How can some Christian churches justify the ordination of gays and lesbians into their priesthood.?

Because they are not true Christians.

A few things in regards to Catholicism. One, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI explicitly said that no homosexuals were to be accepted into seminaries, reiterating earlier mandates by the Church. Two, if you think Catholicism doesn't condemn the homosexual lifestyle, you live under a rock. Three, the forgiveness of sins through the Sacrament of Penance is *NOT AT ALL* dependent of the personal holiness of the Confessor because *no* human person is so meritorious that he can actually forgive sins because of that, the power instead comes from God.

Your willful ignorance of Catholicism is painful.

Out of your list i would say that Latter-day saints are not Christians in the first place. Roman Catholics do not permit allow for gay Priests. The Episcopalians have conservative offshoots that are part of the Continuing Anglican movement. They do not allow gay priests. The Presbyterians also have a conservative side denomination that does not ordain gays.

They will not ordain women either as this is just as bad.

Episcopalians do but the continuing Anglican Churches that have broke away from her do not.

One of the reasons I converted to the Catholic Church from the Protestant faith is because it does not allow female clergy and prohibits homosexuals in the priesthood. I teach in seminary and any person studying for the priesthood who is even suspected of homosexual desires is excluded from Holy Orders. It is impossible for the Cathooic Church to knowingly ordain a homosexual to the priesthood.

You misunderstand the sacrament of penance. The priest acts in persona Christi which is representing Christ so it is Christ that forgives through the priest. When Christ forgives sin it is truly forgiven.

Christ instituted the sacraments purposefully. The sacrament called reconciliation or penance is what we call our actions when we go to confession. Going to confession and confessing to a priest is the normative way of reconciling oneself back into God's family when we have committed a mortal sin. It is the biblical way corresponding to Jesus' teaching as recorded by the apostle John in John 20: 22-23. What we learn from John is the authority given to the priests is not only to forgive sins but also to retain sins. Jesus commanded the authority to be used. It is the duty given by Jesus for the priest to measure the contrition of the penitent and act accordingly.

However, one must repent and pray sincerely to God as an act of contrition before one enters the confessional. The priest represents Jesus by acting in persona Christi and for the entire family of God represented by the Church militant who is harmed by the sin of another. No sin is private but all sin affects others. Jesus described this relationship as a vine with Him as the vine and we as the branches (John 15:5). If one member of the branch is sick then all the branches are affected and suffer as a result. Because of our familial relationship with each other Jesus created a means of confession so that all those affected in His family are represented by the priest as is God. The acts of sin and forgiveness are not private matters. God bless!

In Christ

Fr. Joseph

The same way they accept any sinner into their priesthoods. Many of them are adulterers, fornicators, bearers of false witness, and can even been found shopping after church in a violation of the commandment to keep the sabbath holy. So why do you carve out gays specifically when everyone is a sinner, including the clergy?

They can justify it in the same way you justify cherry picking inconvenient verses. If a church wants to accept gays instead of being hateful, they should. Don't like it? Awww, it must be hard not to be able to suppress gays so much anymore--that's oppression, right? You people are insane.

The Catholic Church does not ordain men who act on their sexual attractions. It is not a sin to be gay, just to act on it.

I believe every word Jesus Christ said about homosexuality. What was that again? Oh, yes: "Love God and love your neighbor." I think I will follow that.

Perhaps members of these denominations are intelligent enough to realize that when petty bigotry is discovered in a holy book, being allegedly condoned by a benevolent god, a more reasonable explanation for its inclusion is as the addition of the ignorance of those who actually wrote the book, rather than being an accurate reflection of the views of the more enlightened being who supposedly inspired it.

I understand what you are saying, but I would like to share with you a favourite quote of mine that gets me back in check: "Don't judge others because they sin differently than you"

They think they have the authority to make God's word align with society. Not so!

@Joshua: The Episopalians indeed ordain gay priests. Heard of Gene Robinson, who is now a bishop?