While living in the state of Vermont in the US, I and other active members of our independent Bible Church worked hard to lobby the Vermont Legislature not to force same sex marriage upon the citizens of Vermont. We were joined in our efforts by any number of clergy from various Christian denominations and several representatives from the Roman Catholic religion.

There were a number of men who seemed bent upon "proof texting" God's abhorrence to homosexual practice from the Old Testament. As a Christian, my thoughts on the value of taking this approach coincide with those of Carmelo Aquilina (God's Word? - February 15). His rebuttal to Mgr Anton Gauci in The Times is very useful to help Christians think through what God approves and disapproves.

As a Christian, my conscience is bound by the explicit teachings in the New Testament. These teachings, from the gospel accounts of Jesus Christ and the subsequent inspired writings of New Testament authors, have priority over many things that formerly obligated the conscience of people in the Old Testament.

But here is where the application of Scripture gets a little tricky. The most direct condemnations on homosexual practices are found in the book of Leviticus (but also see Genesis 19 and the story of Sodom). However, as was pointed out by Mr Aquilina, there are also a series of laws, commands, abominations and forbidden practices complete with penalties found right beside these prohibitions on homosexual practices.

I would suggest that one first finds the kinds of things which bind the conscience of the Christian from the New Testament and then go from there. For instance, homosexual practices are fully condemned in the New Testament by the apostle Paul in his letter to the Christians at Rome and Corinth as well as his pastoral letter to Timothy. Also, before the giving of the Law to Moses, homosexual practices seem to have been thoroughly condemned as part of the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Christians have the Holy Spirit in residence and the law of God written on their hearts and can arrive at a moral consensus based upon the New Testament.

This is not to ignore the Old Testament. It is profitable to see that God condemned bestiality. Some Christians separate the Law of Moses into three parts, moral, civil and ceremonial, and take only the moral aspects as binding. However, this approach remains much too elusive. Such assignations leave Christians more often with the same kinds of inconsistencies and moral dilemmas as was pointed out by Mr Aquilina.

What Mr Aquilina cannot argue against is that the New Testament censures homosexual practices. No excuses are available to him. This is God's moral proclamation, unattached to an Israel culture, binding on the conscience of all mankind.