I Am So Gonna Get Flamed.
I've read and/or been involved in a lot of discussions centering on the Gay Marraige Debate, and it's probably high time I said something about it here. After all, this is where i'm supposed to be spewing all my fundamentalist crap anyway, right? Not on other people's property. At any rate... Mostly what I'm going to do here is take all the presumptions that tick me off the most and call them out. I anticipate either no comments whatsoever, or a serious amount of flaming. I don't care. I'm venting. So let us begin:
I was over at Jon Reid's Blog, when I saw this post and subsequent comments thread. Follow along, if you like. The first girl that speaks is a straight female atheist. And she said:
...I would be appalled that an organization of people who tries to teach tolerance and kindness to others would be so rude and..."
I say: Um...when did we become an organization of people who tries to teach tolerance? Did I miss that class??? When have we EVER taught tolerance? 'Cause when I read the Bible, it said "rebuke one another" "admonish one another" "correct one another" etc etc etc. It never ONCE said "hey, let's be fair. let's be nice. let's just embrace sin so no one will ever disagree."
These people drive me up a wall. We have an atheist defining us. And this is just ok, apparently. I run into it all the time over at Ben's blog. People who don't even know if they're agnostic or atheist--and yet!! They have these completely off-the-wall ideas about Christianity embedded in their minds... and then they get mad at us if we're like "dude, hold up, where did you get that idea? that's not what it's about." Can we PLEASE get some media coverage on real Christians, PLEASE? I'm fed up with all these hair-brained ideas being perpetuated.
Ok, I need to stop for a minute, or I'm really going to start ranting.
-------time passes--------
Ok. My next beef is with the innumerable people who have been saying that we Christians are peddling hate. If we support someone who is trying to emerge from the homosexual lifestyle, we are spewing our hate. If we do not embrace homosexual behavior, then apparently we hate homosexuals.
I say: Since when does disagreement equal hate? And since when did not condoning a behavior equal hating a growing number of human beings? I'm completely at a loss for this "logic" of theirs. Anyone care to shed some light on it for me? I'm just not seeing how it connects. Under their (un)reasoning, if I don't like it when people chew with their mouths opened, I hate those people. I actually hate them. How much sense does that make?? Ugh.
Next, we have some guy over at Ben's blog (in some comment somewhere--I'm just too baffled by his error to bother looking it up to link it right now) who says that no one, ever ever ever, in the history of the world, has EVER emerged from homosexuality.
I say: Um... and this information is based on what, exactly? Your own circle of friends? Cause lemme tell ya, man, there are a LOT more people in the world. One of them would be my sister... who emerged from homosexuality. She openly lived as a homosexual for 5 years (read: who knows how many years she did before coming out of the closet). Let me guess, though: you're gonna say that she wasn't really gay, right? LOL
Next, I take you back to Don Reid's blog. The second person that posted a comment was a gay-male-christian(i guess). He says that he won't go to church anymore or meet with Christians in person... (um, yes, they might infect you with something, it's much safer to only meet with them electronically). He didn't like the "Sunday Smile" he was met with when it became known that he was gay. So anyway... he said: I did a couple of years research in internet chat on what Christians really think of gay people. And while there is a small minority of Christians who have genuinely loving and caring attitudes....the rest...the vast majority share the same vitriolic attitude of this pastor.
I say: he did research WHERE?? Am I the only one who caught that? Have you ever been into a Christian chat room? Most of those people are freaks! It scares me to go in those places. They all just sit there and spew things back and forth, they don't even have actual conversations. And he spent HOW LONG doing it?? Egads. That just plain scares me. I think the scariest part of all is that this guy considers it valid research. He sat in "Christian Chatrooms" for a couple of YEARS. And asked them how they really felt about gay people. This is where people are forming their opiniosns of Christianity? And they BELIEVE this stuff??
This is where I again quote Pheobe: "What is up with the universe??"
The next guy isn't much better off: Actually, on a more serious note, this is one of the things that repels me about fundamentalist Christianity. I have strong reason to believe that at least some percentage of gay people are genetically predisposed to be that way... (and your reason would be...???)
I say: Well, wouldn't it be nice if science could back up your strong reason, because the reason ain't science. In case no one noticed, there has been absolutely NOTHING in the field of scientific research that even hints at a gay gene. They've been looking for years, and have come up with exactly squat. So because science supports what the BIBLE teaches, he has a problem with it. There's some more stellar logic for you.
Then Jon Reid himself kinda irked me: ...In fact, I'd like to ask any Christian-types to hold off for the time being. Shut up and listen. Read what these people shared, then read it again.
Which is why I'm posting here. :-)
I recommend you all read the next guy for yourselves, there's just too much there for me to go on about in this post, it's already getting way too long.
I'm going to stop for now, with one last thought. I was really, truly disappointed to see the way Jon Reid is reacting to this whole issue. I think I understand where he's coming from, but I think he lost sight of Christ somewhere in there. He sees that a pastor (who was quoted in the article that this posted was centered on) has offended gay people. So he wants to make up for it. He says: So... my question... if calling people "thousands of sodomizers -- because that's what the Bible calls them" counts as a withdrawal on the societal respect-o-meter, what I am asking is what would count as a deposit?
Since when did Christianity become about making people feel good about sin?
People seriously need to drop their own agendas and try God's on. It's right there in the Bible for all to see. Check it out sometime. It has nothing to do with believers feeding the respect-o-meters of a world that has openly denounced God. We aren't here to placate and encourage people who bash our God. We're not supposed to be depositing into their respect-o-meter, Jon. We're supposed to be honest. We are to speak the truth in love. Not speak in love. Speak THE TRUTH in love.
Let the flaming begin...
-Jack-
**Post Script** It is now approximately 10 minutes after I initially posted this entry, and I'm now publicly acknowledging that I am in the wrong, based on my very own last words. I spoke the truth here, but did not do it in love. For that, I am sorry. But I'm leaving it as is, so we can all see that I don't pretend to be better than a single solitary one of you. I am just as bad as anyone. Good thing God is working on me :-)
