darkauthor26: ([skins]Cook Depressed)

Originally posted by [livejournal.com profile] neo_prodigy at Spirit Day

 


It’s been decided. On October 20th, 2010, we will wear purple in honor of the 6 gay boys who committed suicide in recent weeks/months due to homophobic abuse in their homes at at their schools. Purple represents Spirit on the LGBTQ flag and that’s exactly what we’d like all of you to have with you: spirit. Please know that times will get better and that you will meet people who will love you and respect you for who you are, no matter your sexuality. Please wear purple on October 20th. Tell your friends, family, co-workers, neighbors and schools.

RIP Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh (top)
RIP Justin Aaberg, Raymond Chase (middle)
RIP Asher Brown and Billy Lucas. (bottom)

REBLOG to spread a message of love, unity and peace.


EDIT: The reblog will now take you to your dreamwidth account instead of LJ.
darkauthor26: (Default)
I'm reading an extensive analysis of the Left Behind series. For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Left Behind series is an End of Days story. It begins with the Rapture and thus with mass disappearances of people all over the planet as God takes the true believes up to heaven. The story follows a band of people who were left behind as they witness the Tribulation and the rising of the Anti-Christ. The series, in my opinion, is horrible, full of bad writing and bad theology, but it provides some great discussion and the comment section is as worth reading as the posts. It contains some of the most thoughtful and respectful theological debates and discussion in the comments (mostly) that I've ever seen. I also love insights like this:

The other option is to read such tirades as wholly directed at Other People. Judgement is never for Us, only for Them. This is one of the main points of LB and indeed of the entire pseudotheological framework of premillennial dispensationalism on which it is based.

This approach -- judgement for Thee but not for Me -- also helps to account for the current antigay mania of American evangelicalism. In a couple of Paul's other rants, he includes "sodomites" in his bestiaries of badness. Even if we accept, for the sake of argument, the dubious assumption that Paul misunderstood the story of Sodom, and therefore used this as a synonym for "homosexuals," it doesn't follow that "homosexuals are bad" is the main lesson that heterosexuals should be gleaning from such passages. But if you read such passages looking for any excuse to exempt yourself from the apostle's condemnation, this offers an ideal escape hatch. Preaching against self-love, ingratitude, love of money or love of pleasure can be a two-edged sword. But if you're heterosexual, and you're preaching against homosexuality, then you're safe. You've found the ideal target for self-exempting, self-justifying self-righteousness.

Judgment is for Other People.
-- Fred Clark (emphasis mine)


It's really best to read the the post "Other People" to understand the whole context of this passage. Personally, I think it's best to just read the whole thing because of the theological discussions as well as those on how horrible the writing is.

But here are a couple of gems from the comments section:

"But if you're heterosexual, and you're preaching against homosexuality, then you're safe."

I'm so glad to see this pointed out. Attending any of the serious social or spiritual concerns the bible tends to focus on involves, too often, both a conscious acceptance of our own failings as well as admonishments to change our own behavior. The bible's far too likely to tell us that we're too interested in wealth, not doing enough to help other people and overly judgmental, and nobody likes to hear that.

On the other hand, if we scrounge through the bible to find some obscure condemnation of a behavior we've never even wanted to commit, then suddenly our souls are clean, we don't need to change who we are and, best of all, there's someone else distinctly more 'sinful' than us we can point a finger at.

Of course, the bible speaks out far more fervently against this kind of judgmental lambasting than it does homosexuality, reminding us that condemnation and judgment are God's affairs, not ours, which renders this attitude about as 'christian' as whacking strangers for the KaliMa, but all shapes and sizes, right?
-- Michael "Vendor X" Heaney

If I highlighted everything I loved about this particular comment, the whole thing would be in bold. So I decided I'd better not.
 
Martin: The Bible is quite clear that homosexuality is not the reason the Sodom was destroyed, but rather it was they they didn't feed the poor or clothe the naked:

Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.

(Ezekiel 16: 49-50 NIV)
-- wintermute (emphasis mine)
 
I have to thank wintermute for supplying this verse. I'd never seen or heard that verse before, but thank you, God! I've finally found a definitive verse to quote the next time someone starts to say that the sin of Sodom was homosexuality.

Following this was an interesting discussion on why the sin of Sodom wasn't homosexuality--in addition to the verse supplied above--because of the social context as well as the context of some actions in the story. There was then a discussion on whether angels were or are sexless which--if they are--would render the possibility of homosexuality moot.

I'm going to stop quoting things here and just roll around on the floor in glee at the fact that I've found a religious discussion that hasn't descended into madness and stupidity and which actually has something I can sink my teeth into. It makes me want to pick up my Bible and just start reading.

 
darkauthor26: (Default)
Your daily dose of stupidity brought to you from this thread at [livejournal.com profile] ljchristians. I feel bad for the original poster because they really seem to be looking for advice on how to help their friend, but I don't think they realize that this is not the place to look for it. I don't know if [livejournal.com profile] ljchristians is has bad as [livejournal.com profile] christianity can be about this, but...damn it all, even though I know I shouldn't look, I did. As this is one comment that I found.


Im sure I'll be shot down in flames for for saying this, but its a lie to say someone is homosexual. As hard as it may be to accept, attraction to people of the same sex is only natural in that its natural for mankind to sin; and having sexual relations with people of the same sex is a sin.

Its' not something you "are". It is a behavioral type and generally reflects some kind of hurt or problem in the past.

Your dear friend does not have to dispair though: The answer lies in the blood of Jesus which can heal her wounds and change her desires. The trouble is finding a christian pastor who understands this, and is able to love the sinner despite the sin. She also must not cut herself up about it. She needs counselling and deliverance from her past. Once that is done, the sin which is the symptom will disappear.





Sometimes I really hate Christians. Which sounds bad considering I am one, but I can't lie about this. Sometimes I hate the people who share my faith. I can only hope that the comment I left in the thread will be of some help to the original poster's friend.

I just wish that people would actually...oh, I dunno, know what the hell they're talking about before they speak. I'm tired of hearing this shit. Oh, well... Be the change you want in the world, right? I guess the only thing I can do, and that other people can do, is reach out to people who are confused and questioning and maybe bit by bit these kinds of answers will disappear.

I dream, right?

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