Church of Scotland - The big gay debate

Why is there such interest in the gay debate in the Church of Scotland (as well as the Anglican etc)? Other people's personal lives -especially the sex part. It is delicious gossip especially if there is a whiff of scandal about it or indeed controversy. 'Reality' TV shows like TOWIE and Jersey Shore epitomize this. Sex sells. Gossip magazines exploit this. Interestingly gossip is a sin.
And there is no such thing as a major sin (there are of course worse crimes than other crimes, but that's a different matter) in the Bible. It's all major. Sin is sin. Jesus Christ dying wasn't on a whim but death is the cost of sin. And let me be quite clear - All have sinned (Romans 3:23); except Jesus Christ. I'm no less a sinner than a mass murder or the Pope. Forgiveness for any and all sin is via faith in Christ. The Bible talks about grace being dispensed so that we can have the gift of eternal life (Romans 6:23). Anyway that's a wee aside.
Let me offer a reason why I believe that the CoS should think hard about its confusingly, liberal stance today. For those that missed it they didn't say you couldn't appoint a gay minister, you can if you wish. Basically the over all church's stance hasn't changed but if an individual congregation wants to appoint one they can. There's an opt-in/opt-out clause for appointments of openly practising homosexual ministers. At least that's what my semi-legal mind understands it to mean.
In both the OT & NT the prohibition is on homosexual activity not the orientation. In fact the NT is stronger and more graphic than the OT in it's language (Greek) found in the Pauline epistles (letters to the early churches). There are also one or two other passages in other books.
The OT prohibitions in law are found in Leviticus and there are other passages where it's shown to be a sin via example, most obviously Sodom & Gomorrah in Genesis. The OT law is more complicated than a straight forward right or wrong. There is: sin law which remains e.g the 10 commandments etc, and there is the ceremonial and sacrificial law which doesn't apply to Christians thanks to Christ's fulfilment of those aspects of the law through His death and resurrection. Again the prohibition is on acts of homosexuality.
The problem is the moral slide in the CoS is so far down the road that it's hard for them not to justify allowing gay couples to minister. For example there is the teaching on heterosexual relationships which have been 'revised' which is accepted in the CoS as perfectly okay. For example a minister who is in a sexual relationship with someone who is not their spouse. Divorced and remarried preachers is another. However, I should congratulate them on the mature and gracious way they have conducted their debates over the years. It's been Christian debating that's truly exemplary. No name calling or slagging others. The debate was civilized and it should be out in the rest of the world.
The Bible is like an anchor for the church. It seems they have changed bits of it to make it less weighteous, in order not to weight the good ship CoS down too much.
Essentially there was no problem with the old rule of abstaining from sexual activity (whether gay or straight) and many elders and ministers fall into this category. The calling of Christ was to take up your cross not take it easy.

2 be or not to be...(a virgin)

Hey I was looking at a Christian magazine and one of the articles (http://www.relevantmagazine.com/life/relationship/features/27856-qbut-he-or-she-isnt-a-virginq#disqus_thread ) was dealing with marrying the right person anyway there was a long list of posts talking about marrying people who had premarital sex. This is what I posted.

There are a couple of issues that haven't been dealt with here. If someone wants to marry a virgin then that's up to them. There's no point saying if a guy meets his dream girl would he refuse to marry her because she's not a virgin. Quite clearly she wouldn't be his dream girl if it was such a big hang up for him. Likewise dealing with non-virgins when married is hard and for both people I imagine. I've a non-Christian friend who had sex before he was married and he said to me after he was married he wished he had waited.
Sin even after you're a Christian is a problem and it can still be a problem dealing with the sin that God has forgiven you. Say you murdered someone before you became a Christian there will still be ramifications after you have become a Christian, most sin is like that. Sin has consequences.
Sexual sins are unique in that they have a special role in a person's life. Someone has already mentioned the verse where it talks about the way it's a sin with body and soul (1 Corinthians? Sorry but I don't have a Bible to hand) but there's often more to it. Most sexual sin takes place in the context of a relationship. Ending a relationship because it's wrong is hard, very hard especially if it's been long term and you're living together. There's an old phrase that was a euphemism for unwed people living together and that was "living in sin". I've ended a relationship because it was wrong, although not for the reasons we're talking about here, but in following God's plan I could take some solace in knowing that I was doing the right thing even though it was emotionally torturous at the time. I can say looking back that it was the right thing to do. I'm married to my "dream girl" and I've remained really good friends with my ex-girlfriend. I'm not sure I could of had I not been obedient to God and continued the relationship.
Finally there is grace. If a person doesn't marry you because of your past don't hold it against them. Even though the punishment for all sin is death, grace forgives every kind of sin. Let's show love to other posters and deal with them gracefully even if we disagree with their point of view.