Author Topic: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!  (Read 92409 times)

Balog

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #100 on: June 19, 2014, 02:22:56 PM »
I actually agree with this. Capitulating to any or all lifestyle demands of a group that does not materially impact the freedom of others is probably the best strategy.

You take it away as a wedge issue and a bludgeon to be fought over from both sides, and you actually get less of said lifestyle in your face, in the media etc. If the religious right and social conservatives simply ignored the issue, it would not have nearly the prominence it does now.

My own personal feelings or politics aside, they completely screwed the pooch on this one, and should have all gone with an "Ignore it, they'll get theirs in hell..." strategy from the start.



Hard to ignore it when you get fired for contributing to the wrong campaigns or sued out of business for declining to participate.
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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #101 on: June 19, 2014, 03:14:13 PM »
Hard to ignore it when you get fired for contributing to the wrong campaigns or sued out of business for declining to participate.

Maybe, or maybe none of that would have happened if it weren't on the radar of the insufferable SJW's. There'd have been no campaign for the 2-week Mozilla CEO to have donated to to be witch hunted over years later, and nobody would have decided to make a point trying to lawsuit-bait the Christian bakery.

I see the whole fight as kind of a reverse situation of the rifle OC'ers who are too dumb to stay on the sidewalk, instead go into Chipoltle and then create a cause for the anti's to get a "win".  Risking battles in the "culture war" when it wasn't on the radar.  A CCW'er is well armed in Chipoltle before nobody really knew or cared, or even paid attention, but now because of the OC rifle jackasses, Chipoltle is now posted against all carry. By the same vein, you're in line in Chipoltle and a gay couple is in front of you holding hands, (and you're just as nonplussed or not about it as you would be) and you have no idea if they're married or not, or, instead, by fighting it tooth and nail, now you've gotten them married and had it imposed on everyone by the courts.

Plus, as a believer in limited government, I feel BOTH sides have failed, because either way it goes, the people wind up losing in the long run. A government that's fought over as a prize to either ban gay marriage, or establish it by laws or votes or court cases, or worse, by fiat and "just because" type end-runs on constitutionality is now a government that's just that more eroded and further away from rule of law than it was before.

I'm just much more sanguine on the "whatever, have at it" strategy because I've seen it backfire much more personally here in Wisconsin. When WI added their marriage amendment referendum to the ballot, it got us another four years of the craptastic Jim Doyle as governor, which arguably cost the state four years of fiscal reform and tax cuts, and delayed CCW by four years. It passed, something like 60/40, all the old socially conservative WWII FDR Democrats, JFK Boomer Democrats, blue collar Union Democrats, and black Democrats all came out of the woodwork in droves to pull the lever for the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage, and then immediately voted a straight Democrat ticket right along with it.

Don't people know the gay marriage battle is lost, and it's just taking away resources from more important things like economic reforms, rolling back the scope and size of .gov, illegal immigration, decent foreign policy, and RKBA? Or do people actually worry they're going to die and see St. Peter, and get turned away because they didn't do more to oppose gay marriage politically?  ???
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Balog

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #102 on: June 19, 2014, 03:34:36 PM »
No socon is bringing it up, they are merely reacting to others bringing it up. And they oppose it because they know the inevitable results if they don't, which are things like forcing people out of business if they don't want to bake cakes for gay weddings or recognize homosexual "spouses" for insurance purposes. ETA: or things like the Danes forcing churches to perform homosexual wedding ceremonies, or British "hate speech" laws, or "creating a hostile work environment" because the company owner attends a church that refuses to perform gay weddings. If anything, it's actually refreshing to see people who are so aware of the "unintended" consequences of a law.

And people will always fight more for cultural values and principals than arguably more "important" issues, because those things are both more concrete and real to them and because they can more easily see the direct impact on their lives. A law banning the NFL is in every definition less important than a law enabling a secret court to black bag "terrorists" or a President that says he has the right to kill Americans on US soil without due process. But the uproar over it would be enormous, whereas the others are happening now and no one really cares.

As for the battle being lost, by that account the battle is equally lost on illegal immigration, reducing the size and scope of fed.gov, fiscal conservatism etc. Are you going to stop fighting for them?
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #103 on: June 19, 2014, 11:14:58 PM »
As for the battle being lost, by that account the battle is equally lost on illegal immigration, reducing the size and scope of fed.gov, fiscal conservatism etc. Are you going to stop fighting for them?


This.

Besides, there is a very high degree of historical myopia (or temporal chauvinism?) in declaring "the war is lost" on homosexual marriage. The current legal recognition of same-sex unions is, historically, an ugly little blip on the radar. A decade or two, in a span of millennia. In a hundred years, legal recognition of such may be as quaint and extinct as Betamax.

Also, not to speak for all so-cons everyone sane enough to remember that marriage is irreducibly heterosexual, but only the Christians, we (the latter) do not have a choice on whether to condemn evil. We can choose to do it in a more or less winsome fashion, and certainly there are times and places where it is less appropriate, but the Bible is pretty clear on our responsibility to spread the Gospel, denounce wickedness, etc.
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Strings

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #104 on: June 20, 2014, 12:09:22 AM »
>but the Bible is pretty clear on our responsibility to spread the Gospel, denounce wickedness, etc<

Wasn't there something in there about judging others?
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #106 on: June 20, 2014, 12:20:58 AM »
>but the Bible is pretty clear on our responsibility to spread the Gospel, denounce wickedness, etc<

Wasn't there something in there about judging others?

Right on cue...


Yes. Essentially, don't judge other people, unless you want to be judged by that same standard. It's another of the Christ's rebukes of hypocrisy. It is not, as commonly thought, a plea to ignore sin. Now go read the words of Jesus (not to mention his apostles), and tell me He wasn't doing some heavy-duty judging. Phrases like "wicked and perverse generation," "you brood of vipers," "twice as much a son of hell as you are," and "'Get outta this here temple 'fore I whip y'all" come to mind.
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Angel Eyes

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #107 on: June 20, 2014, 02:36:44 AM »
Those wacky Presbyterians are at it again:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/19/presbyterians-allow-gay-marriage-ceremonies/10922053/

Friends of mine attend a local Presbyterian church, which is separating (for lack of a better word) from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) because they won't do the gay marriage thing.  My understanding is they have to pay P.C. (U.S.A.) $80K to make the "divorce" official, which is taking a bite out of their budget.
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zahc

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #108 on: June 20, 2014, 07:44:54 AM »
Phrases like "wicked and perverse generation," "you brood of vipers," "twice as much a son of hell as you are," and "'Get outta this here temple 'fore I whip y'all" come to mind.

He was also God, a position that comes with certain privileges, no? He also said things like "your sins are forgiven", do I then have permission to forgive other's sins?
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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #109 on: June 20, 2014, 08:13:16 AM »
Raging against " the gayz" reminds me of the guy in the Bible whose prayer was thank you Lord I'm not like them and then he listed all his good works.

God is most likely not impressed.

There is enough sexual impurity and relationship failure in the current body of believers that maybe we should be a bit more humble and clean up our own mess first before condemning folks that don't even accept our world view.

We are not called to establish Christs Kingdom through the ballot box and government coercion. The death of "cultural Christianity" might be the healthiest thing that could happen to the church.

Oh and Zahc, throw your lot in with Christ and I can tell you this on good authority, your sins are forgiven.
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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #110 on: June 20, 2014, 08:38:51 AM »
Those wacky Presbyterians are at it again:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/06/19/presbyterians-allow-gay-marriage-ceremonies/10922053/

This does not surprise anyone familiar with them.

The PCUSA (and UPC before it, name change) has been shedding members since at least the 60s.  That's continuously, every year.  The last big batch, I forget what they call themselves, was a couple years ago, over ordination of practicing homosexuals.

There are a few diehards fighting the good fight, but enough of this and the apostates significantly outweigh them.

What's left at the end is a withered lefty pagan core. 

Friends of mine attend a local Presbyterian church, which is separating (for lack of a better word) from Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) because they won't do the gay marriage thing.  My understanding is they have to pay P.C. (U.S.A.) $80K to make the "divorce" official, which is taking a bite out of their budget.

That is a peculiarity of PCUSA church order.  The property belongs to the denomination, not the local congregation.

Some presbyteries let them go with more grace than others.


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dogmush

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #111 on: June 20, 2014, 09:44:32 AM »
This does not surprise anyone familiar with them.

The PCUSA (and UPC before it, name change) has been shedding members since at least the 60s.  That's continuously, every year.  The last big batch, I forget what they call themselves, was a couple years ago, over ordination of practicing homosexuals.

There are a few diehards fighting the good fight, but enough of this and the apostates significantly outweigh them.

What's left at the end is a withered lefty pagan core. 

That is a peculiarity of PCUSA church order.  The property belongs to the denomination, not the local congregation.

Some presbyteries let them go with more grace than others.


My Father in Law is a Presbyterian Minister, and the Stated Clerk of a Presbytery in MN.  I suspect he would take umbrage to the pagan portion of that statement.

As an outside observer, the Presbyterian's do seem to be the most hippie of the Christian flavors though.

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #112 on: June 20, 2014, 11:14:02 AM »
Hey Rev... should we be taking offense at the above uses of "pagan"?

I've lost track of what folks are supposed to be outraged about
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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #113 on: June 20, 2014, 11:21:50 AM »
As an outside observer, the Presbyterian's do seem to be the most hippie of the Christian flavors though.

Presbyterian and Methodist, though both have started taking 2 Thessalonians 3:6 a bit more seriously lately.

Balog

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #114 on: June 20, 2014, 11:24:32 AM »
My Father in Law is a Presbyterian Minister, and the Stated Clerk of a Presbytery in MN.  I suspect he would take umbrage to the pagan portion of that statement.

As an outside observer, the Presbyterian's do seem to be the most hippie of the Christian flavors though.

Was it the Presbyterians or the Methodists who's denominational leader was a lesbian who refused to be classified as a "theist"?

Call me crazy, but when someone who is theoretically leading a group of Christians won't even cop to believing in "a" god, then I have a hard time regarding them as a legitimate representation of a monotheistic religion.
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MillCreek

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #115 on: June 20, 2014, 11:54:23 AM »
^^^ I don't think it was the Methodists.  We have no central leader but are instead have the General Conference as the governing body.  There is a president of the council of bishops, but that position exists primarily to run the meetings and the council is under the General Conference.  Only the General Conference speaks for the church.
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Perd Hapley

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #116 on: June 20, 2014, 02:12:26 PM »
Phrases like "wicked and perverse generation," "you brood of vipers," "twice as much a son of hell as you are," and "'Get outta this here temple 'fore I whip y'all" come to mind.

He was also God, a position that comes with certain privileges, no? He also said things like "your sins are forgiven", do I then have permission to forgive other's sins?


No, and your point is well taken. There are other passages in which believers are instructed to make judgments, but they were not top of mind. I'll try to remember to look them up later, and post them.
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MillCreek

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #117 on: June 20, 2014, 03:47:58 PM »
Governor Perry: sorry I got caught saying it and I sure hope this doesn't hurt my political chances.  Or something like that.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/2014/06/20/gov-perry-i-stepped-in-it-likening-homosexuality-to-alcoholism/
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roo_ster

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #118 on: June 21, 2014, 09:30:36 AM »
Lumping homosexuals in with pedophiles is a good way of "othering" gays

Seem to recall the Jews having all sorts of heinous crimes and behaviors ascribed to them over the years, too

You have a firm grasp of leftist talking points.  And the quasi-antisemetic smear is a nice touch.

Cool... you have conviction data. Congratulations

First problem: societal view of sexual assault, including that of minors. There IS still a very healthy "blame the victim" and "sweep it under the rug" tendency within our society. Because of that, any data arrived at via conviction data is, at best, suspect.

2) Your data says the majority of offenders are men. Yet the majority of victims are girls (IIRC, the victimization rate for children is 1:3 for girls, 1:5 for boys). By that, heterosexual men are more dangerous to our kids than homosexual

3) Another societal problem (to argue that men are the overwhelming majority offenders): there are still a LOT of people who view an adult woman having relations with an underage male as a lesser offense (if they even consider it an offense) than if you switched the ages

As for the connections between groups like NAMBLA and gay rights activists: the argument could easily be made that pedophile activists see a widening of gay rights as making for a better "playing field" for their own concerns (that's a guess, granted).

You've focused hard on "gay = pedophile". I know a LOT of gay people: I've met exactly 1 that I wouldn't trust a male child in my care with, and that was more because he lacked ANY morals than because of pedophilic tendencies. But I know a LOT of heterosexual men I wouldn't trust anywhere near any of the girls in the family.

Your assertions are a dramatic oversimplification of a VERY complex set of problems


(1) Find a more solid data set.  This particular data set has made it through several filters to the point of conviction: either the pedophile plead guilty or his peers determined him guilty.  As you wrote in a previous post, your assumption of the lower likelihood of boys reporting abuse argues for the ratio to be even higher.

(2) Dude, math.  Offense rates given proportion of the population.  The calculation includes hetero and homo male proportions of the population.

For instance, "people killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes" was a little over 10,000 for 2010 (as I showed and linked previously http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Impaired_Driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html ).  Total number of people killed in all crashes for 2010 was almost 33,000 ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year ). 

According to your logic, "sober people are more dangerous on the road than drunks" because they kill 2x the number on the road that drunks do. 

This does not require any heavy math, just understanding the interplay between offense rates and proportion of the population.  Yeah, not so much, given the proportion of drunks tot he total population relative to those driving sober.

Quote
You've focused hard on "gay = pedophile".
No, that is the straw man you have erected because of your failure to address the pertinent data and misunderstanding of the math, offense rates, and proportion of the population. 

I will grant you victory over an argument I never made.  May it bring you joy.

FTR, here is the I posed way back earlier in the thread:
OTOH, addiction and homosexuality both cause damage to the individual and those around them.  And gov't regularly imposes drug/alcohol treatment in both criminal cases and in cases where they see the person as a danger to themselves and others (involuntary commitment to a mental health/addiction facility and such).

http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/statistics/basics/ataglance.html
Quote
Deaths: An estimated 15,529 people with an AIDS diagnosis died in 2010...

http://www.cdc.gov/MotorVehicleSafety/Impaired_Driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html
Quote
In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes...

Is it reasonable for gov't to mandate alcohol treatment for alcoholics that hurt others, from a practical/pragmatic perspective?  If "YES," are you willing to extend such to other activities with similar or greater externalities?

No one (besides my own self) has yet addressed those two questions in bold font.  Bueller?

And as for your objection to my claim of a 9x greater rate of conviction of homosexual pedophiles relative to heterosexual pedophiles, my arguments were such:
The rate of homosexual male sexual abuse of minors is roughly 9X that of heterosexual male sexual abuse of minors, when the proportion of homosexual and heterosexual men is taken into account.

Notice, I have not made the "gay = pedophile" argument.

=======

Thus far, your arguments include much hand-wavium, disqualification, anecdote, and accusations of bad faith.  And on the notion that homosexuality is somehow some exalted state of being & behavior above all other modes of human behavior and thus ought not be subject to the the same analysis applied to other human behaviors.  Because it is complex.  (Somehow more complex than alcoholism, addiction, violent crime, mental illness, and many others it is perfectly legitimate to not only analyze, but make policy based on the analysis.)

Well, I didn't drink that batch of kool-aid.  And whether or not we do analyze its effects, that doesn't erase the 15,000 who died from AIDS (most of them homosexual males) who might otherwise have lived.  Or the tens of thousands of sexually abused children.  Dead folks and savaged kiddos are notoriously poor at PR, though.

I am reminded of a similar argument made by an opponent of teacher evaluation.  "This is too complex a problem to be comprehended by quantitative factors such as teacher competency exams, graduation rates, or changes in performance by students on standardized tests."  And then, without batting an eye, "Subjective teacher evaluation is fraught with bias."  No objective evaluation?  No subjective evaluation?  The point being, the apologist wanted no evaluation whatsoever of the problem.  They've a got a good thing and just plain don't care who they damage as long as they get theirs.
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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #119 on: June 21, 2014, 10:11:41 AM »
On the subject of reparative therapy, it didn't seem to work with this guy:  http://www.bilerico.com/2014/06/former_ex-gay_spokesman_john_paulk_slams_rick_perr.php

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #120 on: June 21, 2014, 10:39:52 AM »
Oh and Zahc, throw your lot in with Christ and I can tell you this on good authority, your sins are forgiven.

^X1000

I'm pretty sure God love the sinner just as equally as the saint. I also remember reading many times in my religious studies classes as a youth that it isn't man's place to judge their fellow man if their actions are going to send them to spend an eternity in hell. You may not like or understand why a person would be gay, but it doesn't mean you should persecute them for their life choices. Feel free to peacefully pray for them publically or privately, but do not wish them ill will or exclude them from the same freedom you enjoy.

If the GOP and Religious Right spent as much energy on fiscal problems are they do on moral problems, a lot of the problems that truly affect us would either be solved or less of a problem.
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zahc

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #121 on: June 21, 2014, 01:17:14 PM »
^X1000

I'm pretty sure God love the sinner just as equally as the saint.

Sure whatever,  that's not what I was asking (additional pedantic gripe:saints are also sinners).

It was implied that since Christ pronounced judgements in the Bible, that Christians are therefore authorized to do the same. I do not agree with this conclusion. God has power and authority to pronounce judgment. You don't. God has power and authority to forgive a person's sins. Jesus did say to people "your sins are forgiven" (one of the key refutations of the untenable theory that Jesus and his contemporaries did not consider him to be God, and that his Godness was tacked on beginning with the book of John...the Jesus's act of forgiving sins is equivalent to a statement that he is God). Jesus forgave (absolved) sin in the bible but you do not have the power and authority to do the same. If you think that you have the power to absolve sin then you are practicing something other than Christianity. That Jesus did it in the bible doesn't mean you get to do it, sorry.

BUTBUTBUT HOLY SPIRIT DER DER...yes, the Holy Ghost gives power. What power(s)? Not power to forgive sin or pronounce judgement. Why? We never see that from nonJesus persons in the bible. What powers then? The powers that we see exhibited by non-Jesus persons in the bible-healing the sick, casting out spirits, speaking in tongues, etc. I welcome bible scholars to correct me...did followers ever raise anyone from the dead? Interestingly, I do not believe Jesus ever spoke in tongues.
« Last Edit: June 21, 2014, 01:30:14 PM by zahc »
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Re: Re: Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #122 on: June 21, 2014, 04:01:23 PM »
^X1000

I'm pretty sure God love the sinner just as equally as the saint. I also remember reading many times in my religious studies classes as a youth that it isn't man's place to judge their fellow man if their actions are going to send them to spend an eternity in hell. You may not like or understand why a person would be gay, but it doesn't mean you should persecute them for their life choices. Feel free to peacefully pray for them publically or privately, but do not wish them ill will or exclude them from the same freedom you enjoy.

If the GOP and Religious Right spent as much energy on fiscal problems are they do on moral problems, a lot of the problems that truly affect us would either be solved or less of a problem.

First of all, Christians are commanded to judge sin. The verse that sinners use who wish to excuse their own sin (judge not...) is referring to people. I do not and cannot condemn people.  I do and can condemn sin. Adultery, homosexuality, thieving, etc... are sins. If calling your sin a sin makes you feel condemned, that's for you to address.

Secondly, the fiscal issues are a symptom of the real problem.  The real problem is that we are no longer a moral and religious people and are now not for our Constitution. Despite the dreams of a libertarian utopia, people will not vote against immediate gain (even at the expense of themselves in the long run) without some form of restraint. Christian morality was that restraint for over a century. Absent that restraint, your "fiscal issues" cannot be resolved.

As such, abortion, debt, gay "marriage", divorce epidemic, etc... are just symptoms.  You can continue to treat the symptoms but the disease is going to kill the patient unless the actual problem is resolved.
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Re: Re: Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #123 on: June 21, 2014, 05:57:49 PM »
First of all, Christians are commanded to judge sin. The verse that sinners use who wish to excuse their own sin (judge not...) is referring to people. I do not and cannot condemn people.  I do and can condemn sin. Adultery, homosexuality, thieving, etc... are sins. If calling your sin a sin makes you feel condemned, that's for you to address.

Secondly, the fiscal issues are a symptom of the real problem.  The real problem is that we are no longer a moral and religious people and are now not for our Constitution. Despite the dreams of a libertarian utopia, people will not vote against immediate gain (even at the expense of themselves in the long run) without some form of restraint. Christian morality was that restraint for over a century. Absent that restraint, your "fiscal issues" cannot be resolved.

As such, abortion, debt, gay "marriage", divorce epidemic, etc... are just symptoms.  You can continue to treat the symptoms but the disease is going to kill the patient unless the actual problem is resolved.

Whose morals and whose religion is the one that must be followed? Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Taoism, Hindu, Buddhism, Pagan, Satan, etc?
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charby

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Re: Texas GOP party platform: You can pray the gay away!
« Reply #124 on: June 21, 2014, 06:09:43 PM »
Sure whatever,  that's not what I was asking (additional pedantic gripe:saints are also sinners).

It was implied that since Christ pronounced judgements in the Bible, that Christians are therefore authorized to do the same. I do not agree with this conclusion. God has power and authority to pronounce judgment. You don't. God has power and authority to forgive a person's sins. Jesus did say to people "your sins are forgiven" (one of the key refutations of the untenable theory that Jesus and his contemporaries did not consider him to be God, and that his Godness was tacked on beginning with the book of John...the Jesus's act of forgiving sins is equivalent to a statement that he is God). Jesus forgave (absolved) sin in the bible but you do not have the power and authority to do the same. If you think that you have the power to absolve sin then you are practicing something other than Christianity. That Jesus did it in the bible doesn't mean you get to do it, sorry.

BUTBUTBUT HOLY SPIRIT DER DER...yes, the Holy Ghost gives power. What power(s)? Not power to forgive sin or pronounce judgement. Why? We never see that from nonJesus persons in the bible. What powers then? The powers that we see exhibited by non-Jesus persons in the bible-healing the sick, casting out spirits, speaking in tongues, etc. I welcome bible scholars to correct me...did followers ever raise anyone from the dead? Interestingly, I do not believe Jesus ever spoke in tongues.

So are you in somewhat of an agreement with me? I'm a bit confused?
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