{"id":15035,"date":"2023-05-02T09:30:19","date_gmt":"2023-05-02T16:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=15035"},"modified":"2025-10-16T18:07:43","modified_gmt":"2025-10-17T01:07:43","slug":"nicholas-denysenko-official-church-teaching-on-homosexuality-doesnt-represent-a-consensus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2023\/05\/nicholas-denysenko-official-church-teaching-on-homosexuality-doesnt-represent-a-consensus\/","title":{"rendered":"Nicholas Denysenko: Official Church Teaching on Homosexuality Doesn&#8217;t Represent a Consensus"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Denysenko_Homosexuality_Church_Unresolved_01_880x514.jpg\" alt=\"Nicholas Denysenko: Official Church Teaching on Homosexuality Doesnt Represent a Consensus\" width=\"880\" height=\"514\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15037\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Denysenko_Homosexuality_Church_Unresolved_01_880x514.jpg 880w, https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Denysenko_Homosexuality_Church_Unresolved_01_880x514-300x175.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Denysenko_Homosexuality_Church_Unresolved_01_880x514-768x449.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 880px) 100vw, 880px\" \/>Excerpts from <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230608145046\/https:\/\/publicorthodoxy.org\/2022\/07\/26\/to-baptize-or-not\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>To Baptize or Not: God\u2019s Love and Image<\/strong><\/a> article written by Dcn. Nicholas Denysenko in defense of Abp. Elpidophoros baptism of surrogate children of two &#8220;married&#8221; homosexual men. <!--more--> (see: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/elpidophoros-baptizes-surrogate-children-of-married-homosexuals\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Elpidophoros Baptizes Surrogate Children of \u201cMarried\u201d Homosexuals<\/a>) Denysenko is a false teacher who contradicts the true teachings of the Church.<\/p>\n<p>by Dcn. Nicholas Denysenko &#8211;<br \/>\n\u2026<br \/>\nThe outcry over the decision to baptize these children [surrogate babies of homosexual \u201cmarried\u201d men] represents today\u2019s zeitgeist. At the official level, many of the world\u2019s Orthodox Churches <strong>have taken sides<\/strong> in the culture wars on human sexual identity.<\/p>\n<p>Orthodox <strong>rejection<\/strong> of same-sex attraction, relationships, and marriage categorizes LGBTQI people as a special type of sinners that warrants expulsion from the community.<\/p>\n<p>The official Church teaching on <strong>homosexuality<\/strong> does not represent a consensus within the Church.<\/p>\n<p>Many theologians believe that the issue is unresolved and requires much more study, consultation with the scientific community, prayer, and reflection, even if <a href=\"https:\/\/www.oca.org\/holy-synod\/statements\/the-20th-all-american-council\/holy-synod-issues-statement-on-same-sex-relationships-and-sexual-identity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">synods [referring to OCA Synod Official Statement specifically]<\/a> attempt to <strong>mute<\/strong> public theological discussion of the topic.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>homophobic spirit<\/strong> of some Orthodox who have a binary view of the world (e.g., saints or sinners) diverts attention away from the truly pastoral issue at hand: the relationship between God and the children of this couple, and any other couple or single parent for that matter.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014\u2014<br \/>\nSource: <a href=\"http:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20230608145046\/https:\/\/publicorthodoxy.org\/2022\/07\/26\/to-baptize-or-not\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Public Orthodoxy<\/a>. <em>(Minor organizational edits and bolding of key phrases done by blog editors done to enhance readability.)<\/em><\/p>\n<p>See also: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2022\/07\/oca-synod-categorically-rejects-same-sex-unions-and-homosexual-self-identity\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">OCA Synod Categorically Rejects Same-Sex Unions and Homosexual Self-Identity<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Excerpts from To Baptize or Not: God\u2019s Love and Image article written by Dcn. Nicholas Denysenko in defense of Abp. Elpidophoros baptism of surrogate children of two &#8220;married&#8221; homosexual men.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177,175,95,189],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15035","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-false-teachers","category-heresy","category-homosexual-indoctrination","category-wokeodox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15035\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}