Gay marriage. Who cares if gay people want to get married? As a matter of fact, who cares if someone is gay? I don't understand why there are so many people out there that have such an issue with gay marriage and gay people. People are people, and even more importantly, everyone (whether you personally like them or not) is a child of God. I'm honestly waiting for some of the homophobic/ anti-gay readers to come at me with their Bible swords, unsheathed and prepared to argue... Please, I'm inviting any disagreement. I'm eager to see how someone can use a story of love to promote hate, judgment, marginalization, and condemnation.
Different is dangerous. Why is it that people who are different from you are oftentimes considered dangerous and a threat? Different people should be feared, and we need to protect ourselves from them and "their ways." I've heard this all before in so many ways... and let me tell you, I am sick and tired of it. "Do not judge, or you too shall be judged." Don't open someone else's closet if your aren't ready to reveal or own. So I say to the secular haters... please, I'm inviting your hypocritical disagreements.
Pure hate and nothing else. To me, it takes so much more effort to hate than to love. To hate, you are intentionally using your energy to promote conflict, dissension, pain, hurt, and fear. To love, you are letting go of unfair judgments and letting your heart do what it does naturally. I'm not saying it is easy to love, but I think it is certainly our homeostasis... our natural tendency. And we need a whole lot of love to battle the vast amounts of hate in this world,. So you, all of you, get to work!
Here is a quick read for everyone: Pastor Faces Church Sanctions for Officiating Same-Sex Marriage
^^Good for him!^^
"Now eagerly desire the greater gifts, and yet I will show you a still more excellent way."
I Corinthians 12:30-31
Related posts: General Conference [Not Assembly]
Sorry if I'm misunderstanding, but are you insinuating that secularists hate religious people or homosexuals because they are different? If anything, I would say us secularists/atheists are simply tired of the religious majority attempting to shoehorn their beliefs into our Constitution, which has no religious affiliation. Though, "haters" are a part of any group.
ReplyDeleteAs for the hatred issue, I feel the issue comes from people who insist that the Bible is the literal word of God, to be taken as holy doctrine and applied as modern law. If you take the Bible literally, and not as a "guide", then:
Gays are abominations (Leviticus 18:22, "You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.")
People who have tattoos or ear piercings are sinners (Leviticus 19:28, "You shall not make any cuts on your body for the dead or tattoo yourselves: I am the Lord.")
People who wear polyester are damned (Deuteronomy 22:11, "You shall not wear a material mixed of wool and linen together.)
And you, a female, shouldn't be operating a blog (Timothy 2:12, "But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.")
Many religious people that I have had this debate with usually counter with an argument that all parts of the Bible are not to be taken literally, only certain ones should be. Strange that it is usually the ones that support their particular argument. Now as someone who seems to have distanced yourself from the "literal" interpretation, I applaud you. However I feel there is much work to be done with many of your less tolerant religious folk.
First and foremost, Justin Gabel is a fool. Second, his argument of picking and choosing specific verses from the Bible is the same mistake made by those he is arguing against. That mistake is taking a singular verse out of context. Even John Calvin (from whom Presbyterians and other "conservative" Christians take their axiom of the authority of Scripture) understood that everything written in the Bible is to be approached as part of a whole. You cannot simply pick up one or two verses and extrapolate fact and meaning. Proper exegesis requires understanding the context. Justin Gabel is just as wrong and improper as "biblical literalists."
ReplyDeleteAs for you, Ashley, being gay and allowing gay/lesbian marriages is indeed of great importance and should not be simply passed over by "Who cares if gay people want to get married? As a matter of fact, who cares if someone is gay?" There is currently one large stream of argument from the LGBT community that supports the notion that being gay is completely natural and a part of being human (and for that fact, being an animal). I personally do not believe this is true, and I wholeheartedly support the notion that being gay is in actuality a choice. Nevertheless, let's say it is a naturally occurring state of being, for the sake of this argument. The Christian's duty is, as St. Paul puts it, to be a part of this world and not of this world. Those things which are natural to humans, the propensity to violence, lust, greed, and hatred, those things are to be avoided. Humankind are not to participate in the natural bigotry of the human condition. If the LGBT community wants to argue gay-ness as natural tendency, then we, as Christians, have to duty to react against that, and uplift only those parts of humanity that Christ uplifted: humility, poverty, and meekness. I argue that given the current state of affairs, "coming out" as gay fulfills none of those properties, but in fact draws out hatred, disgrace, and dishonor for all parties.
Moreover, the reason why Christians have to reject the LGBT community's claims is because we are called to love God, love our neighbors, and love our enemies. In loving God, we are honoring God's command through Leviticus and others when we do not support gays and lesbians and their desires to marry. Whether they love each other or not, the Christian marriage, as noted by Paul, is between a man and a woman. In loving our neighbors, we have the responsibility to protect the Pauline formula for marriage, as well as the divine commands. We simply cannot let everyone go around and doing whatever they want, whenever they want, and however they want it. That, my friend, is the definition of chaos, and the exact opposite of Christianity. In loving our enemies, it is there where we (and I mean everyone, especially Christians) needs to love and respect the life of everyone else. You are right is noting that the lack of love leads to the promotion of "conflict, dissension, pain, hurt, and fear." But you are wrong in your definition of love. Love is not letting go of "unfair judgments," but is living and acting out the respect do to God, whose image is in every person. It is the responsibility of the Christian to point to the light those who live in the darkness of sin. We cannot force the change, you are right, we ought not damage the life given by God, but we must not allow that which is contrary to God and God's command to become as accepted and common-place as flowers at a funeral.
Yours truly,
Theophilus