Someone read me the thoughts of someone with whom they are friends with via social media on the same-sex marriage issue now in the news again. Essentially this person said Jesus would be fine with same-sex marriage because Jesus was about love and would want us to love and be happy. OK, that’s a lovely sentiment, but that’s not the Jesus who is depicted in the Bible.
I often hear “spiritual” people tell us what Jesus would be like and I just have to wonder where on Earth they came to the conclusion they did given what Jesus actually said on whatever issue in question. Often people have an idea of which side of an issue Jesus would take, and just as often this idea is contrary to how Jesus addressed the issue when it arose in his own time.
The Jesus who said don’t judge, and preached love and forgiveness, was the same Jesus who said that He was the only way to God; unless you believe that, you’ll die in your sins and be cast to hell; people need to stop sinning; Christians need to tell you about Him; and marriage is between a man and a woman. Just sayin’.
Sifting Reality 
And many Christians haven’t really studied or believe the Bible’s discussion on love itself. The standard set in 1 Corinthians 13 is pretty high. People advocate love and claim love but many don’t really know what it means. Then 1 John 4 makes the bold claim that if we don’t know God we can’t love because he is love. Which is coherent with not yolking intentionally with unbelievers ( 2 Corinthians 6:14).You need supernatural assistance to love people in the agape love spoken of in 1 Corinthians 13 and properly discern what is pure undefiled love. A good philosophical truth is that only in a heterosexual marriage can you naturally have the union of all 4 types of Greek love: 1) agape(unconditional love), 2) eros (sexual love), 3) philia(friendship love) and 4)storge(parenting/family love). If you accept and believe the Biblical infallible Christian perspective on love then it’s contradictory to state that the Christian love can be paired with homosexual marriage. They can make statements that you mentioned above but they are talking about the world’s “love”. I heard a good apologist say we have to sand up and rescue the meaning of words around us and I think love is a good candidate for that.
God does forgive our sins if we are repented however homosexuality is abomination to Yahweh. Notice He destroyed Sodom & Gomorrah saving only 3 lives. Then Paul does to further detailed of homosexuality in Romans 1. The marriage isn’t recognize since it suppose to be between man & woman. Heterosexual marriage is the human representation of Christ & the church. But man is wicked thus tainted God’s define standard of marriage.
Christians also need to stop looking at pornography (70 percent do, by the way), it’s sin. Christians also need to stop remarrying into adultery, (no stat on this but I bet it happens a lot!), Christians also need to stop overeating (gluttony – more sin), and how many countless others are there that we conveniently overlook as Christians, and pretend that God will also overlook.
What I love about the right is that they are one of the worst about conveniently overlooking their own sins and picking at the splinter in their brother’s eye, just as Jesus said not to. They somehow manage to not support the poor, have no mercy for the criminal, no concern or care for the mentally impaired/ill, could care less about children who are impoverished, and their parents who can’t find work or make a living wage, and definitely could care less about this earthly planet we share with the wildlife that lives upon it. How many sins is that?
(chuckle) Jus sayin….
Warrioress
I don’t think Christians over look those sins. The focus on homosexuality is such because it is championed. There are no adultery pride parades, there no classes in schools promoting pornography etc. The focus is where it is because Christians are marginalized and demonized for not embracing it.
Warrioress, your premise is wrong. The “right,” or conservative Christians, care more for impoverished children than secular humanists/liberal Christians. (Secular humanists and liberal Christians are one and the same). Conservatives give more to charity than liberals and favor public policies designed to get parents working and keeping more of their money so children can grow up in wealthier homes. Liberals create more expensive/inefficient government programs that fail and leave children in poverty and their parents addicted to the government handouts. Liberals use the government gun to steal the wealth of people to fund a government program that does little to help anyone.
Liberals fool themselves thinking that they love people when they actually hate them. It is hatred of people that protects an animal (spotted owl) but takes away a person’s job (loggers). It’s hatred of people that favors the killing of children in their mothers’ wombs. It’s hatred of people that taxes them to pay for welfare programs to keep people in poverty. It’s hatred of people that dumbs down achievement tests to make sure more “minorities” pass the tests. It’s hatred for people to vilify those who want to help homosexuals to break free from their sinful lifestyle.
Hmm. Well, Dog, if what you say is true, why did President Obama get RE-ELECTED for yet another four years, eh? Seems people don’t agree with you or the country’s turned into a liberal majority. I don’t think anyone’s fooled by what the Republicans care about, least of all myself. What’s amusing is that the right thinks we’re all fooled and that they’re remaking themselves to be more attractive to the average joe/jane — they aren’t. It’s the same old elder white man’s party for the well off and the wealthy…oh and I left out yet another Republican sin I need to remind John of…. the sin of the worship of money and making money an idol. Whoops. God really hates that one.
He got reelected with fewer votes than he got the first time, and not everyone votes. His reelection only tells you about voters, not the political leanings of the country. Every poll shows the country as a whole being more conservative than liberal, btw.
Warrioress, you have republicans (or at least republicanish) people here telling you what republicans care about, but yet you choose to not believe them. Instead you choose to believe the MSNBC democrat narrative as to what republicans care about. If I take that line of reasoning, you and democrats only care about gay sex and having as many abortions as you can handle.
Anytime anyone describes the right as merely “the same old elder white man’s party for the well off and the wealthy”, or that they are guilty of “the sin of the worship of money and making money an idol”, it is clear that they are not willing to engage honestly. It is the same with the canard that the Christian right is guilty of hypocrisy for fighting against legislation based on depravity while sinning themselves.
Marshalart
Notice they say this all while making excuses for John Kerry, Diane Feinstein, the Kennedys, the Clintons, Nancy Pelosi, Al Gore, Jay Rockefeller, John Corzine, Richard Blumenthal, Frank Laughtenberg. All of whom are worth 20 million or more. The Clintons, Kerry, and the Kennedys are all worth more than 100 million, and Al gore more than 300 million.
Of the top 10 wealthiest members of Congress, 7 of the top 10 are Democrats.
Hypocrisy begins with the letter (D).
Umm.. the Christian right IS guilty of hyprocrisy for fighting against legislation based upon depravity while sinning themselves. Did you check the stat on 50 something percent of Christian pastors looking at porn? How many “Christian” men do you suppose view porn regularly? It’s worth looking into.
I would say that our Christian right brethren are engaged in a lot of sin while they attempt to fight against legislation based upon depravity, without a doubt. We already know Christian marriages meet an end at the same rate non-believer’s marriages end; there is basically no difference. I wonder how many Christian men have engage in adultery. I bet that stat is off the charts.
47% of Christian families say pornography is a problem in their home (Focus on the Family Poll, October 1, 2003)
http://globalchristiancenter.com/adult-self-improvement/pornography-in-the-church-a-new-epidemic.html
http://www.crosswalk.com/church/pastors-or-leadership/how-many-porn-addicts-are-in-your-church-1336107.html
http://www.godandscience.org/doctrine/pornography_and_christians.htm
Based upon the stats of how many Christian men are viewing porn, along with so many other sexual sins, this link might be seriously helpful to your readers, John. I’m going to be doing a post on this Christian porn problem soon. I think it’s time that men on the right get honest about their own very closeted sins. Jesus was right on about picking at the splinter in our brother’s eye, while ignoring the beam in our own.
http://www.somebodysdaughter.org/
Warrioress
No one is picking and choosing. Christians agree pornography is sinful, however some Christians claim homosexuality is not. Christians struggle with pornography, and some Christians convince homosexuals to not struggle with their sin.
It is tedious to keep repeating this, but Christians belabor homosexuality because they are forced to constantly be confronted with it from society. They are told they need to embrace it otherwise they are hateful bigots.
And you are misapplying the idea behind the speck and log. A correct application would be if I struggle with porn I shouldn’t be waving my finger at others for the same thing. On your understanding no one should ever rebuke anyone else over sin because we all sin. But the Bible tells us to do that. So if your understanding is right, it leads to contradictions.
Lastly, even if Christians are hypocritical or selective in what they focus on it doesn’t negate the sinfulness of homosexuality.
John, I agree with you about rebuking sin, but not the sinner who is trapped in their sin when they haven’t even found salvation yet. Jesus didn’t rebuke the sinner first. He embraced THEM, and then asked them to go and sin no more.
You shouldn’t have to embrace the behavior of homosexuality and few are asking you to, that I know of. I am merely asking that you and others like you embrace the individual sinner, regardless of their sin, and when they come to Christ, help them to go and sin no more.
We bring people to Christ through loving them and demonstrating Jesus Christ in our own behavior, not through rebuking their sins. I think that is putting the cart before the horse, frankly.
Porn is sexual sin — apparently, so is homosexuality. What’s the difference? Jesus said not to lust and that if your eye lusts, pluck it out, etc. What you think in your mind, you’ve already perpetrated in your heart. There are way too many Christians dealing with sexual sin that are self righteous about others who are dealing with other sexual sins. Maybe deal with your own sexual sin first, and then go and try to help others deal with theirs. Jus saying.. (“your” is said in a general way here — I didn’t mean you, persay).
Warrioress
I don’t think I agree that Jesus embraced the sinners before rebuking their sin, but I’m not interested in that tangent. I essentially agree with what you say here and if that’s what you’ve been meaning to say, either you’re a poor communicator or I am just poor at comprehending, either way I get your point now and pretty much agree.
However, society is expecting me and others like me to embrace homosexuality, not just the person.
That is a very good link and others like it. Women have been turned into objects with no soul and no ounce of being a real human being. Its easy to forget the women in those movies are daughters, sisters, granddaughters and probably mothers.
Well, as Christians we don’t have to agree with or support homosexuality or gay marriage. All we have to do is love our neighbor as we love ourselves and treat them similarly. Unfortunately, too many Christians go out of their way to insult and name-call those within the glbt community, instead of showing the love of Jesus Christ toward them, just as we should all sinners. This is that self righteousness and pride rearing its ugly head and I think God finds that just as ugly as the worst of sins.
Warrioress,
I think that once again you are indulging in unsubstantiated generalizations regarding “too many Christians”. I haven’t seen it. Unless of course you insist on labeling proper terms as name-calling. If a Christian says they’re sinners, is that the type of name calling to which you refer? How about if they are called “disordered”? There’s a difference between using terms that are absolutely applicable and mere epithets. To the activist, they are all in the latter category, but that makes “dishonest” another proper description. One cannot be loving and compassionate and tip-toe around the truth. It isn’t self-righteousness and pride. It’s truthfulness.