“Am I a Christian?” No. While I agree with many of Jesus’ teachings, I don’t buy he was the Christ, the only Son of God. Aren’t we all? Don’t we each share divine power if not in body, then in mind and soul? I’m skeptical of religion, but still have a willingness to believe. Like the poster in Fox Mulder’s office, “I Want To Believe.” I believe Jesus was a political badass who challenged Jewish religious authorities by decrying the very hypocrisies freethinkers do to our churches today. It got him killed. (The running around three days later with fresh, bloodless wounds I’ll tackle in another post). I don’t have many problems with mainstream Christianity or Christians. Yet, I cannot condone the actions of groups, especially the Christian Right, when they fly in the face of their own teachings and defeat themselves with their own logic.
Last year an openly gay judge overturned Proposition 8 in California. This summer New York passed laws allowing gays to marry. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy will soon be obsolete. Lots of conservatives, at least the ones confident enough in their opinions to blab them all over TV, these same people who’ve long attacked homosexuals, have made it known homosexuality is wrong, and letting homosexuals marry degrades the institution of marriage, and in turn, rends the very social fabric of the United States. I want to focus first why they say homosexuality is wrong, according to their biggest supporter: God.
If that’s the case, and the Christian Right are really, as they claim, keeping God’s sacraments in the United States, then his word should be followed to the letter, no matter what “word” that may be. There’s no picking which of his words to follow. If he said it, you do it.
A webpage found at www.answersingenesis.org tells all stringent Christians how to win a debate on ethics in these cases. They claim the Word of God must be followed at all times because it is an unbreakable, unchangeable word. The words of men, however, should not be followed because they are unstable. Men make their words law and have systems set up to change those laws whenever they feel like it. Since these laws are governed by man, man decides which to keep and which to follow. He picks and chooses. According to the above website, Christians can win debates against secularists or atheists (or people with common sense) by bringing up these points. It continues with how to end all rebuttals: what’s in the Bible is rock hard because it comes straight from God; what is in man’s hands is malleable and thus, unstable, because it comes from man. Obviously, we cannot live in an unstable world of unstable laws.
Basically this amounts to “I’m right and you’re wrong.” If that’s the case, and they follow the Word of God as closely they claim, where are the blood sacrifices of animals in their churches, also found in the Book of Leviticus? What about burnt offerings of fruit and grain? If they claim to follow the Word as they say, they better have big-ass beards because they’re not allowed to shave them. They cannot eat shellfish. They cannot eat pigs. But pork is great! Yeah, well, “That no eating pork stuff is a Jewish thing. It’s in the Old Testament.” If they’re citing Leviticus, then they better follow all of its rules or else they’re no better than those people who they claim turn God’s words into man’s laws and make them unstable and ultimately destroy them. You don’t hear the Christian Right crying for gays to be killed. No, that would be bad publicity. That would be too extreme. No, they’ll tolerate gays, but they can’t get married. Oh, and Leviticus also says hate and intolerance is a sin. It, like homosexuality, is an abomination before God. So hatred thrust toward gays by the Christian Right is precarious for them. Not only do they flout human laws of decency and compassion, they ignore God’s law. While no one may punish them for their hatred (it gets good ratings), I’m surprised the Christian Right isn’t concerned with the Big Daddy in the Sky. With all the hatred they throw about, they should know, since they study the Bible so deftly, he will damn them for eternity.
If gays are going to hell anyway, then why be worried what they do on Earth?
If being gay is unnatural, why is there evidence of homosexuality in the natural world, such as with bears, elephants, rats, buffalos, chickens, lions, penguins, gulls, frogs, snakes, turtles, moths, octopi, wasps, crabs, monkeys, and gorillas? Isn’t the natural world the very basis of natural concepts? If anything, it’s unnatural for a percentage of a species not to be gay.
I’m also surprised at the Christian Right’s lack of knowledge of American history, or maybe, what history they pick and choose so well. Does this quote ring a bell?
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…”
Ah, but I’m forgetting—that phrase was written by a man, and thus, unstable!
1 comment:
http://www.happyplace.com/8958/the-most-hilariously-convincing-gay-marriage-signs
Here is a collection of gay marriage protest signs. The best being "3 words that will save the economy: Gay Bridal Registry."
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