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Yeah, yeah, we know. And meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, some equivalent fanatic believer just said that same phrase just now in Arabic, as he chopped off somebody's head!
This behavior of yours highlights how/why religion is a mental disorder. Here you've clung to this particular arbitrary, ridiculous and easily falsifiable (already falsified) set of rigid beliefs/ideology, and woven this impenetrable narrative so deeply into your brain that you've become like this militant martyr soldier to anyone who says anything differently than your narrow set of "facts", which we all recognize as idiocy.
Religious fundamentalism/fanaticism is a poison, scourge of our modern times, across the globe, and we'd all be so much better off without you. No personal attack meant by that. But it's y'all who are everything wrong the world, not the gays.
I'm afraid it is stuff like this that pushes folks away from the church.
Well, this and the events of the past several weeks in states like Georgia, North Carolina and what happened last year in Indiana most certainly does not help the church attract new members or even help the church to keep existing ones.
The really bad thing is that the views of people like scgraham are not representative of all Christian churches.
But when these types of heated social controversies breakout and threaten the reputations, image and all-around viability of states like Georgia, North Carolina, Indiana, Arizona, etc, many people understandably think that the views of the loudest and most visible, high-profile fanatical Christian religious activists are representative of all Christians when they most certainly are not.
Location: Mableton, GA USA (NW Atlanta suburb, 4 miles OTP)
11,334 posts, read 26,083,811 times
Reputation: 3995
Quote:
Originally Posted by scgraham
I don't follow the pope. I follow Jesus; and Jesus is the Bible -- the written Word of God.
While I do respect that, I have questions. Which testament? In which language? Which specific translation? With or without the Apocrypha, and if with ... which subset? Whose interpretation is acceptable?
Besides, while I can understand Jesus as one of the Trinity, the Word of God is not usually identified as being God Himself. Even if it's the literal word, which some hold, the two (God and Word) are not the same regardless of John 1:1. I could see equivalence if both are seen as messages to Man from God.
In any case, I was just presenting a counterexample. Sodomy and other fun things don't just happen in cities long ruined near the Fertile Crescent. They happen every day. Whether such things are "evil" or not tends to depend on many social factors.
Jesus spoke of Sodom and Gomorrah, and homosexual behavior was prevalent in those cities.
Luke 17
[22] And he said unto the disciples, The days will come, when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of man, and ye shall not see it.
[23] And they shall say to you, See here; or, see there: go not after them, nor follow them.
[24] For as the lightning, that lighteneth out of the one part under heaven, shineth unto the other part under heaven; so shall also the Son of man be in his day.
[25] But first must he suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation.
[26] And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
[27] They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
[28] Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
[29] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
[30] Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
Gay marriage and acceptance are the fulfillment of the Scriptures. The world is on the long road to the finality of the return of the Son of Man, Jesus -- the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
But, it isn't just homosexual behavior that points to the final days, but the acceptance of all sin in general that is so prevalent nowadays. Behavior that would have never been accepted years ago is now in your face, shameless indecency. Sex outside marriage, drunkenness, adultery, lewdness, a contempt for the true God of the Bible, haters of those that stand for righteousness and so on.
So, Nathan Deal's advancement of gay acceptance is not to be a surprise by those who have hears to hear.
Since you seem to know a lot about Scripture, please cite the exact chapter and verse where Jesus said that gay sex is bad.
Oh, and BTW: You show a clear lack of understanding what the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is. Hint: It wasn't gay secks.
Well, I think we all clearly see now what kind of person we're dealing. As a Christian, I respectfully ask that the moderators close this thread before it gets more out of hand.
Nah, let 'em vent.
I'd much rather someone like scgraham throw a temper tantrum on a City-Data thread than throw one using our state's reputation, image and economy as a weapon of their frustrations with a changing world.
This commenting community is more than strong enough to deal with a few annoying posts by a commentor that wants to do even more harm to their side's already misguided and flawed arguments and a commentor that does not seem to care that they are probably perilously close to being banished from the City-Data website.
Before they started commenting on the recent anti-LGBTQ laws in Georgia and North Carolina, this poster appears to not have made any comments on the City-Data website in about five years (since 2011).
scgraham's temper tantrum by way of misguided quotes of Biblical scripture does not mean that their side feels it is winning the debate.....It means that they feel that they are losing this social issues/culture war debate (and their once firm grip on American society), and it means that they feel they are losing the debate in a major way.
With this poster's outburst, they are not hurting anyone else but themselves and their side of the debate.
We should not let one misguided poster's ill-considerate or rude actions diminish the free speech opportunities of everyone else, who seem to be dealing with this poster pretty well.
Last edited by Born 2 Roll; 04-04-2016 at 02:52 PM..
I found the article over at Georgiapol.com. It's originally from the National Review discussing how the influence of social conservatives may be finally waning in Georgia...
Quote:
One week after Deal’s veto, which came on Easter Monday, evangelical leaders, lawmakers, and activists across the state are still livid and threatening to make the governor pay. But for all their bluster, social conservatives may not have the political power they once did, even in a Bible-belt stronghold such as Georgia.
Deal’s veto may turn out to be the moment when long-standing tensions between the business and evangelical wings of the Republican party exploded here, and when the former definitively vanquished the latter. When the legislation landed on Deal’s desk, a bevy of corporate giants such as Disney threatened to pull their business from Georgia should he sign it. Christian leaders, including Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, aggressively lobbied him to stand firm. Yet Deal, who campaigned in 2010 as a champion of traditional values, decided to strike down the legislation. The Religious Right, which for decades kept the cultural shifts roiling other parts of the country out of the South, may not be able to fight off change much longer.
The post goes on to speculate that supporters of the bill will make sure their voices are heard at the Republican State Convention in early June, and that candidates are likely to see more scrutiny about their positions on social issues from groups like the Faith & Freedom Coalition during the primary and general elections this spring and fall. However, that may not be enough. From the post:
But it may be that in present-day Georgia, where two-thirds of voters support anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians, an aggressive campaign from a group such as the Faith & Freedom Coalition simply doesn’t have the muscle it might once have had. The landscape is a far cry from, say, the 1980s, when politicians lobbied hard for the support of the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority, or even from 2004, when a gay-marriage ban claimed support from 76 percent of voters. And as evangelical forces have become less unified — the present-day faces of the Religious Right, such as Moore, are less focused on organizing voters — the influence of Right-leaning business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce has only grown.
Meanwhile, a Politico story on efforts to alter the national GOP platform by removing or at least toning down language opposing same sex marriage in favor of traditional marriage lists Georgia and Texas as two states that organizers believe could be receptive to such a change. Part of the reasoning is likely related to the fate of HB 757.
Brothers will fight
and kill each other,
siblings
do incest;
men will know misery,
adulteries be multiplied
an axe-age, a sword-age,
shields will be cloven,
a wind-age, a wolf-age,
before the world's ruin.
Anyways, moving on back to a more productive track...
An article on the website of "National Review" magazine (a magazine that was established by famous conservative intellectual William F. Buckley, Jr.) writes that Georgia Governor Nathan Deal’s recent veto of House Bill 757, the Free Exercise Protection Act, shows that the influence of the Christian right is declining in the Peach State.
Quote:
One week after Deal’s veto, which came on Easter Monday, evangelical leaders, lawmakers, and activists across the state are still livid and threatening to make the governor pay. But for all their bluster, social conservatives may not have the political power they once did, even in a Bible-belt stronghold such as Georgia.
Deal’s veto may turn out to be the moment when long-standing tensions between the business and evangelical wings of the Republican party exploded here, and when the former definitively vanquished the latter. When the legislation landed on Deal’s desk, a bevy of corporate giants such as Disney threatened to pull their business from Georgia should he sign it. Christian leaders, including Ralph Reed, founder of the Faith & Freedom Coalition, aggressively lobbied him to stand firm. Yet Deal, who campaigned in 2010 as a champion of traditional values, decided to strike down the legislation. The Religious Right, which for decades kept the cultural shifts roiling other parts of the country out of the South, may not be able to fight off change much longer.
The article goes on to speculate that supporters of Georgia's vetoed religious liberty bill will make sure their voices are heard at the Georgia state Republican convention in early June, and that candidates are likely to see much more scrutiny about their positions on social issues from groups like the Faith & Freedom Coalition during the primary and general elections this spring and fall. Though, that increased scrutiny on social issues may not be enough to keep the influence of the Christian right and social conservatism from continuing to wane in Georgia.
Quote:
But it may be that in present-day Georgia, where two-thirds of voters support anti-discrimination laws to protect gays and lesbians, an aggressive campaign from a group such as the Faith & Freedom Coalition simply doesn’t have the muscle it might once have had. The landscape is a far cry from, say, the 1980s, when politicians lobbied hard for the support of the Christian Coalition and Moral Majority, or even from 2004, when a gay-marriage ban claimed support from 76 percent of voters. And as evangelical forces have become less unified — the present-day faces of the Religious Right, such as Moore, are less focused on organizing voters — the influence of Right-leaning business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce has only grown.
I found the article over at Georgiapol.com. It's originally from the National Review discussing how the influence of social conservatives may be finally waning in Georgia...
I had started working on my post about the subject before I saw your post.
Anyways, readers have two posts on this subject that they can (productively) comment on.
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