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Yep, it's frustrating. I encountered the same thing with DRob in this thread and the Transgender thread. And, rbbi, well, how it looks to me is that she is so intent on appearing to be a spiritual giant who knows the bible code, nothing else much matters.
I won't even respond to rbbi or Peacegiver. The types who claim to have inside info from God not available to anyone else sets off the alarm bells. That's not spirituality, that's illness.
Your first paragraph is contradicted by the quote of mine you included right after it. Reread.
If you do care about the suffering of people with HIV, then I am glad to hear it. I think this is the first time you'vever said anything like that. But then why not lose the disparaging "lifestyle" remarks, too? There's no one lifestyle that all gay people embrace. They are simply people.
I am trying very hard to not mock fundamentalists, Jeff. I am trying to have a dialogue, which is damn near impossible to do with people who often quote scripture in lieu of communicating with their own words. I get very angry sometimes at the misuse of scripture to twist the message of Christ, yes, and I have done my share of making fun of you out of that anger. It's always harder to deal with the perceived shortcomings of those who are supposed to be members of the same family than those on the outside, isn't it?
But I am trying. I understand that you think the Bible is actually literally the "word of God". You have to understand in turn that I do not. To me, God is much bigger and wider and beyond human understanding, and so we have to seek him outside the book as well. That is where we get stuck.
It appears to non-fundamentalist Christians, as well as non-Christians, that the excessive use of the Bible to point out sin lurking around every corner is simply an excuse for condescension and judgmentalism toward other people. It occurs to me that you may not realize how prominent that perception is and how strongly that repels people. The focus on SIN SIN SIN preaches exclusion rather than inclusion. Jesus was all about inclusion, first and foremost. The message was that anyone is welcome to come to God. It was not "you are a sinner". A person can come to self-examination for their shortcomings as they wind down the path, but they aren't even going to take a step unless they realize that Love is the reason for the journey, and that the Love is free no matter who they are.
Why get mad? Christianity is a religion based on the creation of the bible. Constantine commissioned his bishops to create the bible by sifting though the books and deciding what was the word of god and what was not. There are not even any direct writings only copies of copies. That said the religion is created out of the teaching in those 66 books. I also don't believe its the word of god because I don't believe in a god. But to tell those who do they take it too literally is ridiculous. The West Borough Baptist Church out of Kansas is one of the most Bat Crap crazy bunch of nuts I have ever seen, but to tell them they take this or that too literally is in and of itself nuts. From the very beginning of Christianity its always been an interpretation game. If you focus on any particular part of the bible you can base a religion on it. If someone wants to believe as say the Jehovah's Witnesses do that Jesus came invisibly in 1914 and took power and is waiting to destroy the world soon and they can prove it because of the times time and half a time passages in the book transferring the year for a day rule, then so be it. I do not argue with JWs when they come to my door on how to interpret the bible, only that they have predicted the end of the world many times over the past 100 plus years and never has it been correct. Nothing they have ever taught has come to pass. I do not get into the weeds. Because I do not have common ground, I don't believe in Santa so why debate on the color of Santa's sleigh? The only fact I pointed out was that the bible teaches that being gay or homosexual is a sin. Its that simple. If you want to be gay I don't understand why you don't just go do your own thing and quit trying to twits the bible into sanctioning your acts of what it feels are sin?
I won't even respond to rbbi or Peacegiver. The types who claim to have inside info from God not available to anyone else sets off the alarm bells. That's not spirituality, that's illness.
This is every religion on the planet. From the pope to Billy Sunday. If you have a problem with religion and by your posts I think you do, then just leave it. I can not prove god does not exist nor can you prove he does. So if you want to believe in some man in the sky who really loves us but just can not seem to make himself known but by some group of books that are contradictory and bipolar then is that a god that needs my devotion? If god exists IMO he is a dead beat dad. But I don't try to say the bible is a book of love and all one has to do is just love each other. That is having a childish view of the world. It never works. Just as the secularists say that abstinence does not work because no one uses it, so too with just love each other. You go to parts of Syria or Iraq and just try to hug it out with ISIS and see how fast your love theory will last. About as long as it takes gravity to pull your cut off head to the ground.
I won't even respond to rbbi or Peacegiver. The types who claim to have inside info from God not available to anyone else sets off the alarm bells. That's not spirituality, that's illness.
Yes! You know I was a fully immersed in the-bible-is-the-infallible-Word-of-God-ness for most of my life. I studied, I searched, I "hid it in my heart". And I had epiphanies and revelations, some very similar to Rbbi. It was intoxicating. Now, when I look back at those years from a different perspective, I see the mental illness aspect of it that produced some really unholy attitudes and behaviors.
There was some good mixed in with the bad, though. Love can penetrate even the darkest places. There is always hope.
You refuse to see MQ's point. The higher risk of contracting hiv is not because one is gay; it is due to risky promiscuous behavior (something heterosexuals are hardly immune to).
Correction it's due to risky male to male promiscuous behavior which runs rampant in the gay community. The stats are plain as day. You can't tell me homosexual behavior has NOTHING to do with the spread of HIV.
Correction it's due to risky male to male promiscuous behavior which runs rampant in the gay community. The stats are plain as day. You can't tell me homosexual behavior has NOTHING to do with the spread of HIV.
You are aware that there are other STD' s, right? And if hiv was only spread male to male, women wouldn't contract it.
Yes! You know I was a fully immersed in the-bible-is-the-infallible-Word-of-God-ness for most of my life. I studied, I searched, I "hid it in my heart". And I had epiphanies and revelations, some very similar to Rbbi. It was intoxicating. Now, when I look back at those years from a different perspective, I see the mental illness aspect of it that produced some really unholy attitudes and behaviors.
There was some good mixed in with the bad, though. Love can penetrate even the darkest places. There is always hope.
Lol, yes, I have a form of OCD/intrusive thoughts, and religiosity can play on that big time. It's why I dumped my childhood religious teaching that was focused on sin and death and hell and spent most of my adult life avoiding anything spiritual-related. Only after finding out in my 40s what those weird things were in my head and spent an hour every week for seven years talking to a funny little guy in the chair across from me was I able to feel in control enough to return and explore my spiritual side. I had to separate out what I called "Real God" from the dark thing that had followed me around since childhood waiting to get me.
"Love can penetrate even the darkest places." Love that.
This is every religion on the planet. From the pope to Billy Sunday. If you have a problem with religion and by your posts I think you do, then just leave it. I can not prove god does not exist nor can you prove he does. So if you want to believe in some man in the sky who really loves us but just can not seem to make himself known but by some group of books that are contradictory and bipolar then is that a god that needs my devotion? If god exists IMO he is a dead beat dad. But I don't try to say the bible is a book of love and all one has to do is just love each other. That is having a childish view of the world. It never works. Just as the secularists say that abstinence does not work because no one uses it, so too with just love each other. You go to parts of Syria or Iraq and just try to hug it out with ISIS and see how fast your love theory will last. About as long as it takes gravity to pull your cut off head to the ground.
What is your point? Even if, in theory, you are correct. What is the relevance? Also, if the above is correct then this entire thread... which you started... is pointless.
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