Where's the love... Don't be offended

amymrls

Thank you

sofaking6

For me, a Jew by birth and atheist by belief, the best part of threads like this is the opportunity to hear from Christians who ARE compassionate and kind and who DO strive to be actually "Christ-like". Usually the other kind are so much more vocal. So cheers and love to you guys!

Fairy_Farts

Loved it! Thanks for posting this, Bob.

It's very insightful, inspiring, and touching.

JellyJaks

Thanks for posting. It had me in tears but if more people believed like this, the world would be a much better place.

MoreThanMommie

This whole piece brought me to tears
it makes sense to me....I hope it makes just as much sense to others :flowerforyou:

^This. Except I bawled like a baby. :sad:

Thank you for posting this. It's a amazing post.

Coyla

Jesus said: "He who is without sin may cast the first stone."

Jesus also said: 'If you love me, keep my commandments."

penrbrown

Here you go
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5301

But like I said before Love and treat them like a brother

The war of links! May the one with more saved information win.

jplord

Great post. You thought it through before hitting send. A loving gesture in and of itself!

Same-sex love can be a stable committed relationship. Sttraight couples can make an ungodly mess out of multiple lives.

Respect, civility, tolerance, and a sincere smile is a good start.

Thanks Bob.

trinitylyons01

Bob, this was a great post. I have never understood why people can't agree to disagree and just learn to love PEOPLE regardless of their choices! A "lifestyle" is a person's private and personal choice. I do not believe in some things but I do believe everyone has a right to choose how they live and they should not be persecuted because of it. That goes for being gay, fat, a smoker, drug addict, ex-con, pretty, ugly etc.

I could go on and on but the truth is you definitely nailed it in this post. The people in our world need to learn how to love. Period! I sincerely hope people will read this and realize the importance of what you have stated.

Finally, as a Christian who tries to have Christ in my life and not just have religion, I will pray that Jacob will have people in his life who love him and are there for him. It breaks my heart that he is hurting so deeply. I will actually pray this pray for every type of person that was mentioned in this post as well as all the rest of us. No one is better than anyone else. But by the grace of God we could all be just like the ex-con, homeless guy/gal, drug addict etc.

Thank you for re-posting this! I hope the message gets across!

threasarenee

Thank you for sharing this message. I am a Christian, but I am accepting of those ppl whom have different faiths and lifestyles than me. I TRY not to judge others, though I must admit sometimes I do. I am a sinner...we all are. I have no problems what so ever with ppl that are gay, lesbian, bi, or that are jewish, muslim, catholic, ect. The ppl I usually end up judging are the murderers, the drug dealers, the homophobes, the racists, ect. I TRY not too, because as stated we are to love all others and judge no one. To original poster...thank you for writing this. I am glad that you were able to manage getting it written. I am sure it was very difficult.

trinitylyons01

Jesus said: "He who is without sin may cast the first stone."

Jesus also said: 'If you love me, keep my commandments."

Once again, the problem here is that people who break commandments, as this person is putting it, don't answer to you or me. They answer to God. Why do we take it upon ourselves to judge them when, as Christians, we believe that is God's job? People lie all the time, they dishonor their parents, take God's name in vain and break numerous other commandments but no one seems to really make a big deal about those. It's only the "BIG" sins that make us feel the need to speak out.

In any event, the point here is that Christ shows love to all. If you look in the bible it was actually the religious fanatics (pharisees and saducees) that drew His criticism. He loved the "sinners" and spent time with them showing love and acceptance - not for their BEHAVIOR but because they are people.

I am not God and I'm not trying to judge people as if I were. I can plainly say to someone, 'I don't agree with the gay lifestyle" and at the same time I can sit down and eat dinner with a gay man or woman and separate what they do from who they are. They are people just like me. Furthermore, for the Christians who think they need to point out every person's sins remember that Christ won souls with love not hate and He said, "He who is without sin let him cast the first stone".

I honestly cannot understand why this point is so hard to grasp!

InnerFatGirl

Here you go
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5301

But like I said before Love and treat them like a brother

The war of links! May the one with more saved information win.

LMAO, love this response! I do always say that one can find anything on Google to support their information.

InnerFatGirl

I'm going to be honest, I didn't read all of it... I kind of get a little ADD like when there is a bunch of text and I honestly can't focus... but I think I get the gist of what you were saying and I believe that I agree with you...

My personal belief is this... that yes, homosexuality is a sin... simply because God stated it as such in the old laws.... HOWEVER, that does not mean that I get to hate, judge, shun, otherwise not show love to a person who says they are gay... Why? Because I too am a sinner... I too have sin in my life... I am a glutton... I wouldn't be here if I weren't... I am slothful more often than not... again, I wouldn't be here if I weren't... The example that Christ showed was to NOT cast stones at those that sin, even if we are without sin... Just like I don't accept my own sins (again, if I did I wouldn't be here) I don't accept the sins of others as well... HOWEVER, I do tolerate them just like others tolerate mine... None of us is perfect, none of us is righteous... so what gives us the right to act in such a way. It is between God and the individual on the repentance of sin and since I am no where in that equation, I have no idea how far away or close to God someone is to make any sort of judgement on their life... and even if I were, I would have to be totally cleansed of my own sin before I could make any judgement on anyone else's.. for any reason.... and to be honest, that's probably not going to happen until after I have died and been judged by God.


BTW: I loathe and dispise Westboro Baptist Church.... and am extremely glad that the SBC has choosen to not recognize them in the Convention.

I am not disrespecting you or your religion, don't get me wrong.

But the whole 'God condemning homosexuality thing' is a bit confusing to me. It's from a section of the bible that also condemns working on Sabbath and playing with the skin of a pig, yet nobody makes a fuss about those rules.

This picture sums it up for me, really;

Homosexuality is not only condemned in the Old Testament, it is also condemned in the New, outside of the book of Laws that few Christians follow. FYI.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/homosexuality.html

I can pull up more links if you like.

My point is... we all sin... we all have sin in our lives... and it's wrong for me (or anyone else) as a human being (and especially as a Christian) to judge and condemn others because of their sin. But we can get into the minute semantics all day long if you would like.

Oh, although I am atheist, I see where you're coming from! I wasn't singling you out, or anything. I'm not advocating getting into semantics, it's just my point is; if we're going to pick and choose what things are sinful enough to warrent affecting people's lives, we should at least point to all of them. Because, at the end of the day, in my mind at least, homosexuality is as sinful as women not covering their head.

InnerFatGirl

I'm going to be honest, I didn't read all of it... I kind of get a little ADD like when there is a bunch of text and I honestly can't focus... but I think I get the gist of what you were saying and I believe that I agree with you...

My personal belief is this... that yes, homosexuality is a sin... simply because God stated it as such in the old laws.... HOWEVER, that does not mean that I get to hate, judge, shun, otherwise not show love to a person who says they are gay... Why? Because I too am a sinner... I too have sin in my life... I am a glutton... I wouldn't be here if I weren't... I am slothful more often than not... again, I wouldn't be here if I weren't... The example that Christ showed was to NOT cast stones at those that sin, even if we are without sin... Just like I don't accept my own sins (again, if I did I wouldn't be here) I don't accept the sins of others as well... HOWEVER, I do tolerate them just like others tolerate mine... None of us is perfect, none of us is righteous... so what gives us the right to act in such a way. It is between God and the individual on the repentance of sin and since I am no where in that equation, I have no idea how far away or close to God someone is to make any sort of judgement on their life... and even if I were, I would have to be totally cleansed of my own sin before I could make any judgement on anyone else's.. for any reason.... and to be honest, that's probably not going to happen until after I have died and been judged by God.


BTW: I loathe and dispise Westboro Baptist Church.... and am extremely glad that the SBC has choosen to not recognize them in the Convention.

I am not disrespecting you or your religion, don't get me wrong.

But the whole 'God condemning homosexuality thing' is a bit confusing to me. It's from a section of the bible that also condemns working on Sabbath and playing with the skin of a pig, yet nobody makes a fuss about those rules.

This picture sums it up for me, really;

Homosexuality is not only condemned in the Old Testament, it is also condemned in the New, outside of the book of Laws that few Christians follow. FYI.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/homosexuality.html

I can pull up more links if you like.

Here you go
http://www.str.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5301

But like I said before Love and treat them like a brother

There are several points I would like to bring attention to in the article;

E.G 1; 1) Many laws exist to keep you from doing what comes naturally. - laws are subjective. Many things are illegal, but not morally wrong to everyone. For example - it is illegal to get married when you're already married. One could argue that this is not morally wrong if all parties consent, yet it is illegal. Same goes for several other things.

2) Paul is addressing this on a moral level, not a physiological level. - I can't say anything about this Paul guy, but again, morality is subjective. What is immoral about love?

E.G 2; a) "Natural" is not determined by what you want sexually, but by how you function sexually.

1. The body was built to function a specific way. - this is a bit of a non-argument. Some Christians argue that sex is for the purpose of procreating. Also, I mean, are our bodies built for oral sex? For finger play? No, but it's another area of sexuality that we explore, and nothing is wrong about it.

2. Men were not built to function sexually with men. - says who, though? Unless the definition of being built for function includes pro-creation, because many women are born with fertility issues and can't pro-create.

I like this link for a interp of the bible from a different perspective; http://skepticsannotatedbible.com/gay/long.htm

I also like this link; http://www.extremelysmart.com/insight/mistaken/CTcontradictions.php

hbrittingham

Thanks for sharing this! A very moving story.

rileamoyer

Mitakuye Oyasin (we are all related). Thank you

_Bob_

I'm going to be honest, I didn't read all of it... I kind of get a little ADD like when there is a bunch of text and I honestly can't focus... but I think I get the gist of what you were saying and I believe that I agree with you...

My personal belief is this... that yes, homosexuality is a sin... simply because God stated it as such in the old laws.... HOWEVER, that does not mean that I get to hate, judge, shun, otherwise not show love to a person who says they are gay... Why? Because I too am a sinner... I too have sin in my life... I am a glutton... I wouldn't be here if I weren't... I am slothful more often than not... again, I wouldn't be here if I weren't... The example that Christ showed was to NOT cast stones at those that sin, even if we are without sin... Just like I don't accept my own sins (again, if I did I wouldn't be here) I don't accept the sins of others as well... HOWEVER, I do tolerate them just like others tolerate mine... None of us is perfect, none of us is righteous... so what gives us the right to act in such a way. It is between God and the individual on the repentance of sin and since I am no where in that equation, I have no idea how far away or close to God someone is to make any sort of judgement on their life... and even if I were, I would have to be totally cleansed of my own sin before I could make any judgement on anyone else's.. for any reason.... and to be honest, that's probably not going to happen until after I have died and been judged by God.


BTW: I loathe and dispise Westboro Baptist Church.... and am extremely glad that the SBC has choosen to not recognize them in the Convention.

I am not disrespecting you or your religion, don't get me wrong.

But the whole 'God condemning homosexuality thing' is a bit confusing to me. It's from a section of the bible that also condemns working on Sabbath and playing with the skin of a pig, yet nobody makes a fuss about those rules.

This picture sums it up for me, really;

Homosexuality is not only condemned in the Old Testament, it is also condemned in the New, outside of the book of Laws that few Christians follow. FYI.

http://www.westarinstitute.org/Periodicals/4R_Articles/homosexuality.html

I can pull up more links if you like.

My point is... we all sin... we all have sin in our lives... and it's wrong for me (or anyone else) as a human being (and especially as a Christian) to judge and condemn others because of their sin. But we can get into the minute semantics all day long if you would like.

Oh, although I am atheist, I see where you're coming from! I wasn't singling you out, or anything. I'm not advocating getting into semantics, it's just my point is; if we're going to pick and choose what things are sinful enough to warrent affecting people's lives, we should at least point to all of them. Because, at the end of the day, in my mind at least, homosexuality is as sinful as women not covering their head.

I can look past all the other stuff but women not covering your head.... now that's just wrong

PunkyRachel

I loved this, I feel it. At my old work, there was a lady I worked with that was bi-sexual, she was the most active religious person ever! She was in church choir, she was always saying uplifting things and had a smile on her face at all times, as she did charitable things for the community. I actually miss working with her, she was a awesome woman. Speaking of drugs, my favorite co-teacher, I ever worked with, great with the kids, always had new ideas and planning great activities and just poured her heart and soul into the classroom. Well, she's the biggest pot-head I ever met, outside of work.
Personally I have never fit into a group/cliche, I've always had friends all over the place, in every stereo-type.

funkycamper

Beautiful post, _Bob_. Very eloquent and thoughtful. I wish every bigot, especially those who claim religion, would read it. Thanks for sharing this.

Nu__Me

You know, I always wondered why all these rules were not ALL a part of the commandments if they are all equally important...talk about confusing...