Spiritual bullying is deadly. Children are listening when religious leaders call gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people sinners. Children hear them when they shout "abomination" from the pulpit, when they scream, "Thou shalt not!"
There is no turning back when a child has heard he or she is evil one too many times. No prayer, no line from a book written by men, will undo a child's last prayer for help.
No church on earth has the excuse, "but the Bible told me so," because our greatest gift is our reason. We are in command of our actions. We choose to hate those who look different, or who are born different than us. Hate is not a holy virtue, and those who hate know this. That is the biggest crime of all. Those who hate ignore their own intuition -- that voice inside that says, "no." And why? Because the Bible told them so?
Those who preach hate in front of pews of people should be stripped of their cloth by the flock they so wish to woo with slippery tongues. It is possible. History has shown us countless times how to alter the reality of our religious institutions. Luther did it with a simple hammer and nail on a wooden door. Jesus changed a church with kindness. King Henry the VIII changed a church with law. Evolution is inevitable but must be instigated by the people. Silence by the flock is deadly.
Do you sit silently when your pastor points with his crooked finger at gays and shames? Or do you stand up and say, "Not in my name! Not in the name of my God! Shame on you!" Have you ever told your fellow parishioners that you or someone you know is gay and that they are beautiful? Or do you just let spiritual bullying happen.
My heart is heavy. My eyes are tired. I can not read another story about a young person taking his or her life because of bullying in any form. I want the world to be truly holy. I want the world to be a place where all people are loved and cherished for who they are. I want us to have compassion for one another and to help each other in times of need. I want a world where we find the Spirit in truth, not through the manipulations of power hungry men and women.
Do you agree? Begin the conversation in your place of worship now. Tell your religious leaders that you believe the LGBT community should be loved and cherished. Do not just let spiritual bullying happen. If you do, it could be too late for someone you know.
Cross posted at the Bilerico Project
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The modern hypocrites are still busy condemning other people. They make a business of condemning others, and then selling forgiveness for a high price. The Catholics discovered about a thousand years ago that they could use scripture to condemn people, and then sell them forgiveness, and in the process they could become rich and powerful. They set about inventing various sins to condemn, and mistranslating and misconstruing scripture in the process, as a means of increasing their own power and wealth. A few hundred years later, some priests protested some particular teachings, and started what are now called protestant churches, but generally continued the practice of condemning people for profit and power.
Only recently, with the advent of widespread literacy and education, has the practice been exposed. While most churches continue to condemn people for profit and power, a few have started to follow Jesus, again.
Philippians 2 3)Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4)Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. 5)Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: -- 7) ... taking the very nature of a servant,
Does this sound like any GOP candidates you are aware of? Certainly not Rand Paul or any of the other Tea'ers. The Religious Right has always done great harm to Christianity.”
Like it or not, Scripture speaks against homsexuality. GOP has nothing to do with it
AMEN BROTHER. You are right on. Actually, you are just repeating what GOD has already clearly stated in his revealed scripture.
There is such a thing as moral absolutes. It's just that most people can't acknowledge it!!
Whose fault is this? It's the fault of us all. It's the fault of any of us who make jokes about gay people, who insult them with the use of demeaning names. It's the fault of us who are silent when others do these things or when they publish lies about what homosexuality is. And it's the fault of us who don't provide a safe place and a caring response to those of homosexual orientation. Who knows how many hundreds of thousands of lives have been lost - to violence, to suicide, to drugs, to promiscuity, to AIDS, to shattered self- esteem, to life forever outside the doors of the church - because we have participated in or by silence colluded with the demeaning and the ostracizing of homosexual people. In this respect there is blood on the hands of the church. And that's what has driven me more than anything else to talk with you as I am doing. I have had a vision of Christ at the judgment asking, “Why were you silent?” Why has the church abandoned these children of God to despair and to death? When people are lost and dying by the millions you don't pontificate about sexual morality, you reach out to them, you give them a safe place, you listen, you talk, you love with the love of Christ.
"neither do I condmen you, now go and SIN NO MORE.
He love her AND told the woman she was sinning.
Thank you!
Those who most strongly condemn homosexuality also see God as harsh and unforgiving. They see people condemned unless those people specifically adopt certain beliefs.
Those of us who don't see God this way (Jesus said that those who are not against him are for him, and Paul told Timothy that Jesus came to save all, especially--not exclusively--believers) have more faith in God's loving kindness and justice.
If homosexuality is a sin, it is a sin that harms no bystanders. It should, therefore, be left to the individual and God. Adultery is far more harmful, yet much more accepted.
And why do people worry so much about sex lives in the first place? Jesus was far more distressed by greed, dishonesty, and hypocrisy! Shouldn't we take our cue from Him?
Immorality harms everyone.
Period.
Cause if you think that kingdom is an excuse to harm *anyone,* never mind justify bullying and spiritual abuse of children and people, I can't imagine it's a very moral place.
1In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. 3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. 5But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Malakoi literally means “soft” and is translated that way by both KJ and RSV in Matt. 11:8 and Luke 7:25. When it is used in moral contexts in Greek writings it has the meaning of morally weak; a related word, malakia, when used in moral contexts, means dissolute and occasionally refers to sexual activity but never to homosexual acts. There are at least five Greek words that specifically mean people who practice same-gender sex.
Unquestionably, if Paul had meant such people, he would not have used a word that is never used to mean that in Greek writings when he had other words that were clear in that meaning.
Newsflash folks. Sin is sin. God cannot abide sin. The writer confuses righteous condemnation of a clear sin with some kind of bullying. HOGWASH.
"My" religious leaders don't need reminding that everyone is equally loved in the sight of a Holy, Pure, and Just God. A God that does JUDGE, and will JUDGE, everyone according to their dealings with Jesus Christ.
It is hardly likely that anyone is trying to do God's job. God's final judgement of all people is certain. We, as believers and followers in Jesus Christ are Called to discern, recognize, identify, and point out sin. Of course, the unbelieving world would mislabel this as us being "judgmental." A Pastor that preaches about sin and calls sin for what it is from the pulpit is in no way judging anyone. He is merely repeating what God has already made clear and he is fullfilling his responsibility before God to warn against sin.
Thank you.
I ignore this nonsense, just like I ignore it every time this fallacy comes up.
Actually, the Bible doesn't even really tell them so.
For more on this topic check out my piece on RC homophobia.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/michele-somerville/catholic-church-homophobia_b_750254.html
The most that those who want to redefine sexuality for the modern age can hope for is a schism. With one side gravitating to the position that the "Church is a big tent where anything goes", and the other side hooking up with the Catholic Church. I will place my bets on the Church that has been around for 2000 years.
other side hooking up with the Catholic Chuch.
The idea that if Christians point to the bible's prohibition against homosexuality as justification (and, supposedly, the Bible IS the authority for all things Christian) that they must also follow the old testament laws concerning food is a straw man fallacy. Many laws in the Old Testament were annulled by the New Testament. The reason is not because Old Testament laws reflect a more primitive morality. God’s law is a reflection of God’s character, which is unchanging. God’s character is the standard of perfect justice, goodness and truth. God cannot speak anything that is not perfectly just.
-To Be Continued-