Is God against homosexuality?

[chrysler fanatic]

Actually, if you read through several of these prohibitions in the OT, you will start to notice a pattern of "this will be unclean FOR YOU". Who is the "you" being spoken of? The participants in the given covenant. What was the given covenant in Leviticus? The Mosaic Covenant. Who were the participants in it? Those who followed Moses in the Exodus. Essentially the portion of Israelites who settled Canaan.

So what does that have to do with Gentile Christians? Simple: nothing practical. It is a matter of heritage and history.

I can't find the BINGO! emoticon. Someone help me out.

 

[malakos]

Jesus was hated by the religious authorities because he was a wine-bibber who hung out with tax collectors and prostitutes.

Primarily he was hated because He was a blasphemer. Numerous times He clearly implied He was a being One with God the Father who had come from Heaven. That's generally when people started picking up stones to stone him to death. It was mandated by the Old Law.

 

[malakos]

But you said, "reign with him." Personally, I have no desire to "reign" over anyone else, either in this lifetime or the next, should there be a next one.

Anyone? It's not about reigning over other human beings.

In the Scriptures, the devil was referred to as "the prince of this world". It was commonly believed at that time that through his deception in the Fall, Satan had gained mastery over humanity and our world. He was the spiritual power behind all the corrupt powers of the world. Humans were meant to be the lords of the Creation, but stupidly had given that power over to Satan.

The early Christians believed that through the power of His Sacrifice, the Lord Jesus had defeated Satan and broken his power over the world, while allowing the figures and forms of Satan's reign to linger for a time. It is believed that at the Second Coming, He will finally cast aside all such shadows of the Prince of Darkness. Humanity, through Christ, will be restored to its promised dominion over the Cosmos. There is no inequality between humans involved in this.

 

[Neller]

If anyboy really wanted to know what the god of their bible thinks then they should probbaly take a bit of time and read their bible rather than feel guilty or worse still share their guilt or seek opinions on a website dedicated to big cocks. Most Christians have clearly not read their bible in its entirety. Like any terms and conditions, especially the important ones, perhaps they should.

Once they realise how fucked up and rediculous their bronze age book is maybe a homosexual won't any longer need to feel guilty about what they do with their own body and just maybe others would hate or judge a little less.

The Bible is an extremely long book with lots of writers and characters and ideas. Expecting any person to read the whole thing and understand it perfectly is asking a bit much. People spend their whole lives studying just parts of it. That's where discussions like this can be helpful. Atheists coming in and saying "God doesn't exist, this is pointless" doesn't help anyone gain a better understanding of anything.

I think it's pretty clear to anybody with a small knowledge of the Bible that the God in the New and Old Testaments are very different from each other. Even parts of the Old Testament contradict itself (3 versions of the 10 commandments, for example). So is it really the same one? Why are they so different? Does the New Testament God supersede everything the Old Testament one said?

I agree that having guilt over what the Bible says hurts people, but that's where discussing it rather than dismissing it can probably help more. If everybody understood the context of certain passages it might help people understand their meaning better and whether it should actually affect their lives at all.

To give a bit of my understanding of the issue in the thread: There's nothing that marks homosexual acts as a sin any worse than any other, and we all commit various sins during our lives. There's no reason to feel any special guilt about homosexuality, it's just one of hundreds of things people do every day that are considered sinful. And since everyone is sinful, you're just another person living your life and shouldn't feel bad about it.

 

[622675]

Neller wrote:

#364 (permalink)
I agree that having guilt over what the Bible says hurts people, but that's where discussing it rather than dismissing it can probably help more. If everybody understood the context of certain passages it might help people understand their meaning better and whether it should actually affect their lives at all.
---------------------------------------------------------
Neller,

I think you have (almost) struck gold with this observation. But we need to take your thought one level further out.

There is no value in guilt itself. It isn’t the Bible or Christ’s purpose to point fingers for the sake of pointing fingers. Rather, the bigger purpose is to help people stop/avoid hurting themselves and others. Guilt is an emotional trigger that we all should respond to. It should make us study our actions and then evaluate if they help or hurt others or ourselves. It is the price we pay for having some degree of free will.

As you (Neller) say, if we study the context of a biblical scripture we might learn that we have nothing to feel guilty about or we may learn how to avoid guilt all together by making a situation better.

For example: Contributors to this thread have often used the term abomination. Based on how the term is (repeatedly) associated in biblical writings, it is mainly used to denote idolatry, or unapproved acts used in rituals supporting pagan forms of worship. A scholarly study in Egyptian or Moabite religions might reveal why Moses chose to exclude fabrics made of more than one material. It obviously has no context in today’s culture, but four thousand years ago it may have been the equivalent of wearing a swastika.

In another area, one historical researcher (Pearson) reports that most pagan religions in Moses era practiced anal intercourse. True believers would dedicate themselves to a temple or a god, sacrifice their testicles (often by self mutilation – beating them off with a rock), and then offer themselves as anal prostitutes. Pearson also reports that female temple prostitutes were primarily anal actors as the vagina was reserved for special fertility rituals. http://www.cebiaz.com/book.pdf

So who knows what was really being considered when the concept of “a man lying with a man” was called an abomination. Context of use largely suggest it was not to be done because of its confused association to idol worship practices common in that day and culture. Even in that day, the prohibition may not have been intended to focus on loving male relationships. And it may have little or no relevance in today’s culture.

As the saying goes, to quote text without context is pretext.

 

[HorseHung40's]

God only dislikes bigots and those who hate without basis.

 

[Novaboy]

I still can't believe how many people seem to believe in some super being that "loves" them. It's fine if you do, I just don't get it myself.....and I was raised going to church. Even as kid I remember thinking (and felt guilty about it) that "I don't believe any of this".

 

[malakos]

I still can't believe how many people seem to believe in some super being that "loves" them. It's fine if you do, I just don't get it myself.....and I was raised going to church. Even as kid I remember thinking (and felt guilty about it) that "I don't believe any of this".

Because you cannot connect the dots mentally you thus cannot believe it that others do?

 

[malakos]

God only dislikes bigots and those who hate without basis.

Maybe God doesn't hate or dislike anyone.

 

[archetypal_mystic]

Nope, he invented it.

 

[canon]

Brainwashing should be a sin!

It is very difficult to know the mind of a being who has not revealed himself to the world since early times, which does cause some doubt as to his existence.

However, there is a thought that God is increasing the number of homosexuals because as a race we are overpopulating the planet and exhausting its resources, plus contributing to climate change. It is possible that a substantial increase in gays will help tilt the balance and help stabilize the population. When God brought the Black Death, it did reduce the populations of many countries by 1/2 to 1/3 and kept us from reaching the overpopulation stage as rapidly. The advance of medicine, religions fulminating against birth control and abortion, and other things have brought us back to crisis.

 

[malakos]

What does brainwashing have to do with that post?

 

[malakos]

Oh right, I forgot, people believe in religions because they're brainwashed.

Herp derp.

 

[Iorek]

I was raised Catholic, but I see now that the emperor has no clothes. I'm now atheist.

That said, the "God hates gays" bit finds its origin in the old testament where it is written that a man should not lie with another man as one lays with a woman. Pretty clear condemnation of being gay. You can choose to be "not Catholic" but still Christian and choose to believe that the new testament is the new contract and Jesus didn't tell you not to put that there, so it's all good. Or you can be Catholic and google the document "Vatican II" which might have a get-out-of-gayhell-free card in there somewhere. Jesus died for your sins, and He made you the way you are, so just be satisfied that this is in His great plan.

 

[Zyzyz]

The Old Testament Satan's job is to tempt people. It could be that he uses homosexuality simply as a temptation. But then you'd have to ask God about that... :wink:

 

[rbkwp]

thou shalt not have sexual relations with a homosexual"
didnt he say that somewhere??

anyway

i wonder if they regret voting Francis into that position
think he is pretty COOL .. not a RC myself ..
but
all Carnal pleasures to them, no one will ever really know what they get up to?
heres some beautiful Polynesian music to smoke along with!!!

Blue Smoke - Pixie Williams - YouTube

Evolution is real and God is no wizard, says Pope Francis

Read more: Evolution is real and God is no wizard, says Pope Francis

 

[twoton]

Evolution is real and God is no wizard, says Pope Francis

http://www.smh.com.au/world/evoluti...pe-francis-20141029-11dcon.html#ixzz3HTSFObEB

Yeah. First he pissed off the conservative Catholics with his whole "gays are people, too" rant, and now he'll piss off the conservative Evangelicals with the "God doesn't have a magic wand," quaffle.

harrumph

 

[canon]

How would we ever know? The only access to God, as presented by organized religions, is through who they claim is God. If you factor in the control and guilt that they apply to gain access then who do you believe? No wonder people are backing out. All the faiths seem to have a different God but a common link is money. If you have money you have access as long as it goes through the hands of the church. YIKES!

 

[Zyzyz]

How would we ever know? The only access to God, as presented by organized religions, is through who they claim is God. If you factor in the control and guilt that they apply to gain access then who do you believe? No wonder people are backing out. All the faiths seem to have a different God but a common link is money. If you have money you have access as long as it goes through the hands of the church. YIKES!

Interesting, but so very, very wrong (beyond the first sentence).

 

[poultrygeist]

No one really knows, but it's pretty clear so many different religions are against homosexuality. I personally believe God exists but I know that religions are man-made. A least some homophobia is caused by such condemnation and judgmental opinions. Many churches openly declare that they think homosexuality is a sin. So homophobic people now have a platform and a support structure to allow them to feel comfortable doing hate crimes against the LGBT community. What disgusts me most is that the church does not condemn, alienate or distance themselves from those church members who attend protests holding up signs with horrible messages. They also don't openly get involved in outwardly condemning anyone who claims to be a Christian who gets involved in hate crimes against the LGBT community. So I think the church (as a whole) isn't doing enough to try and end the hate. So it makes it harder for people to follow their teachings if they don't do anything about their members who are hypocritical.