Replies

"I spent time after reading this thread thinking back over the gay friends of my life. My criteria for being around people is that they are “good” in my definition, not in someone else’s. Goodness, to me, has to do with love of neighbor and kindness to others, and behaving as you would want others to behave to you."

It's your choice who you wish to spend time with. But that's not the issue at hand here. It never was. Your definition of "good" may not be His. That is the point. You could be describing eating a delicious cake with scores of calories. It may taste good, it may taste great, but it's really bad for you. Rather like sin.

"What I like about Christianity are that those virtues are embedded in it. I see churches as trying to teach people to be the best that they can be. I also believe that we’re deeply affected by the people with whom we come in contact. So I can’t be around people whose traits I don’t want rubbing off on me. Only people who would help me be better."

The problem here is what that entails. If a so-called Christian church is teaching their parishioners that not only sin is good, it's great, they're not Christian. They're deceivers serving the Dark One. This is teaching lies. Christ wasn't about lies, He was about truth. He would not be telling a gay congregation what they're doing will lead them to God. He would tell them to stop sinning. Some people simply don't want to hear the truth, they prefer lies. We already know where that leads.

"With all those caveats, I look at the small number of gays that I’ve cared about (they try to exaggerate their numbers for political purposes) and I see uniformly good people. Since I’ve pre-selected for kindness toward others and a passion for life, I’m not saying gays are better than straights. I’m just saying that they’re as individual as straights. And there’s the same percentage of passionate churchgoers among them as among straights. They’re active volunteers and people who reach out to help those they see struggling. Yes, many of them would like the government to do the helping, sigh, but these are the ones in the trenches not of political activism, but of helping the unfortunate."

That is fine and dandy, but that doesn't change the central point.

"I was allowed to free think from the time I was eight years old. I take the incredible diversity of opinion of people as a strength, so I wouldn’t change a single opinion of another person to mine unless their opinions moved out of their world into mine. I don’t have friends who do that. I don’t consider that a “good” characteristic that would help me be a better person."

"Free thinking," as I've seen it, is another of Satan's tricks. It usually means trying to get out and away from God's word and towards selfish behaviors/lifestyles and destructiveness. It's often the hallmark of the self-centered. The most misguided and bigoted people I've ever come across are self-described "free thinkers." Think of San Francisco en masse. They detest truth, and it shows.

"I can’t understand being gay. I haven’t the faintest idea if it’s nurture or nature. I can’t even go the place where women prefer other women to men. Personally, that just elicits a massive YUCK. I’ve been married to a man I respect for 48 years and consider myself purely lucky. But the gays I know are as steady in their relationships as the straights I know. No better. No worse. And I only know the ones who are good and kind and live lives that I deeply respect."

It still doesn't change God's position on that. Maintaining a sinful lifestyle for decades is nothing to be proud of, and similarly will not be rewarded.

"I’d hope that support for gays comes only from people knowing good gay people and not from Gay Pride marches of the strange and scary part of their society."

We've already seen their fascist agenda at work. They have no hesitation to destroy good Christian citizens who do not indeed worship THEIR sinful behavior and lifestyle choices.

"I have to assume that that banner outside the church means they’re proselytizing Gay Pride."

THAT is their religion, under the false banner of Christianity. Satanic.

"I’d stay away from that as fast as I’d stay away from proselytizing Christians or Muslims. But I’ll support the BELIEFS of all of those people within their own lives and ignore ALL of the proselytizing."

So, by that reckoning, you will ignore truth because it bothers you.