This one is for my co-religionists, so here’s a cute animated gif of a bouncing cube of red jello for the non-Christians.
I’ll see the rest of you after the jump.
If you are a Bible literalist, and if you are so opposed to same sex relations that you try to deny gays their legal rights, then you are in serious danger of hellfire.
Remember this? It's a little number we call The Parable Of The Unjust Servant:
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.
And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
This was not the only time he taught on this topic. Here he lays down the smack in explicit, literal language:
Jesus was drawing his point from the Old Testament, both the Decalogue (a.k.a. Ten Commandments)…
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
…and the story of David and Bathsheba:
Make no mistake about it: If you call on God to forgive you for the wrongs you do, then you have neither the power nor the privilege of judging -- much less condemning -- anyone else.
And you most explicitly do NOT have the power nor the privilege of calling down God's wrath upon them.
A lot of you pooh-pooh Christians who bring up this teaching of Jesus:
You cheerfully ignore what Christ proclaimed as the heart and soul of his gospel:
And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.
Because instead of extending the same rights and courtesies to others that you expect (if not demand) for yourself, you do exactly the opposite.
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I’m seeing too many people expressing sentiments along the lines of “it is a very big thing especially among young, quote unquote ‘do justice’ only Christians. Not much talk of repentance, sin, a time where they found the Lord and turned their lives over to him as well as a lot of talk of baptism with no talk of The Salvation the moment when you know you need Christ, are a sinner and turn your life over to Him, trust in him and then a changed life follows!”
They refer to social justice (as if that were a bad thing!) as “hippie love”.
Let me remind you: The dirty #@%&ing hippies were right.
Right now mainstream denominations are imploding in this country. It’s not so much that the number of unchurched people are growing so much as those who grew up in purportedly Christian churches compared what purportedly Christian people were saying with what they were doing, and said “none of that for us, thanx.”
Seriously, you may say “In this supposedly enlightened ‘return to the Gospel’ that some of the church body is talking about where love is seemingly our only required expression, if what you believe about you and God, i.e. your theology, does not include the act of repentance, then look that word up so that your understanding can be deeper, and more complete” but what those leaving the church in droves are hearing is “we demand you jump through our hoops to prove your worthiness to us, because our feces are non-odiferous.”
Nay, I say unto thee, thy feces are most vexingly odiferous indeed.
To quote Jesus yet again:
And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
If we do anything except show love, compassion, generosity, mercy, and forgiveness to others, we are not following the teachings of Jesus. If we refuse service to a person because they fail to meet our rigorous personal standards, we are behaving exactly contrary to the way Christ lived.
WE are required to be repentant, not them.
We are to ask God to forgive us in exactly the same way we forgive them, judging us in precisely the same manner that we judge them.
- We are required to love our enemies, not them.
- We are required to turn the other cheek, not them.
- We are required to go the extra mile, not them.
- We are required to give freely to whoever asks, not them.
- We are required to love those who persecute us, not them.
Only when we repent of selfishness & pride are we truly following the teachings of Christ.
Remember, Jesus literally got down on his knees to wipe shit off the feet of his disciples.*
Stop harassing people who have done nothing to you, who pose no threat to you, whose existence does not affect you in the slightest.
You think same sex marriage is a sin, don’t marry someone of your sex; otherwise bake the cake, arrange the flowers.
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* We say “dust” in church because it’s a nicer, politer, more non-odiferous word than “shit”, and the little old ladies and snooty young men won’t get offended at the idea of dust because dusting is the least taxing chore to do around the house, a few quick swipes and you’re done.