Christian tropers, join together!

I'm not Catholic, but I believe in God and Jesus. Can I still give my opinion?

Yeah, sure

Okay. I believe that God cares about whether you're a good person or not, not if you're attracted to men/women/enbies/any combination of the former three/no one.

Edited by CosmosAndChaos on Mar 2nd 2024 at 3:26:03 PM

that’s exactly what I believe too! If it’s stated in the Bible that God knew everything about you in the womb, why would he prevent you from living out his plan?

Im unitarian universalist. Do i count?

I was just asking Christians in general.

I mean for the coven

Given that Jesus never once addressed the topic of homosexuality and did tell us to love our neighbors as ourselves, and seeing that gay people aren't hurting anybody or anything, so far as I can observe, I don't see a reason to hate them.

I'm Hispanic too, by the way, Mexican-American to be specific, and I also grew up with a lot of homophobia. Luckily my immediate family has started outgrowing those attitudes, step by agonizing step.

I can sympathize. My parents are Peruvian, and while they aren’t homophobes (at least I don’t think they are), they do hold many conservative views towards those topics.

I'm pretty much the same. I've read plenty of strong arguments about how sections of the bible that seem to condemn homosexuality don't actually do so in the original texts, and I see no reason to go against that.

Gay people are people. Trans people are people. Etc. God knows what's up, He knows what He wants and what He means, I'll leave it all to him.

You're not wrong (some—not all, but some—of the anti-gay stuff was originally and much more sensibly anti-pedophile), but even if the Bible did fully condemn homosexuality, I still couldn't and wouldn't embrace it. I could only see that stuff as an example of tampering or misunderstanding.

Shunning an innocent demographic for something totally innate, especially one that's routinely attacked on all sides by the worst bullies on the planet, is the most anti-Jesus thing I can think of.

That’s always been conflicting to me. The Bible often contradicts itself, but yeah, I just believe that God loves everyone regardless. On another subject, what’s everyone’s opinion on strong atheists, like the kind that sounds like they despise Christianity and everything about it. I try my best to ignore them, but I take criticisms of things I like somewhat poorly.

I'm fine with people not believing in God, but not with people thinking all religious people are bad because of some bad apples. Just like I don't condemn all atheists based on some bad people happening to be atheist.

You mean the kind that have atrocious reading comprehension skills and have a veiw of God that I hope no theist thinks God is like that? Either reply lest he think he's wise in his own eyes or don't reply lest you be like him. I think it's funny that there's a verse in Proverbs that could be interpreted to mean in our time to not feed the trolls. People are people and some things cross cultural boundaries. I really don't like it when people pick and choose sins to carp on. And they tend to ignore wolf in sheep clothing type sins. I'm a sex repulsed asexual, so I'm not really the person to talk about potential sexual sin. Other than nonconsensual sex is of course a serious sin. And I wish people would realize the Bible is an ancient document that can be both the inerrant inspired word of God and use artistic license. Not to mention seperating descriptive from prescriptive. Fundy eisegeses is frustrating. Don't get me started on the folks that think the KJV is the only true engligh translation of the Bible. Never mind the obsolete language that would be like if a Greek speaker tried to read koine greek. Bet they still want the New Testament ttanslated to modern greek.

I'm a former atheist and I still have friends in that community (including my best buddy, not counting my fiancee). The usual bunch of arguments against God don't really hold up for me anymore, but I still think atheism is an understandable response to a universe that seems impersonal, chaotic and amoral, at least sometimes.

But I have a lot less patience for atheists who uncritically accept and spread anti-Christian myths. Stuff that's objectively and verifiably false, like Jesus mythicism and nonsense about alleged pagan roots of Christmas^note It's true that early Christians celebrated Christmas in December to supplant pagan wintertime traditions like Saturnalia; it's not true that Christmas is just a hodgepodge of such traditions with the Serial Numbers Filed Off, since the origins of Christmas traditions and iconography are reasonably well known and none of that has anything to do with Odin or "Anup the Baptizer". It's essentially the atheist version of young-Earth creationism and about as annoying. For a group of people that values logic and reason so much, they sure don't seem to apply those things when the falsehoods affirm their biases.

The worst part is that you can never correct them because they think you're arguing as an offended Christian and basically just say "u mad, bro," which has more or less become the standard way of communicating on the internet.

There's jerks in every worldview. What I really don't get are the people who claim to be Christian that proceed to commit horrific acts of abuse. Considering that God is the ultimate Papa Wolf , that's a terrible idea. Maybe they actually believe in a false god that would be okay with that?

What they believe in is the social and political clout that comes with being part of the majority. Actual belief in God or in the values Jesus teaches is optional at best. We see the same kinds of behaviors in countries with non-Christian majorities, just with a different coat of paint.

So they worship power? Guess they missed that verse about those who exalt themselves will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

I don't know that they worship power, but they definitely want it, preferably if they can use it to hurt those they see as untermenschen. And yeah, they did miss that. They miss a lot of things.

I'll never forget Donald Trump's infamous "Two Corinthians" flub. Perfect example of what I'm talking about.

No wonder the psalmist wrote that tshe fool says in his heart, "There is no God". Because their behavior is Stupid Evil in a monotheistic worldview where everyone will one day answer to the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent King of kings.

Even though I stopped going to church a while ago, there is one verse that has a particular place in my heart:

"'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.' (Matthew 25:40 NIV)"

This verse also happen to align really strongly with my current beliefs, involving equality and welfare for the poor and needy.

Basically, to quote Adam Smith and his Wealth of Nations: No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

@#11705: TBH I find that in a lot of circles, the issue of this subject has been so mired with identity politics that it's difficult to discuss the subject with clarity and honesty without the talking points being reduced to an "us vs. them" mentality.

If you want a genuine Biblical (i.e. Christian) view on the subject, it might be best to read or listen to leaders who had personally struggled with those exact issues, and not from random people who never genuinely wrestled with the subjects and whose argument has no real basis other than "I think this sounds right".

Sam Allberry and Rosaria Butterfield are two of the most prominent names I can think of who speaks personally on the subjects. Allberry has even wrote a book specifically on the subject on homosexuality and same-sex attraction, Is God Anti-Gay?. He's also preached on the contents of his writing on numerous videos if you don't want to have to spend money on the resource but is curious what it's all about anyway.

Edited by Adept on Mar 18th 2024 at 10:00:11 PM

No thanks. I'ma love my neighbor as myself even if your favorite translation of Leviticus says otherwise. Following the letter of the law and ignoring the spirit is actually a pretty big no-no in Christianity.

EDITed for diplomacy.

Edited by ThriceCharming on Mar 19th 2024 at 8:45:51 AM

Leviticus was always a boring book TBH. Even my religion teacher said so. And besides, the amount of times it’s stated that God loves everyone outweighs the times he says to burn the gays and the like.

Leviticus thinks bats are birds. It has cultural and historical value, obviously, but its actual applicability in the current century is minimal.

Edited by ThriceCharming on Mar 19th 2024 at 9:22:47 AM