Christian Liberals & Progressive People of Faith

Although many translations paper over the issue by rendering the key passage in verse 2 as "...who he valued highly," or "...who was valuable to him," the actual word used in the NT is intimos, which is the route of "intimate." Indeed, there seems every reason to believe that this was a case, not unusual in the Roman army, of a leading officer taking a younger lover as his assistant, and serving as mentor to him. In the Gospel story, Jesus heals the servant without a word of condemnation, not even a "go and sin no more." (Interestingly, when the same story comes up in Matthew -- which has a more-Judaic slant and therefore more likely to share the Jewish condemnation of homosexuality -- the matter is sidestepped by not mentioning the servant's status with the Centurion at all, just that he was a servant of his.)

It isn't exactly "speaking" of homosexuals (in fact, the key element in the story might be Christ's silence about the matter), but, often, actions speak louder than words.