Good As You

1 Cor. 6:9

Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,

WOW, graces, that pretty much eliminates everyone!

[i]Leviticus 3:17

This is a lasting ordinance for the generations to come, wherever you live: You must not eat any fat or any blood.

Leviticus 11:10

But all creatures in the seas or streams that do not have fins and scales—whether among all the swarming things or among all the other living creatures in the water—you are to detest. And since you are to detest them, you must not eat their meat and you must detest their carcasses. Anything living in the water that does not have fins and scales is to be detestable to you.

1 Cor. 6:7

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means you have been completely defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated? Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, and you do this to your brothers. [/i]

Ah, I love how the bible types pick and choose, yet they forget things like this.

All we ask is that you respect the fact that not everyone is christian. Then, types like me won't call you out on hypocrisy and stuff.

America is a country of MANY religions, including yours. One does not have dominion over the other here.

All we ask is respect. Or at least, for people to simply abstain from voting on this sort of issue.

Before you start waving your Bible around, perhaps you should check the translation. I am a devout, gay Christian who has studied Christianity extensively at school, in church and on my own. I collect different translations of the Bible. I believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, however, it was written and is being translated by humans, humans that have a particular agenda, are not infallible or simply cannot translate effectively. Your translation is the first one that I have seen that uses the word "effeminate." I have seen some translations that use the word "homosexual." That word wasn't even coined until 1870 or so, and people in the Roman world didn't have the concept of homosexuality. It is historical presentism to project backwards twenty-first century concepts, morals and values. Who are you to say what God likes or doesn't like? It really frustrates me when I hear people say, "God hates. . ." How do we know what or who God hates? The human mind cannot in any way comprehend God. And why would a god of love hate anyone?

"I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another." John 13:34. And in Matthew, Jesus says that he did not come to earth to change the Law, going so far as to say that not one letter of the Law was to be removed. If that is the case, then why don't we follow all of the same dietary, social, legal, etc. laws laid out in the Old Testament? Even as Jesus was saying that he didn't come to earth to change the law, he did actually change it, most notably when he declared all food ritually clean. And what about the Council of Jerusalem (circa 50 A.D.), where Paul and the other apostles lay out the basic prohibition for gentile converts, which gave them only a few rules, mostly refraining from immorality, food sacrificed to idols and removing the command to circumcise? This is reported in at no less than three New Testament books: Acts, Galatians and Corinthians.

Besides the fact that the New Testament warns us not to judge people, God has given the right to judge, as well as the authority to forgive sins, to Christ Jesus.

The Bible is tricky. It was used both to justify slavery and abolitionism. It was used to suppress women's rights and to expand them. People select which laws they want to follow and then expect everyone else to follow them. I will fully admit that I have my own interpretation of the Bible. My interpretation of Christ's message is one of love, equality and social justice. The single most talked about subject in the Bible is poverty. Rather than attacking a group of people, many of whom follow Christ's message of love better than other groups, why don't we attack poverty since that seems to be the Bible's biggest concern.

I believe in justification through faith, but God also gave us brains and I would guess since we have them, God intended that we use them. Faith in God and inquisitiveness are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes, if we walk with blind faith, we will fall into a pit, so God gave us the ability to avoid that.

Why don't we all practice love rather than discrimination?

A whomp bomp a lu bomp, a whomp bam boom! -
Tutti Frutti-Little Richard

You say you'll change the Constitution, well you know, we all want to change your head-
Revolution-The Beatles

Both songs mean a whole lot more to me than idiot lines from some dusty old tome allegedly written by a group of men wandering around lost in the desert eons ago.

I have no need to the inherit the kingdom of something
that doesn't exist.

The demo in Times Square was well attended despite the freezing temperatures and it was a fun crowd.

The responsible thing to do is to do your studying wholly.