hate the sin, love the sinner

[RoadRunner79]

Most people that I know, would make a distinction, between a same sex attraction, and acting upon it.  It's really no different than an inclination towards those of the opposite sex and sin.   You always have a choice, in whether you embrace or turn away from sin.  

Well, I was referring to the more ridiculous punishments proscribed for certain behavior (mostly stoning), unless of course those rules don't matter any more.  But I'm willing to accept that they don't for the sake of argument.
And yes, parents often need to punish their children to instill better ideas or behaviors, but that's not how I would describe a lot of the stories that we get from people who come out as gay or atheist to their fundamentalist families.  
Or would you say that the Christians who oust/disown their family members for 'sinning' just aren't doing it right?

I see, that is a little different subject.  It also requires some understanding of the purpose of the Old Covenant and law, and the theocracy of Israel.  I am not as familiar with some of the Jewish traditions, as I would like to be; but I have always heard that these where a maximum punishments and where rare.

This site: http://tcapologetics.org/old-testament-l...unishment/ explains that there where strict requirements in order to convict someone of capital punishment.  Two witnesses needed to be brought forth who where credible, and not family.  It also states that the Israelites looked favorably on repentance.

The Mishna declared: “The Sanhedrin that executes one person in seven years is called “murderous.” Rabbi Elazar ben Azariah extended this to one execution in seventy years. That does not mean the punishment was meaningless, or the crime irrelevant. The punishment clearly attached a level of severity that God considered appropriate to the crime. But in every case but one, there was another way the penalty could be paid.

In Towards an Old Testament Ethic, Walter Kaiser summarizes in this fashion:

   “There were some sixteen crimes that called for the death penalty in the OT…. Only in the case of premeditated murder did the text say that the officials in Israel were forbidden to take a “ransom” or a “substitute.” This has widely been interpreted to imply that in all the other fifteen cases the judges could commute the crimes deserving of capital punishment by designating a “ransom” or “substitute.”

I don't really endorse shunning, or think it should be a last resort.  I can somewhat understand where those that do are coming from, but also find that they are often selective, and unnecessarily harsh in execution.