National Organization for Marriage -- were cited for their use of "demonizing propaganda" against sexual minorities on the SPLC's website. Anti-gay Christians, including those who are affiliated with the above groups mentioned by the SPLC, would do well to read more closely the first chapter of letter of St. Paul to the Romans. In particular, they should read Romans 1 as applying to themselves. Often that chapter is used solely as "proof" of the sinfulness of LGBT people. What anti-gay Christians seem to forget, however, is the traditional doctrine of original sin, as articulated in Romans and interpreted by theologians such as Augustine of Hippo onwards, applies to all people -- including themselves.

VOL: They are NOT hate groups. THAT is bearing false witness. What "known falsehoods" are they spreading...that anal sex is dangerous to your health, that more gay men commit suicide than straight men? That they have higher incidences of alcoholism and depression than straight folk? It was homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood (men having sex with young men aged 11-17), not pedophiles, as is falsely reported, that has brought down cardinals, bishops and sent dioceses into bankruptcy, forcing the Pope to offer numerous mea culpa's over his priests' behavior.

CHENG: What if the warning of Romans 1:18-21 against the "ungodliness" and "wickedness" of those who "suppress the truth" -- and those whose "senseless minds" are "darkened" -- actually referred to those anti-gay Christians who fail to acknowledge the truth and empirical evidence about the fundamental goodness and loving nature of LGBT people and our relationships?

VOL: This is a total spin and an abuse of scripture, exegetically unsound and without one single theologian to support it. I defy Cheng to produce one theologian of any stature from Karl Barth to N.T. Wright (and please don't roll out a lightweight like William Countryman) who would support such an interpretation of these texts. This is turning scripture on its head to fit the procrustean bed of Cheng's own sexual proclivities and behavior.

CHENG: What if the "lusts," "impurity" and "degrading" actions (including "exchanging the truth about God for a lie") as described in Romans 1:24-25 actually referred to the lust for political power, wealth and idolatrous self-worship as exhibited by many anti-gay Christians, some of whom scapegoat LGBT people as a convenient way of diverting attention from their own sexual sins?

What if the condemnation of the "shameless acts" committed with "one another" and the "debased mind" described by St. Paul in Romans 1:27-28 actually referred to the brutal gang rape (metaphorically speaking) of LGBT people by anti-gay Christian hate speech - hate speech that has resulted in numerous queer bashings and suicides by LGBT people, including innocent young people whose lives were tragically cut off before reaching their prime?

VOL: Sexual sin is sexual sin, whether it is heterosexual or homosexual. No one is justifying fornication or adultery. TEC is still officially on board opposing adultery though resolution D039 has done away with fornication as a prevailing sin if you are in a "committed, life-long relationship" without benefit of marriage. The link between violence against gays by heterosexuals is minimal at best. When Lambeth Resolution 1:10 was passed in 1998 a number of orthodox African bishops were set upon by gays in the West.

CHENG: Although admirable progress was made during 2010 with respect to basic human rights for LGBT people, much more needs to be done. In particular, the rise of state-sanctioned anti-LGBT violence in other parts of the world, including the Middle East, Asia and Africa, is frightening. For example, the upcoming vote by the Uganda legislature on its "kill-the-gays" legislation is one example of this state-sanctioned violence that must be condemned by people of faith everywhere.

VOL: No honest Christian supports legislation in any country that "kills gays". A nation (like Uganda) has a legislative right to say that if a man knowingly transmits a fatal disease like HIV/AIDS to another human being that he should punished for it.

CHENG: As LGBT people, we must remain ever vigilant and hopeful that the truth of the fundamental goodness, and holiness, of our lives and relationships will free us from the sinful bondage of homophobic and heterosexist oppression. However, LGBT people are not the only ones who will benefit from this truth. The truth will also free anti-gay Christians from their own heterosexist prejudices and theological blind spots -- shortcomings that would otherwise prevent them from entering fully into the reign of God.

VOL: There is nothing "good" or "holy" about anal sex. Orthodox Christians must remain vigilant and keep telling the truth even if it means being screamed at that they are homophobic and lack inclusion because the souls (and bodies) of pansexualists are worth salvaging and saving.

The Rt. Rev. William Wantland, the former Bishop of Eau Claire, put it succinctly when he said, "I am deeply disturbed by the action of a number of heterophobic bigots, who encourage homosexuals to engage in a practice which is cruel and deadly. 91% of all male homosexuals engage in anal sodomy. Regular practice of anal sodomy will shorten human life an average of 26 years, even without factoring in AIDS. These people, purporting to act in the name of the Church, are as evil as those who would give whiskey to alcoholics. What 815 2nd Ave. (the national church's headquarters in New York City) is urging is death on a grand scale, and calling it care and support of their victims, without any regard for what they are doing. Don't ever say that TEC cares for or loves its homosexual members." Professor Cheng should take note.

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