I can see why the 2000 year old culture had to be pretty hard on relationships, societies without a proper legal system can be severely dysfunctional. Times have moved on. Very few witches are tried by water, the Saracens are no longer being fought, the inquisition has put away its thumbscrews, Catholics and Protestants can coexist. What can't the Church accept Gays in a loving relationship?
Again I would point out that what you call the "Church" is not necessarily the Body of Christ. The Body of Christ can accept gays just as readily as adulterers, but that does not mean that we accept their lifestyle, nor can we, as already mentioned in previous posts, condone nor advocate for their lifestyle.
The "Church" I think you are familiar with, Modern Christendom, is very much beginning to accept, condone, and advocate for the Homosexual Agenda.
You are, I think, living within a sphere where you accept only what you want to accept. Catholics and Protestants do not "co-exist" on a doctrinal level, there is still as wide a breach as ever there was. As a matter of fact, on a doctrinal level...Protestants cannot co-exist, lol. Check out some Doctrinal Discussion forums.
Practice is derived from doctrine, and doctrine divides, as it should. The legal system I guess you refer to, the Law, which was a Covenant between God and Israel, was a great legal system. Putting people to death for violating that Covenant may seem harsh to you, but one point to the Covenant was to separate Israel from the World. Israel did not go out telling other Nations they had to abide by that Covenant, they chose themselves to become proselytes. It is similar to those who migrate to America, you want to live here and benefit from the opportunities here, you are going to have to live by the law of this country, not your own. Had you lived in that day and you were not of Israel, you would have been free to live according to your country's laws, and in ancient days there was some crazy stuff going on.
You say "very few witches are tried by water." How many? Where? And how does that number stand in relation to those who were put to death by the Hebrew people?
The true Church, the Body of Christ, very much accepts gays, because we know that it is a result of sin. What we cannot accept, though, is for gays to seek to impose their lifestyle into the Church. Just like Israel, if they want to be a part of the Church, you must come on Christ's terms, not theirs. Not the Church's terms, but Christ's terms. And God has been consistent in revealing sin to Man, and this is something He has not changed His mind about. Homosexuality is consistently called sin in the Old Testament as well as the New.
The Church should not distinguish certain sins above others, and the way I see it, they haven't, homosexuals have. By advocating for equal/special rights, acceptance, and tolerance, they have brought it to the forefront and created the battle that now rages. If adulterers began disagreeing with the Biblical view of adultery, and demanding that the Church accept their "right" to have relations with other women while married, because after all, it's love between two people...
...what would you say?
How about if their were an agenda to get rid of the ancient and obsolete view that marrying one's daughter shouldn't happen? How about if Billy Joe Bob wanted to marry his favorite sheep? How about lowering the marrying age back to the customs of ancient times, so one could marry the ten year old they "love?"
Would you have a problem with any of those?
I'll put it like I see it: homosexuality, like adultery, and like fornication...is about lust. It's about satisfying needs which are built into all of us. Scripture makes it clear that we were made to be in a physical union with someone else. Those unions are always depicted as between a man and a woman, both unmarried, then marrying to become the core of the family unit. From this relationship comes new life, children. We, the Church, the Body of Christ, recognize that sin is in the world, and that people will satisfy their physical needs, and the norm is to do so in violation of a Scriptural understanding. We know it, God knows it, but those who commit it usually...
...do not.
They see nothing wrong in their actions and will invariably seek to justify their actions.
And we understand that too. Because we sin also. Perhaps not in highly public ways which catch media attention, but for us, our sin is far worse, because we know better. To hate without cause is sin. To look upon a woman with lust equates to adultery, we don't have to physically touch. To overlook the needs of others. The standard set for us is far higher than those outside the Body of Christ. We too will often seek to justify our sin, but what the Lord wants is recognition of sin, so that He can deal with it in our lives.
The sum total of all this might be to point out that which I have already pointed out: it's not for Christians to adapt the worldview, but the world to adapt the Biblical view. I can't go into a Boy Scout manual and change it to suit my beliefs, right? How much more ludicrous is it for people to think they can go into God's Word and change it to suit theirs?
You can find "Christians" who will deny that the Bible teaches homosexuality is sin, but, you will not find those people to be able to claim the Bible as their basis for their beliefs. It is just too clear in Scripture.
God bless.