Think of it this way. Most churches welcome sinners, which is a good thing, because sinners we all are. However, in the end, it should not be sinners who walk out of church. The church is not there to keep us down in our sins no matter what those sins are. We want to be raised up.
Anyone ever go to church and tell the priest, rabbi, or minister, "Please make sure I walk out with all my sins intact."
So you achieved a sinless state by going to church?
Not meaning to be offensive, I just want to know if there is a church that believes that?
I grew up a Baptist and watched my Baptist mom and my Baptist dad go to church only rarely, but smoke and drink beer every day, which was a sin in the Baptist religion. I thought drinking was a sin in every religion. I was briefly interested in the religion and started going to church on my own on Sundays, walking until I was old enough to drive.
But in college, I took up drinking to be social and for the enjoyment of the alcohol. I felt I could no longer go to church because I didn't care to be a hypocrit like my parents, dragging myself out of bed after a night of drinking to go to church and say amen, when the preacher excoriated drinkers.
If had known that there were Christian churches who were tolerant of drinking, I would have likely stayed in. In Round Rock, Texas, there is a church which is non-denomination, but seems similary to the Lutheran church, which takes a moderationist position. When my wife and I visited, they served mimosas and Bloody Marys to the guests.
Seems like a great way to attract new members who may not be so moderate on Saturday night. It would seem that steering that young man to a church that takes the same approace to homosexuality as it does heterosexuality, i.e. no sexual debauchery, but sex in a monogamous relationship not frowned on, rather than telling he is welcome but he must stop all sexual activity, or worse find an unsuspecting woman and try to "become straight" would bring more sinners to Jesus.
