I occasionally receive a letter of criticism for PPL’s stand in opposition to homosexual behavior. The criticism is based on the belief that the life and sexuality issues are separate and PPL should tend to its own business–or calling.

But we find that tending to the life issues has us stumbling over the issues of sexuality continually. Abortion is the natural consequence of so-called sexual liberation. There are the very obvious links between sexual sin and abortion. The latter is, in almost every case, an effort to avoid the "undesirable" consequences of the former.

The link with homosexuality is not as obvious because homosexual relationships do not yield either wanted or unwanted pregnancies. It is the idea that all sexual relationships should be based solely on the principle of mutuality, and not on moral right or wrong, that forms the most basic link between homosexuality and abortion. The issues of life and death and the issues of sexual behavior, in our time, are being transformed from moral matters to "justice" issues. To so misconstrue the notion of justice that it becomes contrary to God’s moral law is to supplant order with chaos.This is the most common ground for the link between sexuality and life issues.

Loud and adamant voices in the society–but even more disastrously in the Church–want to replace biblical truth with ideas that satisfy their "itching ears" (2 Tim. 4:3-4).

Perceived "rights" take precedence over moral right. Mainline denominations already officially teach the "right" of abortion. And there is a very strong push to declare the "right" not only of homosexual behavior, but also of any sexual behavior that Scripture condemns. These efforts put the Church in disrepute and render her witness unfaithful.

This loss of the Church’s faithful and clear message regarding moral truth has disastrous effects in the lives of human beings. Encouraging the affirmation of any sin encourages participation in it. And sin always has a serious cost that its advocates cannot pay.

Jay Budzizewski writes in his book What We Can’t Not Know: A Guide that those who do not seek resolution for their sin in God’s mercy are compelled to find ways to justify the sin. Community is important to justifying sin, he says, and so we see campaigns develop to recruit and convert others to acceptance of sin. It is as if a majority vote can render a sin un-sinful. His explanation is insightful. Most abortion advocates I've talked with eventually reveal a deep desire to justify an abortion decision: their own or someone close to them. Budzezewski suggests that it is guilt that drives the campaigns to persuade us all that abortion is a moral good for those who choose it, and homosexual–and other aberrant sexual practice–is a moral good for those who practice it.

Yet the guilt remains. It remains because it is more than a feeling that can be manipulated. It remains because it is a real condition of the heart and soul in real people. A caring Church will recognize the condition and treat it with the Gospel. Not with silence or tolerance or anger or flight. We in the Church need to resist the temptation to make peace with guilt’s campaign to transform our culture in these areas of moral life. We need to stand against it, as Scripture says, in the firm clothing of the Gospel.