I am glad that there are many capable people here in the forum, defending the Christian perspective. I am doubly glad that we do not have to feel on the defensive here, and can just discuss and express without being judged.... too much.
Personally, I am a Christian, I realize denominations are pointless here, but I will explain that I believe the Bible and I will try to root all of my beliefs there to a passage. The bible is the root of all Christian belief and If you have questions, I suggest you start on page one.
Firstly, about homosexuality, do I believe it is wrong? Yes, but it is no different than being obese, or looking at your neighbour's wife the wrong way. It is something that is meant to be struggled with. We are all sinful whether our sin is internal (pride, vanity, lust) or external (Laziness being, Overweight). Christianity says that we will all be judged based on our actions. Many people in the Christian faith struggle with this. Yes, it is by faith alone we are saved, but faith without works is fruitless. The beauty of Christianity is that we will not be judged for our sins. The bible tells us that,
"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. John 3:16-21
To me this is the source of salvation for the world. We are meant to live lives that follow Jesus' teachings as best we can. Do we get it right? No, never... we are impossibly far from the example that God set.
Every thought or action we make, we always make mistakes. Even when we try to do good we always do it for the wrong reason. We do good for our own self righteousness and pride. It is inescapable.
Moving on, It feels to me that we are viewing Christianity wrong when we say it is a religion. Religion is man's attempt to get right with god, to appease him, or to placate him. Just think about all the other religions. Islam believes in a set of balancing scales. (imagining end of the world) "You are 51% good and 49% bad, Welcome to Heaven!" Does that sound like a just God? If God is perfect, how could he accept anything less? And if God is not perfect, how could we ever believe in him? (discussions on God's perfection, sovereignty, and morals have been developing and I will discuss them as this topic develops, but I will move on with my point)
Christian's across the world struggle with pride, we think we stand in the right, when in actuality we stand among everyone else.....equal but we have faith in a life after death, a, "new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells. 2 Peter 3:13" for those who believe AAANNNDDD follow his teachings, because if you believe, your actions should reflect those beliefs.
I do not mean to come across as rude, or self righteous. I have tried to summarize some key beliefs of the Christian church. I apologize for all the bad experiences many of you have had with Christians, we are all sinners.