So, I'm hoping to make this a lively and debated thread. The question is: Why does the church and its Christian followers choose which "sins" to attack and which to largely ignore? I grew up in the Southern Baptist church and was taught that the Bible says all sins are equal, so you can't place them on a level. Let me give you an example. We all know that the majority of the evangelicals hate us because of who we are. They vote to amend their state constitutions to define marriage as a union of one male and one female. Some vote to deny us the ability to foster or adopt children. Some vote to even let us be publicly acknowledged, as with Tennessee and their "Don' Say Gay" bill. They really cling to verses such as the one in Leviticus about if man lie with man, or the one in Corinthians about the list of people who will not go to heaven. But the focus is on being gay. The bible also says a lot of other things are sins: divorce, adultery, pre-martial sex, drunkenness, and if you want to get really strict...no working on Sunday, no eating seafood or pork, and as much as I love my female friends, they should be covering their heads, not making eye contact with me, or even speaking to me unless I acknowledge them first. Obviously, the latter ones are things our society has moved away from and people would think you're crazy. Here's a prime example of the hypocrisy: In 2004 when Massachusetts became the first US state to recognize same sex marriage, the pastor at the church I attended at the time was LIVID. That Sunday he preached on "Biblical Living" and read all these verses about homosexuality, marriage, and the wrath of God. He tried to be humorous to tone down the anger and said, "When I was growing up, we were taught God made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve." Some people laughed. LAUGHED! Then he said, "It's funny, but true. Tell your kids that so they can tell their friends." In 2007 this man was fired from the church because he was having an affair with the music minister and they both divorced their spouses and ran off together. So, what's with this? Why does the religious establishment pick and choose which sins to rail against as the end of days?
Ignorance. The Church is and will forever be ignorant of same sex marriage (not to mention everything else).
Because they don't like gay people specifically. l hope you don't believe people when they say otherwise and hide behind their religion. Also don't want to offend if you're religious yourself. l skimmed through the post. But honestly l have no patience for that. Fortunately l do meet Christians and other religious types who don't pretend to care about anyone's orientation. l don't look down on these people for being religious and hate that attitude. Yet another group are people who may not HATE gay people per se, but are so brainwashed by religion that they may in fact believe you are going to burn in hell. Since types like this have never had the motivation to question their beliefs l generally disregard them and assume they aren't going to display great feats of intellectual advancement in other areas IYKWIM lol.
Because homosexuality is foreign to them. It's a so-called "sin" they'll be able never commit or "tempted" to do.
Hello, Because most churches are not about God but man made constructs to concentrate power, authority and money. Churches are politicians they pretend to care and the more people they can fool the more power they control. They omit teaching this... === “70) Jesus said, "If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” “The Gospel Of Thomas.” === Stuck
Different churches believe different things. It depends on how that specific church interprets the bible. Some churches believe that the Old Testament is no longer binding for Christians that are alive today. Some churches believe that the most important part of the bible are the words of Jesus. Some churches believe that the bible should be taken figuratively and that most, if not all, of the biblical tales never really transpired. Having such different beliefs causes the churches to take different approaches to life. It gives them different goals and causes them to focus on different things. For example, your church taught that all sins are equal. Not all Christian churches believe that. Some teach that there are "eternal sins", which is a sin that will not be forgiven by God. Another example is that you were taught that Christians can not eat pork or seafood. However, every church I've ever attended church believes that that is no longer in effect because Jesus died on the cross. These churches had this belief due to a variety of verses including: Romans 14:17 NIV Galatians 2:15-16 NIV Ephesians 2:14-16 NIV Side note: I'm not going to debate about whether or not Christians need to follow the Old Testament law because that isn't the point. I could go on but the point is that different churches interpret the bible differently. The churches I attended saw these verses as meaning that Christians can eat what they want but your church saw things differently. This gives them a different focus on what is and is not important. Some churches believe that homosexuality is an eternal sin and people need to be saved. In an attempt to save the souls of the general public, they focus on stopping homosexuality. That is why some churches focus on homosexuality and seem to ignore everything else. As time goes on, people will notice that gay people won't make hell open and swallow everyone and they'll find another sin that they believe will lead to the end of time What about churches that support same sex marriage? Are they ignorant about same sex marriage as well? What about churches that support the theory of evolution? Are they ignorant? My point is that you can't make those types of absolute statements about churches even if they're in the same religion. Different churches have different beliefs and teach different lessons. Christian churches range from the Westboro Baptist Church to the Vatican to churches with a homosexual pastor. It is a bit difficult to group them all together
the thing is, jesus says nobody would know end of time.. but churches keep fucking up and saying they know it or it's close... my head is imploding
Wow, thank you for that. I did read your entire post and you made a lot of great points. The teacher in me especially loves that you cited different verses to back up your statements. I just want to clarify a few things: The churches I did attend taught that all sins were equal, but we were never taught not to eat or drink certain things. That was something from the Old Testament I chose to illustrate a point about cultural change. However, we were taught being gay is wrong and that it's a sin that can be conquered through prayer and determination. I've mentioned in a previous post that I'm a survivor of ex-gay conversion therapy, so I learned firsthand what some churches believe and are willing to do. What really inspired me to start this was an article I read online earlier this week about a pastor in California who wrote an open letter to the gay community. He apologized for his religion making a huge deal out of being gay while ignoring divorce, adultery, and other things that Christ said were sins, while Christ himself never spoke a single word against gay people. In fact, he stuck up for the "sinners" of his day such as prostitutes and corrupt tax collectors.
Because it is human to pick and choose - for a lot of people, moral codes can be very subjective and flexible dependent on circumstances.
The church is not perfect. Christians are not perfect. Only God is perfect. I dont like how a lot of christians attack gays. I am both christian and gay and i listen to what God says, not the guy at the front of the pulpit. God does not hate gays. He hates the sins people commit. I believe God doesnt want me to act on my homosexual feelings so i intend to remain celibate and pursue other things in my life, not a relationship or sex. It doesnt sit right within me spiritually to act on these feelings. This is not a church imposed view, this is God imposed view. The church hasnt influenced me at all. I actually strongly dislike the church! It is NOT how God intended it to be! If the church was really God focused, it would love and not judge people. Only God is allowed to judge. I want to see a turn around in the church. A place where people are given love and a safe place to work through their struggles.
I know my pastor feels the same as most and I am trying to really understand what would Jesus do? I personally feel he accepts us as he made us and we as Christians need to do the same. I am torn between that. So when in doubt I try to follow His example. Love and be Loved.
First the mane cherch that condems homosexuls is cathlic now i go to cherch and live in th .bible belt most of my frends go to cherch and dont care that im gay my paster hasent condemed me so the majority of religin and its peaple are exsepting but the fue who arnt are are why thay are stareortped the same way as gay peaple 10-30 percint of gay peaple act gay but that is anuf to start a stereotype now i hat the peaple how pick on.me and dont get in truble the say its because of ther religon but its no exus to bully 1thing i was allwase was told was you will be jujed by the same thing you judje some 1els for
Good luck with that, and may you not die with any regrets...but given this statement I'm gonna go ahead and assume you'll be up to your neck in them
I admire your dedication to the reading of archived threads. Former Bible thumper myself. I was very good at converting people, but that's because I did my research. It ended poorly. So, if you want a reason, I have a cynical one: If you go back and read the bible, The original, not the 400 AD rewrite or the King James version, and you look at the parts they left out, Jesus' teachings are very wise and honest. The problem is they don't make money. A church needs to get bodies in those seats. So they fudged a little. Two ways to get people into the church. Promise them something they want. Give them an enemy for them all to hate. So you start getting more and more "miracles" as time goes on. (The promise of something good) And you get the church pointing out more and more enemies (guess who). This is a problem with every religion. Jesus had a great message. Much wisdom. But it was a hard sell. They put a "spin" on it and the spin became dogma. The wisdom becomes less important then making money. At first for practical reasons, later for greed. It's cyclic, of course. But the reason the same problems keep coming up over and over is because the problem is fundimental. The flaw is at the core of most religions because of what a religion has to do to succeed. Ironically, it's like evolution. The worst traits of a religion are usually what allows it to out perform the others. As for your situation, been there. Totally been there.
