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#1394938
His4Life
As a Christian and an African-American, I can certainly relate to this, but it might be too strong of a statement. While I was born a decade after the civil rights movement, my parents were civil rights activists. During their generation, we were often forced to use facilities away from the rest of American society, could not eat at certain establishments or play golf on the same golf course as whites and our children were not allowed to go to school with white children. So far, we are fortunate that Christians are not treated this way in modern America, but we need to be vigilant and learn a lesson from the past about what can happen when discrimination runs wild.
America is slowly but surely turning into hell. In hell, Christians are loathed and hated; in America, Christians are also loathed and hated. In hell, sodomy and homosexuality are embraced as part of daily life; in America, sodomy and homosexuality are also embraced as part of daily life. In hell, the gospel is silenced; in America, the gospel is silenced. This is a dangerous course we're on.
4/21/2012 6:43:05 PM
#1394943
tranz2deep
So, you have to obey and ignore everything outside to be a Christian?
Sounds like slavery to me, you Tom.
4/21/2012 7:22:01 PM
#1394944
rebel
You want to know what it's like to be persecuted?
Live as a gay person in a deeply religious town. I think your feeble weak mindedness wouldn't be able to keep you alive for more than a day.
4/21/2012 7:23:51 PM
#1394945
tranz2deep
@His4Life
Figures. You've climbed to the top of the heap, so NOW it's perfectly alright to treat people like things and hate on them, to consider them animals you can Lord over.. as long as you aren't the target.
Shit like that is WHY fundies are hated. Not Christians. Fundies.
4/21/2012 7:24:41 PM
#1394950
Firewing
It's no secret as to why that is so, His4life, considering the misdeeds of your fellow Christians. If you really want someone to blame, blame yourselves and your inconsistencies, your dishonesty (especially in playing the victim when you have all but expressed your wish for harm on everyone else, if not your desire to inflict said harm), and your lust for total domination of humanity. Again, the minor inconvenience of being called out on your shameful behavior is nothing compared to the suffering you have inflicted on the rest of humanity. To whinge about it after what you have done, and continue to do, is even more shameful than that, and that is all I have to say on the matter.
4/21/2012 8:21:39 PM
#1394951
Iel
@His4Life:
Have you ever been to Hell? I mean, you claim that, in Hell, "sodomy and homosexuality" are "embraced as part of daily life."
That's a new one, to me, considering basically every other heterosexist Christian I've encountered believed that homosexuality was a sin, punishable by Hell. I would think that it wouldn't be a very effective punishment to send someone somewhere where the thing they're not supposed to do is embraced.
So I figure, you must've been Downstairs in order to have found this out.
----
@deegeescross2
You are not being persecuted. Society is just changing, and you might not like where it's going. I recommend you sit back and reflect on both history and progress for a while.
4/21/2012 8:24:44 PM
#1395083
Atheissimo
@ His4life
How exactly are Christians loathed and hated? You guys make up 80-90% of the population, the majority of the legislature and judiciary are Christians, the President is Christian...
Bearing in mind that once again, taking away your ability to persecute others doesn't count as persecution.
Accepting homosexuals is not automatically persecution of Christians
4/22/2012 8:45:34 AM
#1395177
Doubting Thomas
Those poor, persecuted Christians! When will the persecution end and they will be allowed to once again spread their hatred and bigotry?
4/22/2012 12:19:35 PM
#1395185
JohnTheAtheist
You mean the type of injustice that christians inflicted on blacks?
4/22/2012 12:35:44 PM
#1395204
His4Life
Atheissimo, there are many who claim to be Christian, but how many are really living out their faith? If America had a true Christian majority, we would not even be having this discussion about homosexuality.
Look at the people we esteem more highly in American society today - are they pastors, bible teachers, prophets, missionaries or men and women of God? No. Generally speaking, we esteem and hold up the very same people who will have front row seats in hell - people like Angelina Jolie, Marilyn Manson, or Barack Obama. America is not a Christian nation or Christian society; it's a society that is still holding on to its Christian roots, but has already lost the fight to retain Christian virtues as the centerpiece of life.
4/22/2012 1:09:39 PM
#1395205
His4Life
Also, I don't see much evidence that Obama's claim to be Christian is true. I hope that he is and I have to be honest - I actually like the guy as a person. I think he's fairly honest and probably does believe that he's doing the right thing most of the time. However, Jesus said "you will know the tree by its fruits." Where is Obama's Christian fruit? The only fruits I see him promoting are the ones that live in San Francisco...
4/22/2012 1:11:02 PM
#1395251
@ His4Life
Obama is actually against gay marriage. How is he promoting "fruits" as you call them? By not gassing them en masse?
4/22/2012 3:15:19 PM
#1395293
His4Life
I didn't know Obama was against gay marriage. I'll have to look into his position more closely. My understanding was that he was in favor of it, but might be doing it in incremental steps - for instance, why did he repeal DADT if he's not in favor of homosexuality? Something doesn't add up here.
4/22/2012 5:17:43 PM
#1395294
His4Life
And honestly, it would be great if he wasn't. I'd gladly vote for him over Mitt Romney if he would just come around on the social issues.
4/22/2012 5:18:56 PM
#1395393
Danarth
@His4life
And by 'come around on social issues' you mean espouse the same mindless, bronze ag bigotry as you do.
Fucking sociopath.
4/23/2012 4:10:06 AM
#1395451
His4Life
No, I mean that if he claims to be a Christian, then why isn't he walking the walk?
4/23/2012 6:01:27 AM
#1395535
Mystik Spiral
"No, I mean that if he claims to be a Christian, then why isn't he walking the walk?"
And by 'walking the walk' you mean espousing the same mindless, bronze age bigotry as you do.
Fucking sociopath.
@Danarth - my apologies for stealing your comment. :)
4/23/2012 8:37:20 AM
#1395573
@His4Life
Why is everything about homosexuality and abortion to you people?
4/23/2012 10:05:24 AM
#1395581
Toothygrin
Why? Because all around, the other pillars are falling to the microscope of science. Old earth, biological evolution, geology, astronomy... All of these sciences are tearing away the old words as truth. All that is left are the soft sciences eg phisiology and psychology. Science has not yet provided the answer to "why the gay".. And so the God of the Gaps remains for that purpose. The Abrahamic religions can still fall back on "God said they're icky so I believe it.". When science has figured that one out, they will just have to draw back to their next set of goalposts.
4/23/2012 10:26:48 AM
#1395591
Toothygrin
His4life: it is beautiful that your parents were part of one of the greatest moments in the last 50 years. I am gladdened by the successes that the generation before ours has had. Largely for those efforts, I have wonderful melanin-strong friends that I consider the most beautiful on the planet, inside and out.
Your religion was used to justify the worst atrocities our country has ever committed, and they were almost unanimously against your own direct ancestors. Let me repeat that: your own religion was used to justify your great grandparents being in chains.
And now, your own religion is being used to justify hatred and persecution of someone else. Why do you tolerate that? How can you not have empathy for those people for being hated due to their differences? How can you personally justify that to yourself?
4/23/2012 10:37:45 AM
#1395729
His4Life
Toothygrin, thanks for sharing your thoughts. The Bible has always been twisted by those who love evil behavior; remember, even the devil can quote sripture when it suits him. While it's true that many in the segregation and racism movements have used scripture to justify their believes, it's important to keep in mind that the civil rights movement was also largely Christian led. Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist pastor. Abernathy, Jesse Jackson, and many others were also ordained pastors. So it's not a clear cut issue.
As far as homosexuals go, I do not hate homosexuals or advocate for them to be discriminated against at all. My church welcomes gay members and we have several gay couples in our church. Our pastor simply preaches from God's word and all of us are confronted by our sin from time to time - including those homosexuals who choose to worship with us. It's up to them how they respond to the Spirit's leading once they've been convicted of their sin. But, I am the greatest of all sinners as Paul said and I am also convicted of sin daily. I do my best to follow Christ but without his grace I am nothing. That grace is as equally available to gay people as it is to me and they are not outside of God's forgiveness. I believe we will meet many gay people in heaven.
4/23/2012 7:20:20 PM
#1395742
Voice of Humanity
@ His4Life
You're starting to grasp at straws here. As that lovely image shows, you and your brethren don't suffer anything remotely resembling hardship. Even now, you've been forced to admit that my brothers and sisters are welcome in your church, and in Paradise as well. I only hope you can open your eyes and see the purity in your fellow human and not some abomination as defined by an arbitrary dogma. Not all shackles are iron, and indeed it is the weakest that are.
4/23/2012 9:00:51 PM
#1395882
Mystik Spiral
"I do my best to follow Christ but without his grace I am nothing."
My, my, but you are a good little brainwashed christian, aren't you?
4/24/2012 8:18:33 AM
#1395913
Toothygrin
Vitriol aside, you bypassed the question, @His. You don't promote or advocate it directly, yet you tolerate it. Evil is done when good People let it happen without speaking up. Preachers of your own religion, both melanin-deficient and otherwise actively preach evil being done to gays. Since preachers call it out, you accept it. You tolerate it, even though you may know it to be evil.
I don't care whether you call yourself a sinner. All of your so-calls sins are not going to hurt anyone else. I've seen enough posts by you to know that you are not an evil person.
But the vitriol coming from the people that speak for you - your prachers and pastors - actively promote disgust and distrust of others simply because they are different.
I ask again : how do you tolerate that, knowing that your own parents were active in fighting against that very action?
4/24/2012 10:02:50 AM
#1396072
His4Life
ToothyGrin, I don't. My point in mentioning that my church has gay members was to highlight the fact that I do not associate with "Christians" who advocate violence or descrimination against gays. There are bad apples in every religion; comparing me to hate-filled preachers is just as intolerant as comparing every Muslim against Osama Bin Laden. Maybe you need to spend some time around real, devout Christians who care about their neighbors and want to do good in their communities before making a hasty judgment call.
4/24/2012 7:02:11 PM
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