Who has the right to speak about homosexuality? Homosexuality is about real, breathing, loving, often hurting people.

The issue of homosexuality is, perhaps, the most difficult issue about which a Christian is obliged to write. It is about real, breathing, loving, often hurting people. More than this, to oppose the various demands of gay people is seen by many to be cruel and uncaring. They have a point. Hatred and ignorance have been behind much of the opposition to homosexuality over the years and, to a certain extent, still are.

We're probably all guilty. I know there are some things I have written in the past that I would not say now. But to refine one's attitude toward a situation does not necessarily mean changing one's overall stance. For me, the supreme position must be no compromise on truth, no compromise on love.

A few observations. First, it is odd that people who routinely hurl abuse at anti-poverty groups, unions and social activists and who call for ever more attacks on welfare and public funding are so very liberal on issues like homosexuality. I have seen this time and time again. Journalists and commentators who make a living out of labelling people as extremists or as unrepresentative leaders of special interest groups, who champion banks and corporations, suddenly become all sensitive and sympathetic when sexuality is the issue.

It's the phenomenon of the lifestyle liberal. The campaign for supposed gay rights is, to a large extent, a middle-class battle, one supported by money and the market because money and the market believe in low taxes and, I'm sorry, low morals. Morality simply gets in the way of the dollar. The neo-conservative tides again.

Protest the closing of a hospital or the shooting of a black youth by the cops, and we'll call you a zealot. Ask for two men to be married, and we'll say how brave you are and how difficult it must be for gay couples.

Second, the bias shown by media in reporting on gay issues is quite extraordinary. Interesting this, in that marriage is usually mocked and marginalized. People get married all the time, sacrifice for one another, remain faithful to one another, love one another, raise children together, nurse one another. Yet newspapers, television and movies seem to promote infidelity and laugh at the stable married couple. Perhaps it's just because they're boring old heterosexuals.

Third, there are crazy people on both sides. Some of those protesting all this have shamed the cause and the man they claim they represent. They evince venom and coldness and seem to be obsessed with this particular issue. Equally, there are some in the gay community who are horribly intolerant. I can show you the death threats and know all too well of the attempts to have me fired.

But these two groups represent the polarized borders. In between there is much room for dialogue and understanding. And dialogue and understanding there must be. Gay people live together, always will live together and, while we might disagree with their lifestyle, they are entitled to name partners as legal and financial beneficiaries. Equally, marriage was conceived to describe only one thing: the union of a man and a woman.

The current political and social fashion is with gay people but that fashion has no answers. A genuine resolution, please, with compassion and empathy all round. Shouting will solve nothing. We all need to be reminded of that. What we must also remember, however, is the simultaneous approach of Christ's love and the Christian's response to sin. Love, understanding and the acceptance of repentance and transformation.

Every time I am tempted to react too strongly, I remember that I, at least, am sexually broken and there is a very good chance you are as well. I thank God my temptations, my flaws, are not of a homosexual nature; I can only imagine how difficult life would be if they were. There are many sins in the world and many sinners. Perhaps if the church had been more egalitarian in its critiques in the past, we would be more accepted now when we speak out on issues such as homosexuality.

The debate will continue. Who knows where it will end. If there is any hatred in your heart, you have no right to speak out on the subject. If there is love in your heart, you have a responsibility to speak out on the subject. As followers of him who is love.

Michael Coren is a broadcaster, author and speaker. Visit his website at www. michaelcoren.com. You can join Michael in January 2005 on a tour of biblical Israel. Call 416-923-2003 or 1-800-262-6818, Ext. 9204.