I think the Lutheran church has been courageous in voting that way, but given the gradual realization that same sex relationships are not anything but what is 'normal' in nature, the question is really why other churches and other faiths have been so vicious in their condemnation and persecution of people in same sex relationships.

If the guidance to all people, gay or straight, is to be faithful, supportive, chaste and morally responsible, then the fact that clergy are living in such relationships- gay or straight- should make no difference.There is one other point. There is a complete obsession with sexual mores in Christianity, in my view, at least in part down to the view that sexual knowledge- and awareness- is part of the Fall of Adam and Eve.

But if you do not recognize the 'Fall' but think the story of Adam and Eve is there to tell us how we got into the real world, then you start from a different standpoint If you then take the view that sex is there for humanity to enjoy and to benefit from, and that all the rules that apply to other forms of behavior- integrity, trust, honesty, faithfulness- apply to sexual relationships, we come to a more sensible approach to sex and its undoubted power to move and compel us to behave in a variety of different ways.

My favourite verse- or perhaps verses- are Isaiah chapter 42 verses 6-7.
It's really verse 7 I love:

I the Lord have called you in righteousness, and will hold your hand, and will support you, and set you as a covenant for all peoples, to be a light to the nations, To open the blind eyes, to bring the prisoners out of the prison, and those who dwell in darkness out of the dungeon...

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Physicians' primary obligations are to their patients, without a doubt.

They have other obligations, of course, including to wider society, to their professional colleagues, both physicians and other health care professionals, to their employing institutions, and to their own ethical codes (which may or may not accord completely with their personal religious convictions.) We know that many physicians have strong moral objections to carrying out certain procedures for religious reasons-- e.g. Catholics and abortion. But they must tell their patients that that is the case, and be honest with them. And they must advise them to go elsewhere if the patients hold other and differing religious views. To pretend that physicians' own religious views trump those of their patients or wider society is both arrogant and wrong headed.

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