A Flurry of Fury Over the Gay Issue

11 CommentsGay community, My Thoughts/Your Thoughts

Since my posting on this blog and Facebook last week of “Witnessing to Homosexuals” (which included a few words  concerning that horrible decision by that biased judged who nulled Proposition 8), it seems that everybody has an opinion. And so diverse! Read a cache of the cacophony I caused:

Ruben, commenting on “The Shepherd of Brokeback Mountain” and “The Not-so-Great Prop 8 Debate,” wrote on Facebook: What you fail to point out is homosexuals have a parade to celebrate sin. What city ever hosted a steal pride parade? What city every had a lie pride week? This is a different sinner that walks in the street promoting his sin, demanding the laws change to support his sin. When was the last time murderers demanded us to welcome them as they walked with signs upholding murder.

Your talking to someone at Starbucks vs. preaching against a sodomite parade is like apples and oranges, you do understand the difference between witnessing and preaching, no? Do you think all sin is the same sin? I think you are more concerned with what homosexuals think about you; you need to be more concerned what a Holy God thinks about that sin that parades in public.

BathTub, our resident atheist from New Zealand, complained: Ah I love the caring insult. The refuge of bigoted idiots from the northern hemisphere… hey I say it in love!

Garrett, another atheist, scolded me: Oh knock it off. You will never convince BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO ARGUMENTS. We are not the ones tucking our tail between our legs and insisting upon our opinion without backing it up.

To say the judge is committing some wrong against democracy by declaring the law unconstitutional is demonstrating some terrible ignorance about the workings of our government.

Keep it up, Steve: you’re doing a far better job displaying the poisonous nature of your faith than I ever can.

And BathTub again: Run from your spectacular failure at any sort of rational point.

But not everyone was full of sound and fury. Here are some encouraging comments:

Loretta in San Francisco: hi Steve! Just read thru the comments on the witnessing to  “homosexuals” post– very disturbing. bunch of comments— they are on the attack. Just want to send you my Christian sister love and support. —Loretta. SF Bay

Kristy wrote: Awesome to hear these things. It is such a heated thing right now. I hear you in that homosexuality is not the only sin, because none of us are good enough to go to heaven. I hope the seeds are planted and all of that. When we go out, we say the same thing, no one may get saved on the spot but seeds got planted. God blessed you with that act of courage.

Kelli wrote: Hey Steve! Thank you so much for re-posting this! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and I plan on going to the City next weekend to do some open air. This article was EXTREMELY helpful. Please pray for safety and open opportunities to minister… :)


Comments (11)

  1. Garrett

    Reply

    Note that Steve got the encouraging comments from a wholly different post. The Prop 8 left him outnumbered and definitely outgunned. Poor Steve.

    Oh, and now you’re falling back on the “biased judge” garbage. A judge selected by Reagan that even ruled against gays back in the day (a “Gay Olympics” ).

  2. BathTub

    Reply

    Ah classic, leave out your snide comment to me which I was responding to.

    And you have run away. You’ve just highlighted that you have no rational argument and have been pretty much shown to be wrong about everything you’ve said.

  3. BathTub

    Reply

    I mean it says a lot that your only comeback to take quotes out of context, and attach ugly angry images to it, so you can go ‘oooh look at the angry atheist, they are so angry!’

    Much easier than rational discussion, right Steve?

  4. Quasar

    Reply

    What, no love for the astronomical phenomena?

    I’ll never understand fundamentalists against homsexuality. Sure, the bible makes one or two disparaging comments about various sexual sins, guy-on-guy being one of them, but it spends far more time and is much more emphatic in condemning usery and greed. Which makes it odd that anti-gays are not picketing banks and condemning capitalism…

    Take away message: taking a few verses from a minor sub-theme or a minor sub-theme of the bible, and ignoring the much greater themes: love, sacrifice, helping the less fortionate: is inconsistent at best.

  5. SeedSowerJoy

    Reply

    Quasar said:

    Sure the Bible makes one or two disparagint comments aobut various sexual sins…..but it spends far more time and is much more emphantic in condeming usery and greed.

    This is one reason our evangelistic efforts are not focused on condeming those who are gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual, or even bringing up the subject unless the person we are talking with asks if being gay “means I am going to hell?” (or something similar.)

    The fact is, ALL have sinned and fall short of the God’s standards (The 10 Commandments) and of living a perfect, sinless life. We are sinners regardles of our sexual orientation.

    Regarding your comment: “taking a few verses from a minor sub-theme, or a minor sub theme of the Bible, and ignoring the greater themes: love, sacrifice, helping the less fortunate: is inconsistent at best

    We, as Christians do not get to pick and choose / decide which parts of the Bible are “minor themes” and which are “greater themes”. We are called to also “love, sacrifice and help the less fortunate.” Those who ignore those things are not showing the fruit of their salvation and, likely, are NOT born again Christians who have receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide their thoughts, actions and lives.

  6. SeedSowerJoy

    Reply

    Quasar said:

    “Sure the Bible makes one or two disparaging comments about various sexual sins…..but it spends far more time and is much more emphatic in condeming usery and greed.”

    This is one reason our evangelistic efforts are not focused on condeming those who are gay, lesbian, or bi-sexual, or even bringing up the subject unless the person we are talking with asks if being gay “means I am going to hell?” (or something similar.)

    The fact is, ALL have sinned and fall short of the God’s standards (The 10 Commandments) and of living a perfect, sinless life. We are sinners regardles of our sexual orientation.

    Regarding your comment: “taking a few verses from a minor sub-theme, or a minor sub theme of the Bible, and ignoring the greater themes: love, sacrifice, helping the less fortunate: is inconsistent at best

    We, as Christians do not get to pick and choose / decide which parts of the Bible are “minor themes” and which are “greater themes”.

    We are called to also “love, sacrifice and help the less fortunate.” Those who ignore those things are not showing the fruit of their salvation and, likely, are NOT born again Christians who have receive the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide their thoughts, actions and lives.

  7. Garrett

    Reply

    If that’s the case, Seed, why are you all so dedicated to denying the rights of gays? You seem content to let other sinful behavior be allowed by law.

  8. Quasar

    Reply

    SeedSowerJoy: I’m glad to see that you think that way, even if I do find your focus on sin a bit over the top (I’m not a pure cynic: I like to think that everyone has a bit of good in them. We’re not pure sinners, after all: halfway between the angel and the devil, between heaven and hell, every one of us capable of the demonic and the devine and the same choise open to every one of us… that appeals to me).

    We, as Christians do not get to pick and choose / decide which parts of the Bible are “minor themes” and which are “greater themes”.

    Precisely. I could count on one hand the number of times homosexuality is directly mentioned in the text, yet it becomes a trigger issue for so many, same as abortion (which isn’t even directly mentioned at all). They’re tiny by any standard, and people who turn these things into such massive contemporary issues are reading their own opinions into the text: “worshipping idols,” if you will.

  10. Kyle

    Reply

    Still confused why people are upset. Seems like a preacher, preaching on a topic that is pretty big right now, and using the Bible to do so. If the Bible says homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle, and preachers should be following the Bible, then why are so many comments angry and seemingly surprised. That would be like me being surprised that an Atheist doesn’t believe in God.

  11. Nohm

    Reply

    “If the Bible says homosexuality is a sinful lifestyle, and preachers should be following the Bible, then why are so many comments angry and seemingly surprised.”

    I don’t think that the issue is “why is a fundamentalist Christian preaching against/about homosexuality?”

    I think the issue is about how it’s viewed that certain Christians will pick and choose which sins they view as important and which they view as important. The Bible lists many things as sinful, yet it’s viewed by some of us non-fundamentalists that fundamentalists make a much bigger deal about homosexuality than other issues that the Bible lists as sins.

    As you can see, it’s a particular issue that I largely stay out of. I think the time of successfully demonizing gays and lesbians is quickly coming to a close, so it doesn’t really bother me that religious fundamentalists are still making an issue of it… that generation will pass soon enough.

    It’s just a matter of time, and I’m patient.

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