Gay Rights?
Many of our friends are gay -- some are couples. The last thing we think about is the fact that they are gay. This whole ugly prejudice against gays was launched by Saint Paul, a figure that IMHO distorted Christianity as a convert to it. His Letter to the Romans and others are filled with prejudices that are not those of Jesus -- anti-Semitic, anti-women, as well as anti-gay.
Note as well his call to kill gays:
"24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
http://biblescripture.net/Romans.html
I studied theology for three years both in this country and Britain for which I was awarded a B.D. degree. By the time I had finished my studies I was appalled by such stuff as this which many of us feared would be implemented sometime along the way -- it has been now by the right wing extremists, including some murders of gays.
The trouble with contemporary Christianity is that it has shifted from the religion of Jesus -- the Beatitudes calling for care for people -- to the hateful stuff of Paul. One can trace the history of his perversions over the centuries which promoted pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust among other horrors.
Attitudes towards gay rights are in effect a litmus test as to whether one is a Christian or a Pauline.
In Europe the churches are dying out because of such perversions. There are good people in churches, but too many inclined to kill alleged sinners
-- and all those wars waged by the Christians against others and their fellow Christians! Christianity sadly became the most deadly of our major Western religions. Check the history of the past two millennia.
It looks like here we go again with biases being promoted against Muslims and Jews once again -- gay rights is only a small part of a larger attitudinal problem.
What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
Note as well his call to kill gays:
"24 Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. 25 For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
26 For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, 27 and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error.
28 And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, 29 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; 32 and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
http://biblescripture.net/Romans.html
I studied theology for three years both in this country and Britain for which I was awarded a B.D. degree. By the time I had finished my studies I was appalled by such stuff as this which many of us feared would be implemented sometime along the way -- it has been now by the right wing extremists, including some murders of gays.
The trouble with contemporary Christianity is that it has shifted from the religion of Jesus -- the Beatitudes calling for care for people -- to the hateful stuff of Paul. One can trace the history of his perversions over the centuries which promoted pogroms and ultimately the Holocaust among other horrors.
Attitudes towards gay rights are in effect a litmus test as to whether one is a Christian or a Pauline.
In Europe the churches are dying out because of such perversions. There are good people in churches, but too many inclined to kill alleged sinners
-- and all those wars waged by the Christians against others and their fellow Christians! Christianity sadly became the most deadly of our major Western religions. Check the history of the past two millennia.
It looks like here we go again with biases being promoted against Muslims and Jews once again -- gay rights is only a small part of a larger attitudinal problem.
What do you think?
--
"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
--
Ed Kent 212-665-8535 (voice mail only) [blind copies]
posted by Ed Kent at 1:15 PM
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