BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Bible Basics Homosexuality and Christianity

Patience I could have written your post myself <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />
You described in words exactley how I feel.

I do believe that there is evil, but I believe it exists in the heart and mind of Humanity. I don't believe in satan or devils. I see evil as the creation of people. It is a choice we all have, to do evil things or to do good things and be loving.

I believe that what goes around comes around. A natural law of like attracts like, so people who choose evil will have it come back to them in some form. The law of cause and effect.

Bad things happen in this world because it is an imperfect world, populated by imperfect people. i do not believe there is a god or satan who sends hurricanes and earthquakes. They happen. Likewise, there is no 'external' evil which makes people do murder, become Hitlers, sexually abuse children. It is people who do this and we are all responsible for our own actions and choices.

If the planet lost its balance, the whole Earth would be destroyed. When humans lose their balance, they destroy themselves and others. That is how I see it. Evil is the flipside of good. They co-exist. We have both within us, and we have free choice.

I think it is about the degree of awareness that we have. How we learn from life's lessons, and whether we grow, or stagnate. I see the religions of the world as guides to how to become aware, and how to make right choices. Prophets and saints and other good people come to teach us and show us the way. We learn by their example.

I hope that explains what I believe.

Patience.

The devil is real. He is the one who is telling you that he doesn't exist... it's the greatest lie of all!! He whispers in our ear that there is no way! With all of our enlightenment and intelligence, how could there be this being who moves on the breath and manipulates us beyond our comprehension??!! What poppycock!!! Your master of your own domain after all!!

Read this book review for God's Assasins...
http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art35691.asp

this book helped me to know my enemy more and how deceptive he really is... How the devil sees us will open your eyes to reality. Also, the movie "The Devils Advocate" is great. the one with Al Pacino as the devil. The level of manipulation and deception, the way he plays with Keanuu Reeves mind... it's good too.

You should always know you enemy. How else can you fight?

This is off the topic of Christians and Homosexuality...

Sorry, but I do not accept this. No one is whispering in my ear and I don't believe in boogey-man stories. I have no 'unseen enemy'. The only evil there is, in my experience, is what walks on two legs. If there is an entity whispering in my ear, then I'm afraid I'm not listening and "it' has no power over me. You only give power to the things you believe in.

I think that people who believe in the devil are slaves to fear and superstition.

Patience.

OK, this is kind of the real topic of the thread, but I wanted to address this anyway.

I think rape would be covered under adultery - if we want to get technical here.

And as far as doing anything to harm a child. Jesus states several times that He has a special concern for children, and that it would be better for someone to
have a millstone around his neck and drown in the sea" than to harm a little one or lead them into sin. So I would think that covers anything done to hurt a child, whether it is stated in the 10 commandments or not. IMO

Also, as far as the 10 commandments go - I am not so certain they are listed in order of importance (other than the 1st one) as that they are just listed. After all, it is impossible to make a list without putting them in some order and numbering them.

Jesus only states 1 commendment as being "great", so that leads me to believe all the rest are equal in importance.

[color:"blue"]34�But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered together. 35And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36�Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?� 37And he said to him,[/color][color:"red"] �You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38This is the great and first commandment. 39And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.�[/color] Matthew 22:34 - 40

I believe that homosexuality is as normal as being left-handed. The bible was written by men who were writing down their perception of god, which probably has nothing nothing to do with the actual deity! The god of the OT comes over as a very unpleasant creature indeed imo.

The Lord God made us each and every one. I'm willing to bet that on the higher level good deeds count as a plus, and making a choice to judge another as inferior counts as a minus in coming to know God's love - for "God is Love and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him." <img src="/images/graemlins/heart.gif" alt="" />

God might have kicked off evolution but there is no evidence that God created each and everyone of us! In fact if God sends babies to people, as some fundies believe, then the deity is crazy as he sends them to people indiscriminately, regardless of whether they will be cared for or abused.

In the Bible there is a verse 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you". For someone to take this verse at literal it would mean that we once existed in some other plane and the tendencies we are born to must not just be by chance.

All denomintations of Christianity state that all "life is precious". But then some say, publically (as an example that nutty Fred Phelps and his group out of Kansas) that homosexuals deserve the death penalty and that AIDS is a judgement from God. So, are lives precious or only just CERTAIN lives that believe as you do?

Or they say "Well people chooose to be gay, they cannot be born that way because God doesn't make mistakes". My opinion is that maybe some people do choose to be that way, maybe after many bad relationship experiences with member of the opposite sex. Or from being incarcerated for long periods of time. But I am sure the majority do not "choose" to be that way.

How do YOU change what attracts you to another person? Can you change from being straight to being gay? Or the things you notice first about someone that attracts you?

It doens't make any sense to me to say that God creates all life then to say God finds the things he creates to be "abominable" (to quote what the Bible says about homosexuality).

The fundies have an answer for everything however ludicrous it is. I was spiritually abused but the stinking penetecostal church I was forced to attend as a child, so have no love for them or their version of god!