It's funny how we do things.

I've just followed a link up from a good friend's blog to see who one of his posters is, since the guy is a regular these days, and his posts are genuine.

He's gay, married to another man and is in bible college. There is moderate length explanation of why the scriptures in the old testament about homosexuality don't count and how the scriptures in the new testament are ambiguous when viewed in the light of a loving homosexual relationship. I read it because I hoped for more insight from both a scriptural and a cultural POV into the place of gays in the church and how we can relate to them. I don't agree with the reasoning or the caveats as to why it should be acceptable, but that's OK, because he's living his own life and he stands or falls before God for his own actions. I can accept him on that basis.

But there's something I struggled with which doesn't fit.

The blog is full of sexualised images of young men and also priests juxtaposed with a statue of a crucified Jesus that, in the context, has sadistic/masochistic overtones.

If I scattered bikini pictures borrowed from Wicked Weasel around my blog or posted cameltoe shots (NSFW - don't google either of these if you don't know what it means) people might start to question the depth and meaning of my faith. And here is a man asking the reader to take his love and devotion to Jesus (and his partner) seriously.

Once again the phrase "I dunno" seems appropriate. I have to deal with the desire to see attractive sexualised women as much as the next (straight) man, but somehow putting them out on display and, I suppose, giving in to that side of things seems like firmly stepping into the other camp. And both Jesus and Paul may have been even more ambiguous about net porn than they were about homosexual practice - after all, it's just pixels with no real woman directly involved at all. Isn't it?

Or maybe this was just a clue that despite the request for grace, there are real issues under the surface after all? The dichotomy that can't be hidden.

It's funny how we do things.