Jesus said nothing about homosexuality, but historically Christians have been against it and the Westboro baptists tell us "God hates fags". What should Christians think and do about gay rights, gay marriage, etc.? Why?
First, I dislike the word "homophobic", because it has become a catchall PC buzzword for those who disapprove of homosexuality. It means "phobic about homosexuals". A phobia is a severe neurotic disorder, and therefore to call someone "homophobic" is to imply that they have a psychiatric problem. I don't know what Christians "should think"...all I can do is share my own thoughts. I guess I'm homophobic, because from my personal perspective, homosexuality is not a desirable lifestyle, and I find the idea of engaging in sexual acts with a person of the same sex repugnant. At the same time, I see gay people as individuals; as working, contributing, taxpaying citizens. There's no good reason that they shouldn't have equal legal rights in regard to personal partnerships, property, and inheritance. The idea of gay marriage, in the man-woman sense, makes me queasy. That's one I don't think I can come onboard with...I'm old and conservative, I guess. The fact that Christians are largely against it is their business, but this shouldn't dictate public policy; church and state should stay separate, per the constitution. The Westboro Klan is similarly entitled to freedom of speech; however, this "right" becomes blurry when they abuse it in the disgraceful spectacles they make at the funerals of our war dead. My guess: Fred Phelps is a pathologically-conflicted closet homosexual, who is expressing his personal self-hatred through his actions and words. Jesus never said "God hates fags".
I agree with you about the Westboro Baptists. Jesus didn't say anything at all about homosexuality, although Paul did. The "God hates fags" line is a misquoting of Leviticus, which clearly refers to the practice of homosexuality, not the people who practice it. Or as the televangelists put it: "God hates the sin, but loves the sinner." And how Phelps got it into his head that it's o.k. to add to the grief of families of war dead just because he doesn't think the U.S. is hard enough on gays is soemthing I don't understand at all. The Westboro Baptists are mentally ill, not Christians. They're in it for the media attention, and they give us all a bad name.
No, Jesus didnt say God hates fags. Goodness...that would be harsh. Im not "homophobe"...actually I think if 2 people love another then it's alright. I am not God and I am not here to judge what 2 people do in the bedroom or anything as that. thats just me.
There is another thread about this in the Christianity section, but anyway: You can not ask a question like that because individual Christians have different beliefs. The Bible says in the OT that homosexuality is wrong, but when Jesus came he made most of those laws obsolete and just made them into guidelines. The NT says that what Jesus said is law, and since he did not say anything against homosexuality, it is not a law. My personal beliefs: I am not Christian and I do not think homosexuality is wrong (I am bisexual in fact). Note: God, Christian and otherwise, is incapable of hate.
I basically agree with you man, but for the record, there are some NT passages by Paul in Corinthians and Romans that are always cited against homosexuality. He may have meant homosexual promiscuity, temple prostitution, pedophilia, etc., and he condemned other forms of extramarital sex, like fornication (most of us are in trouble).
That is Paul. Jesus did not say anything against homosexuality and Christianity follows the teaching of Christ.
Not so ... From what I've been able to determine from online dictionaries, the following are various definitions of "phobia": noun a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it. A persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing or situation that compels one to avoid it, despite the awareness and reassurance that it is not dangerous. A strong fear, dislike, or aversion. 1786, "fear, horror, aversion," Mod.L., abstracted from compounds in -phobia, from Gk. -phobia, from phobos "fear," originally "flight" (still the only sense in Homer), but it became the common word for "fear" via the notion of "panic, fright" (cf. phobein "put to flight, frighten"), from PIE base *bhegw- "to run" (cf. Lith. begu "to flee," O.C.S. begu "flight," bezati "to flee, run," O.N. bekkr "a stream"). Psychological sense attested by 1895; phobic (adj.) is from 1897 an anxiety disorder characterized by extreme and irrational fear of simple things or social situations; "phobic disorder is a general term for all phobias" an intense fear or hatred of something, Example: She has a phobia about birds. An extreme and often unreasonable fear of some object, concept, situation, or person. An intense, abnormal, or illogical fear of a specified thing: claustrophobia. an exaggerated and often disabling fear usually inexplicable to the subject and having sometimes a logical but usually an illogical or symbolic object, class of objects, or situation HTML:
Darrell...for what it's worth, I think you've done more to verify than disprove my statement about phobias being neurotic/psychiatric disorders! To repeat: "homophobic" is a pejorative PC term, a subtle putdown of those who disapprove of or are uncomfortable with homosexuality.
A lot of people are phobic just because of their backrounds and the way they are raised. I do not think it is a mental disorder, it can be get rid of by the truth. The reason people are phobic is because of ignorance. get rid of the ignorance, get rid of the phobia.
I have met some of the most beautiful people who happen to be gay. I do not believe that one chooses to be gay. I am absolitely against ANY discrimination of any kind. If gays want to serve in the military, let them. It's not like gays are perverts!! Matter of fact, I have met more monogomous gay couples than hetero.....in my opinion, gays should be allowed to get married. There's nothing more beautiful that two people who love each other, gay or straight. (Hetero couples sure are making a mockery of marriage.....divorce rate at 50-60%!!!) And gay Christians.....how do those gay bashers explain that? surely, if being gay is a sin, they will be forgiven. Heteros have plenty of vices to worry about. IMO, being an adulterer and a pedophile is more horrific than being gay.
My views on homosexuality are this: what is the big freakin' deal? Seriously. Yes, I believe that according to the Bible, homosexuality is a sin. But so are a lot of other things every Christian does every single day! But I also believe, according to the Bible, that homosexuality is not any greater of a sin than any other. Sin is sin, and all sin is the same in God's eyes. Before you go off in some rant about how it's worse to murder someone's mom than to steal a pack of gum - note that I said "In God's eyes". This means a world of difference. Humans will never be able to fully comprehend things as God does, after all, He designed us that way. Yes, of COURSE it seems like to us that some sins are worse than other sins.... but note another key phrase I used: "to us". "To God" and "To us" are completely different and separate from one another. It is because of this difference that many Christians have gotten, in my personal opinion, down right idiotic and wrong about trying to say one sin is worse or better than another sin. Being the humans that we are, experiencing the emotions that we do, and being imperfect, of course we are going to consider some sins worse than others in our own minds simply because of our nature. But that does not make us right. Yes, I would definitely be more upset if someone tortured and killed my husband than if someone stole my car, but that is a SOCIAL/emotional thing for me, not a SIN/doctrine thing. It's a SIN/doctrine thing for God, and I believe from where He sits, he sees them both equally wrong. Long story short, I think that anyone who zeros in on anyone for any sin they do is a hypocrite, because one Christian man is just as guilty of sin as the next Christian OR non-Christian man, regardless of what that sin is. A Christian homosexual is no different than the Christian man who steals candy from the corner store. They both sinned, big deal, let it go. The beauty of it all is, Jesus died for their sins and paid their eternal debt for it. So both the homosexual and the candy stealer are forgiven. Why the hell some idiots feel the need to pick on one type of sin and not others, I will never understand. And if a homosexual is not a Christian, I'd say there's a bigger issue at hand than the fact that the person is a homosexual. In that case, there are much better things to be doing with your time with that person besides being mean and making them feel bad for who they are and what they do. None of us have a right to judge anyway.
yes i think some christians are. all that "love the sinner, hate the sin" things is very offensive. gays, lesbians, bisexuals, trangendered, all natural and normal. blessings xxx xx x
God is not incapable of hate or anything otherwise. You can't put limits on a limitless being. that being said i have no problem with gays other than the ones that solely define themselves by the sexuality. like the only part of their personality that is valid is the fact that they are gay. It is not for me, but I really dont see a problem with them.
Seems like we've been around this block a few times before. I don't think Christians who reject gays are necessarily "homophobic", meaning an irrational fear of gays. But they think that scripture compells them to regard homosexuality as displeasing to God. There are a bunch of Old Testament passages that are always quoted, together with some writings by Paul. Jesus, himself, interestingly enough, said absolutely nothing on the subject. Most of the passages quoted could be taken to refer to homosexual promiscuity, temple prostitution, child abuse, and gang rape, leading historian Boswell and other pro-gay writers to argue that committed loving same-sex relationships aren't prohibited. The two most problematic passages from this standpoint are in Leviticus (OT) and Romans (NT). Leviticus says it's an "abomination" for a man to lie with a man as with a woman, and the penalty is death. Note: the passage is clearly directed at male homosexuality-- interpreted narrowly as involving coitus or penetration. The same book gives the death penalty for cursing one's father or mother, and the term "abomination" is also used for eating pork or shellfish, planting mingled seeds, or wearing polycotton blended clothing. But some conservative Christians call the latter laws customary laws, non-binding on Christians, while the rule against homosexuality is said to be universal law. The rule may derive from the prohibition in Genesis against "wasting the seed" (applying also to male masturbation), which reflected the importance of reproduction in an emerging desert tribe. Some scholars believe that Leviticus, purportedly given by Moses, was actually added to the Torah later, around 400B.C. by priests during the Babylonian captivity. Some speculate that the common practice of Babylonians in sodomizing male captives as a form of humiliation may have left a bad impression in this regard and given same-sex male homosexual coupling a bad name among Jews. Paul's prohibitions are found in several epistles, but most clearly in Romans 1:18-27, where he talks about men and women who reject God's will being given over to "degrading passions", which are described as homosexual relations against one's "natural functions". As a Jew, Paul was familiar with Leviticus, but Romans also reflects the Greco-Roman Stoic belief in "Natural Law", which was considered "state of the art" ethical thinking in Paul's time. By that view, homosexuality is "unnatural, because the natural function of sex is said to be reproduction. The fact that homosexuality is condemed in both OT & NT is significant for Christians who believe some parts of the OT are no longer valid & binding for them.
Are Christians homophobic? Quite simply, No, Christians do not hate or fear homosexuals. But if one is to believe that the Bible is the word of God and seeing as the bible as a whole has much to say against homosexuality it would seem that God does not approve of homosexuality. In other words God does not hate anyone but he does hate what some people do and that is the example that Christians should follow. Remember it is not the job of Christians to force others to be Christian, thus what another person decides to do with his life is for him to decide. God is teaching us to benefit ourselves and so a Christian’s first job is to live his life in accord with Bible principles and thus show others how they too can be benefited. After that we can tell others how they too can benefit from God's word but that too should never be forced on others. As for homosexual marriage, those who are not Christian can do pretty much what ever they want. I would wonder why use the term marriage, maybe I’m old fashioned but I believe that by definition marriage is the union between a man and a woman. Maybe instead of trying to change the definition of the word marriage, maybe they would get less resistance and make more headway if they just called it a civil union.
I'm not homophobic. Who am I, or anyone else, to tell people who to sleep with? ANd yes, I do believe that gay marriage should be legalized.
transgendered is neutered sexless gender theatre . gay sex is pseudo sex . however so gleefully they may bubble ecstacy , the condition may rationally be considered bio-sorrow and disfunctional . so now homo-sexuallity in the industrial age is gathering to itself the myth of normalcy . i think the idea is troubling especially to the nature/sense of children and teens and shall not be the best adaptation to the trouble of expanding population . i think an answer will become more clear as we come to understand and embrace our collective conciousness . there-in we can learn from god as a species , this our necessity .
I think i was in the past but over the yrs, evolving my faith and forming my own views i am not. If it is a sin, then it is no different than any sin i commit. I love the sinner, not the sin. I have a few gay friends and they do not "bother" me in the slightest and are some of the better examples of Christians i know.
