Important notice: Understanding attacks on homosexuality

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They struggle, I know that. We are life long friends with two same-sex Christian couples, and we went to their commitment ceremonies at church facilities. There are Christian churches that interpret the Biblical passages differently and welcome those who are gay. It is totally possible to be homosexual and Christian, but one may have to change their denomination or how they view their role in their church.

You have to remember that the church sees many things as a sin that people do every day. Eating too much is sinful, literally speaking. Am I going to be shamed away from faith because of that? No, I put it in perspective.

Isn't the "good news" supposed to be the GOOD stuff? Jesus reached out to and truly accepted everyone, except those who held themselves up too highly. Too many of those who claim to be spreading the "good news" actually do the opposite - they set out with accusations, not acceptance.

I understand what you say and have respect for that view. If all christians took your attitude to the issue I think the world would be an easier place to live.

To be precise, and I can only speak for my denomination, the "best" (based on arguments I've heard) interpretation of the Bible is that homosexual intercourse is sinful. Not the rest, and not the being. And it gets spoken in the same sentence as the one saying pre-marital sex is sinful. Basically, no different than what your average teen does in the way of sin. Adultery is the sex sin that is worse, and how many holier than thou Christian preachers have been caught in that one?

I realize that it still isn't a perfect solution, being told you are who you are but please don't indulge in that strong instinctual side of yourself, but the church has always had an uncomfortable relationship with intercourse that does anything but make babies, so at least it's consistent.

The denominations that preach the existance is wrong need to change their ways. It isn't theologically supported, best I can gather from friends who are scholars in the Bible, and it flies in the face of what we are coming to know scientifically: that people are born with their sexual orientations preset, in most cases (then again, many Christian denominations have a lot of trouble with science, so they aren't likely to accept those answers). The Bible also teaches that God made you just as you are, perfectly formed, so theologically one HAS to accept the person's orientation (assuming they accept the science).

There are definitely plenty of challenging questions left, including why would God make people one way and then tell them they should not fully live out what they are drawn to, but that is beyond my scope. God challenges many people in difficult ways all the time. It's not as if I wasn't born with equally inscrutable challenges; we are all given many.

I wish I could get it all the way into the "God loves you as you are and is happy to watch you with all you wish to engage in category" but I haven't got the theological support for that yet. Still, you know, I wasn't born with the challenge and it isn't my place to evaluate what the people who are, do with it. That is between them and their God, or their conscious, or whatever they believe in. I will say that our friends live amazing faith filled lives and go above and beyond giving back to the community and NO WAY is God keeping them out of heaven when that day comes. I just don't believe He would do that; put it all on the scale, and they've got MAYBE ONE sin, from the acts, and probably no others at all. I'm pretty sure I've got a lot more.

We are all products of our life paths and I've learned things on mine that I would not have learned if certain people had not been present in it. Why God would give me those people in my life, and the opportunity to learn from them, while not providing the same to everyone I don't know.

[Image edited by MidlifeAspie for violating language rules]

I don't think I need to add to the fine point made by this thought provoking image.

I agree fully. The majority of my friends identify as christian, and they aren't homophobic, although they still don't know I'm gay . My problem has never been with Christianity. It's with people who use it to justify nasty views.
When I was in Primary school we would occasionally get a visit from the local minister, and he would come in and tell us stories, and explain how being a christian was all about love and compassion, doing good deeds , and respecting everyone. I've always liked and respected that form of christianity. As I've grown up I've found that not all christians act and think in that way and it has saddened me.

Please, somebody: Chisel that into stone somewhere!

Last edited by leejosepho on 23 Feb 2011, 5:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Look: I was not preaching to anyone when I said things in opposition to homosexuality, I was providing rebuttal to Volodja's accusations as well as clarification to what I meant when asked later by one of the other members from Intensity Squared. Information regarding my views were solicited from me, not the other way around. If you haven't noticed, I don't normally spend a lot of time arguing with people about this but Volodja and his friends elicited this from me - otherwise I would have said nothing. Now his friends have since made garbage accounts in my name, have accused me of "hate speech" and have sought every way possible to twist my words. And now, from moderators, a call to unilateral censorship? Oy veh.

It may have been at one point...


[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YX-gqRdK_8[/youtube]

Would you mind expanding on what you mean?

Butterflies - well a breath of fresh air - though your pup is too young to drink, I would say.

"My problem has never been with Christianity. It's with people who use it to justify nasty views. "

Where I was before my Christian days, where I am.

The nasty-viewed people [or is it nasty-viewing people?] don't need Christianity. They will reach for whatever is handy - democracy, Americanism, multiculturalism, peace, whatever - and turn it into a stock for their Green Monkey gun. The ones who poked at me on the assumption I was gay [all you had to be in those days was a bit weird and not visibly drooling over Playboy] had no Christian message. They were young enough not to NEED a theoretical excuse.

Anyway, one appreciates any absence of bashing.

Ah, too bad. But, maybe nobody outside PPR would have even been interested anyway ...

Would somebody please doctor that pic and bring it braille or something?

What I keep hearing is that only one side of any debate upon the topic of homosexuality is allowed to provide their perspectives, at least from the former moderators DW and Lee it sounds like that. What is the official stance?

The official stance will be released shortly as it is still being tweaked. In the context of this conversation, attacking Christians as a group is prohibited and attacking Homosexuals as a group is prohibited.