PETERZ. I thank him for his wonderful insight and say that I can barely hold a candle to his work. However, I will do what I can as I can.
Love & Rape
The political arm of the Fundamentalists has boiled Christianity down to two issues; Abortion and Homosexuality. The truth is that those running these campaigns couldn’t care less about either issue, but see these as Hot button issues to polarize and mobilize voters. They presume to pretend they are of such high moral ground; as though they are not guilty of having had sex outside the marriage bond, and then they go around condemning others. "Know ye not that by what measure you judge you will be judged?" Are you going to tell us that the things they are accusing those others of, they themselves are not guilty of? Too bad these were not in the crowd with Jesus when the harlot was brought to Him for he truly would have found his men. The harlot surely would have been stoned. Hypocrites! Woe unto you, "the harlots shall go into the kingdom of God before you." Mt: 21:31. Who made them the judge over anyone's life choices? It was God who gave us a choice; it is Antichrist that would like to take it away. God would guide us into truth and He gave us a conscience so that we hopefully will make the right choice. Would you declare that we don't need the ability to choose anymore, because your righteousness has made that choice for us? I am not saying I believe in abortion, (as much as they want to frame it that way with right wing spin) but we know that life has many different turns and circumstances. Some have been raped or abused, or are in poverty. I agree that perhaps it is taken far too lightly and may be occurring far too often; but the answer to that would be counseling and teaching. We should help people care more about the sanctity of their own bodies. If it is outlawed, it will go underground and women will be butchered in back alleys. Who am I to tell anyone what is the right choice in their circumstance. I would just pray that they would make the right choice. Ah but you would say they are murdering babies, because they are making the wrong choice. That would be for God to decide. Let me remind you that God foreknowing the choice we would make in the garden, knowing that the wrong choice would bring the fall of man, with all its suffering; Knowing we would make the wrong choice, still allowed us the choice. It is man making himself God (antichrist) that would take away choice. To say that life begins at conception is a theological belief. It follows a line of thinking that conception if left to its natural path would result in a baby. That is true, but that doesn't mean that if interrupted at some early point, that it is at that point a baby with a soul. The belief that we should not interfere comes from a few scriptures like Mt: 19:6: “Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder” The problem is that these scriptures are dealing with marriage or being born again. On the other hand some would say that a child becomes a living soul with its first breath. Gen: 2:7: “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It is amazing to me that anyone would be so adamant over a questionable soul, and have no regard over those that are unquestionable. The Bush's have killed hundreds of thousands so far. There is no shadowy theological question about that.
The other lie that has been spread to purely play on people’s prejudices is the Gay issue. The idea is that a gay person is automatically in sin and separated from God. This bigotry is preached from the pulpit of the Religious Right. You are lead to believe that homosexuality is a choice. That idea is completely unsubstantiated. Ask any gay person what they think. Yet these people automatically discount what gays say as unreliable and their word is reliable, even though they have not experienced what a gay person goes through. I would ask, “When did you choose to be straight?” I think that is an excellent question. Who in their right mind would choose a life of discrimination and persecution? If the homosexual has a promiscuous life, I would ask whose fault is that? I would give the blame to the Church. If you have been taught that you are condemned already, then why not just go and indulge all your lusts. There is a difference between love and lust, straight or gay. Mt: 23:13: “But woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye shut up the kingdom of heaven against men: for ye neither go in yourselves, neither suffer ye them that are entering to go in.” Christ died for Gay people also. As a result of the rejection they have experienced, many seek for a spiritual life in all kinds of places, from cults to Eastern religions. We as Christians are called to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom and lift up the glory of Jesus. Any cleaning up of our lives is done in the presence of God as we come boldly before His throne that we may receive grace to help. Heb: 4:16: “Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.” In other words we should not put the cart before the horse, we do not clean up our lives first in order to come before God; we come before God as we are and he cleans us up. To tell a gay person that he must stop being gay is the same as telling a straight person to stop being straight. To most of us that would seem just impossible. It is a part of your very fabric. Again in Matthew in the same passage dealing with shutting up the Kingdom we see this; Mt: 23:4: “For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.” I know that with God all things are possible, but it would appear that this is not an issue to God. Jesus never mentions it.
Even if it were important, where would you get that kind of grace to change? Only because you were in love with the Most High God, and to be in love you would need to be able to come as you are so you could know Him; not turned away before you are even getting started.
I think it would be important to look at exactly what the Bible does say about this subject, which is amazingly little. As Al Franken put it “if you took out of the Bible everything that has to do with homosexuality, you would wouldn’t even notice a difference; but if you took out everything that has to do with looking out for the down trodden and the sick and the poor, you would have a box just about the right size to smuggle Rush Limbaugh’s drugs in”. There is no question that Gods creation was meant to be for Man to desire a Woman. What most over look is that we are living in a fallen creation. There are all kinds of things that are not quite in the perfection that God intended. If a person is born with an abnormality would you say they are going to hell for it? No, and yet if the world were in Gods perfect order, there would be no imperfections.
First let’s deal with the passage in Leviticus 18:22 & 20:13 ““Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination.” The code of Laws and customs in Leviticus were not intended for Christians. We are not under the Law but under Grace. The Old Testament Law was meant to convict all of sin so that we would know we needed a savior. No Christian group would demand that we obey all the rules that are laid down in these verses. If we did we would have to keep the kosher laws as well. We don’t demand compliance with the other sexual rules in Leviticus. If we did, we could not touch our wives during her monthly cycle and we would allow polygamy, which is lawful in Leviticus. Unless you are willing and able to obey all the rules in Leviticus, you cannot blame the homosexual for not feeling bound to obey them. To point to these two verses and demand that kind of selective compliance is ludicrous and wrong.
I use in my discussion mostly the King James Version; it seems to have less of an axe to grind than many modern day translations.
Now what about Sodom? Genesis 19:1-29 If you read this passage you will see that it says in vs. 4 “All the men young and old” It is highly unlikely that a whole city was homosexual, the whole city may have been self indulgent and lustful, but not that they would have an orientation to homosexuality. It is also apparent that these men were not looking for a consensual good time; they wanted to rape the angels. It is also clear that these men were not just homosexual but looking to fulfill their lust, or Lot would not have offered them his daughters The true sin of Sodom is revealed to us in Ezekiel:16:49: Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, (it seems that one of the main accusers of the homosexual is guilty of this sin of Gluttony, Have a look at those cheeks on Jerry Falwell) and abundance of idleness (this is what our entire society is caught up in idolizing movie and sports stars) was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy (tax cuts for the rich and no health care for the poor). 50: And they were haughty, and committed abomination before me: therefore I took them away as I saw good. This society had become completely self indulgent.
Now let us look at the New Testament. The one passage that is seemingly the most damning is Romans 1:18-29. This scripture is not what it appears to be on the surface. This is a condemnation of ungodly ritual indulgence, which worked up into a frenzy of all manner of sexual lust. This was not a condemnation of Love between two men or between two women. If you think it is, then it carries the same condemnation of “fornication”; but for some reason these modern day Pharisees seem to skip over that part. Because they are not looking for a way to redeem those whom Christ died for but rather to condemn in order to better justify their own self-righteousness. They fail to notice what it says just a few verses down. Romans 2: 1: “Therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.”
This brings us to the passage in 1 Corinthians 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, (I know that some new translations incorrectly have in this place the words “male prostitutes and homosexuals) 10: Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11: And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” Before I get into the break down of those words, I would call your attention to the other words that I have in bold letters. These carry equal weight. The word translated in the KJV as “effeminate” would have been better translated the “self-indulgent” Does this remind you of Sodom? That word could not have anything to do with being a homosexual, because although there are effeminate homosexuals, there are plenty of effeminate straight men as well. The reason the KJV writers used that word was because they were referring to the Kings of France as being self-indulgent prancing about in their frills and “girly-man” wigs. They were what were brought to the English’s mind when you used the word effeminate. The next words “abusers of themselves with mankind” would have been better translated as “exploitation” It may have had to do with male prostitutes, but also any kind of prostitution. It was actually directed at those that used the prostitutes more so then those that were being used. They are more the victims of abuse. In our society we are surrounded with all kinds of exploitation; from the Rich to the Corporations. Anytime you do something for your advantage or pleasure that uses another, or takes advantage of their situation is to exploit them.
Unfortunately there many gay men that perhaps because of guilt or being told they must be straight end up marrying and then sneak around behind their wives back. They deny there true identity to themselves and others and as a result have a secret life. When and if they are exposed it is often disastrous to them and their families. Some even committing suicide. What a shame. Then there are those that try to combat it within themselves buy becoming “homophobic homosexuals” or “self-loathing.” Then some become just plain hypocrites. Here are a few examples. This is from the New York Times on April 9, 2005 The Article “G.O.P. Consultant Weds His Male Partner” “Arthur J. Finkelstein, a prominent Republican consultant who has directed a series of hard-edged political campaigns to elect conservatives in the United States and Israel over the last 25 years, said Friday that he had married his male partner in a civil ceremony at his home in Massachusetts.”He was actively anti-gay. Or how about this “Two men have told a Spokane, Washington, newspaper that Mayor Jim West offered them jobs after meeting in a gay Internet chat room.” Article says how he fought against any gay equality issues.
Another good site on the subject is The Real Live Preacher.
By this discussion I am not saying that the homosexual or anyone else is not called to righteousness. They are responsible for moral behavior that is not destructive to themselves or others just like everyone else that wants to know a walk with God.
I am saying though that a committed relationship based in Love can be blessed by God. It says in Hebrews 13:4: "Marriage is honorable in ALL, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge." (It does not say in that passage the marriage is only honorable between a man and a woman) Gal: 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus."
I realize that many are coming from a position that has been held since the middle ages. Perhaps it is time that these issues are reexamined. I believe that the truth of Gods word is being progressively restored to His Church. No question that Gods perfect order is for one man and one woman to be in a loyal blissful marriage, but unfortunately that is rare. There is a 1.Good and 2.Acceptable and 3.Perfect will of God. Rom.12.1. or none of us would marry for that is what Paul thought would be best. I am fully aware that many will disagree with this post, but my intent is not to convince everyone, but to win those that may be alienated from the Lord to "Come unto Him" Eph:1:6: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Let each person come before God and seek what is Gods will for their life according to His Word and their conscience. Titus:1:15: "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled."
Lastly George W Bush may be guilty of both these things he has fought against. Abortion and Gay Rights. Now isn’t that just like the Antichrist.
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