Dear Rizzen,
Your post is thoughtful. I don't think this is the place to debate and work to change each other's minds, but I want to address one comment you made:
Rizzen said: "So, this is where I stand. I believe that homosexuality is wrong. I firmly believe that people are not born gay, that being gay is not necessarily a choice, but that if we are gay, we believe it is wrong, and we take steps to return to a heterosexual lifestyle, God will place his mercy on us."
All I want to say is that I hope you will test your thoughts against the experiences of others who are gay. I am a 55 year old heterosexual. I did not choose my orientation, it happened to me. I know that my sexual orientation is deep rooted and constitutive of who I am. So it seems I could say that "God made me this way." If I believe this about my own life experience, how do I apply it to the experience of others who are oriented toward their same sex? I have to say also that "God made them that way." At least for some gays they could no more "return to a heterosexual lifestyle" than I could turn to a gay lifestyle. It's not in them.
I think there is a big theological issue here. One approach is to say "the Bible says..." and deny any reality that doesn't fit. Another approach is to ask "What is real?" and search for how the Bible shed light on that reality.
I don't think that denial of the real is, in the end, a good thing.
Just a couple of thoughts,
Lou