hairy_hen, TV's Frink, et al., I think you may be misunderstanding what "hate the sin, love the sinner" means. It doesn't mean "judge what others do and look down on their actions, but still love them," or "tell everyone to repent and that what they do is evil, but make sure you tell them you love them." It means that one shouldn't hate or dislike someone just for doing something wrong, though one shouldn't approve of their misdeeds.
hairy_hen said:
Okay, so I'm a hateful douche, because I defend the rights of gays against judgemental pricks who put them down by condescendingly claiming to have absolute moral authority on their side.
No, you aren't hateful, and I don't know what rights you're defending. As far as I am aware, Ender, Warb, Fo, and myself all agree that homosexuals should be allowed to marry. All of us besides Fo think it is wrong, but there are no gay rights that we are attacking and thus you are defending those rights for nothing.
Yep. This thread is officially hilarious.
"Oh no, we don't hate you, dear. We just loathe and abhor everything about your inner self that makes you behave the way you do, but we don't hate you, we promise!"
This is a complete misportrayal and misunderstanding of what I meant. I already clarified what I meant, so I won't do it again.
Yeah, excuse me while I don't believe a word of this nonsense.
Neither do I. Thank goodness no one around here is peddling it...
Bottom line: being gay isn't a sin. God never said it was, because it's only an outdated superstition that got mixed up with a bunch of other unrelated writings. Folks who believe every literal word of such things really need to take a step back and get with the times, because that kind of thinking is seriously outmoded and has no place in any modern society claiming to be civilized. It's what gives religion a bad name, when if it actually followed the true spirit of Christ's message, it would be very wonderful indeed.
Nope, being gay isn't a sin and neither God, darth_ender, Warbler, or myself indicated such.
Now, if God actually had said that being gay was a sin, then I would say that God was a worthless sh!tbag, completely unworthy of being paid attention to in any way. But he didn't. I will, however, say that there is no such thing as Christianity, nor has there ever been, since hardly anyone in the history of the world has ever really tried to live life in accordance with his philosophies. 'Judge not', he said, and yet judging others for their differences is practically the only thing many so-called 'Christians' know how to do. 'Live and let live, and don't be a douchebag' is how it might be put in modern terms, but I guess that's just too complicated for some to figure out.
There is no such thing as Christianity! That's a bold claim! Perhaps you mean that no one is perfect like Christ was, and that would be a correct statement. A Christian's goal is to be perfect, but it is not an achievable goal. But by trying to reach it, a person can get reasonably close.
When you're more concerned about whether someone with a cock wants to get with someone else who also has a cock than you are with treating people decently, you're doing exactly the opposite of what Christ wanted. When you condescendingly look down on someone for doing something you consider wrong or shameful, but which, in fact, informs the entire essence of their being and could no more be changed than the colour of their skin, all the while claiming only to want what's best for them, then you have a serious prejudice you don't want to acknowledge. It is entirely necessary for such hypocrisy to be exposed for what it really is.
Again, I don't think anyone here was saying that gays are bad or that they should become straight. It does not inform "the entire essence of their being" but is only a part of who they are. An important part to some, but still a part. I don't have any prejudices that I don't want to acknowledge, except against what is immoral. Being gay is certainly never immoral and nowhere in the Bible does it say so. Nowhere in this thread has someone said so. More hypocritical is your condemnation of our point of view and your dismissal of it as not worth considering, yet you think I should be adopting your point of view.
Try this example on for size:
"I don't hate you for being black. It's so unfortunate you were born into a black family, because God says that all black people will go to Hell when they die, and you're really quite wonderful, dear, despite your disadvantage. Have you tried being white instead? It's the only way you could ever be saved, I'm sad to say, and I would really hate for you to have to burn . . ."
I don't think gays are going to hell or even that openly gay people who have sex often will go to hell. No one goes to hell for something that isn't their fault (and that, in my opinion, means that a lot of atheists, agnostics, and people of other religions will be going to heaven, because it is not usually their fault that they belong to that religion or philosophy).
Needless to say, this doesn't fly AT ALL.
I agree entirely.
And all the anti-gay arguments I've ever heard have exactly this same sort of ridiculously skewed perspective behind them.
I disagree entirely. You are just misunderstanding those arguments and positions and I suspect you don't want to even try to understand them (based on your statements about it being a position not even worth arguing because it's so stupid and bigoted).
You can claim it's not the same thing all you want, but you're only fooling yourself if you try.
You're only fooling yourself into thinking that you're morally superior to us because you wouldn't even think about what we actually mean because it's such a stupid position.
People with sense can see right through it, and we don't like what we see. The world is moving on from this kind of thing, and thank goodness for that. You should move on from it, too. Trust me, it feels a lot better.
I've moved on from the old idea that gays should be killed (which goes against Christ's teachings). I've moved on from the idea that what they do should be illegal (which is also not a position supported by Scripture). I've moved on from condemning gays for their actions.
Please consider what you've said, hh, and try harder to understand what I mean. I've explained myself clearly and any further refusal of yours to see what I mean will only work in my favour.
And there was no condescension, hatred, offense, judging, or anything of the sort intended by what I wrote. I just want to clarify my position and would appreciate a greater effort on your part to understand what we actually think.