Posted on 11/06/2004 2:48:53 PM PST by BushFaninATL
The Old Testament did sanction slavery. God said, 'Both thy bondmen and thy bondmaids, which thou shalt have, shall be of the heathen that are round about you. . . . And ye shall take them as an inheritance for your children. . . .' "
— "Domestic Slavery Considered as a Scriptural Institution,"
Rev. Richard Fuller, 1847
Last Tuesday, there was at least one thing about which blue states and red states, black Americans and white Americans, Northerners and Southerners could agree: Gays and lesbians should be denied the right to full citizenship. Constitutional amendments to ban same-sex unions appeared on the ballot in 11 states and passed easily — from Michigan, Ohio and Oregon to Georgia, Mississippi and Arkansas.
It was a triumph for bigotry based on the Bible. From conservative pulpits around the country, pastors had implored their flocks to go to the polls and vote against the "abomination" of homosexuality. They claimed that preventing gays from getting married would shore up the institution among heterosexuals — though it is not clear how.
It was also a triumph for the Machiavellian madness of Karl Rove. He understood only too well that many Americans were willing to ignore a sputtering economy, a profoundly flawed war and soaring health care costs for the opportunity to enforce discrimination against a despised minority. Rove also knew that calling out the legions of ultraconservative Christians who abhor equal rights for gays would ensure that President Bush won not only the Electoral College but also the popular vote.
And they weren't just white voters. Homophobia oozes across lines of color, linking black America with white in a common contempt masquerading as morality. It is deeply disappointing to see black churchgoers enthusiastically wield the Bible as a bludgeon against another group, since Scripture was also used against us, as a justification for slavery, in the 19th century.
"In Genesis . . . soon after the flood Ham's descendants were doomed by the Almighty to a state of slavery . . . and . . . the descendants of Shem and Japheth . . . were ordained to be their masters."
— "Slavery: Its Origin, Nature and History,"
Rev. Thornton Stringfellow, 1861
Indeed, black Christians have become more hostile toward gays over the last decade or so. While 65 percent of black Protestants believed that gays should enjoy equal rights in 1996, that view was held by only 40 percent this year, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. Among most other religious groups surveyed, including white evangelical Protestants, support for gay rights increased (if only marginally) over the same period.
Ultraconservative black Christians helped make the difference for President Bush in the key state of Ohio. Bush nearly doubled his support among black Ohioans, from 9 percent in 2000 to 16 percent on Tuesday, according to senior analyst David Bositis of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a Washington think tank specializing in issues of interest to black Americans. That increase — about 50,000 voters — came from black Christian conservatives, he added.
"It is vain to look to Christ or any of his Apostles to justify [abolition]. On the contrary . . . they exhort 'all servants under the yoke' to 'count their masters as worthy of all honor.' . . . St. Paul actually apprehended a runaway slave and sent him to his master!"
— The Pro-Slavery Argument, Hammond's Letters on Slavery,
(Former S.C. Gov.) J.H. Hammond, 1853
When American Baptists split over the bondage of black men and women in the 1840s, the Southern brethren, who backed slavery, formed the Southern Baptist Convention. Many of its members continued to resist equal rights for black Americans through the 1960s.
At their Atlanta meeting in 1995 — belatedly recognizing the error of their ways — the messengers of the Southern Baptist Convention issued a broad apology for the church's support of slavery. The founders of the Southern Baptist Convention were "good, godly, Bible-believing persons, but they were not infallible," the Rev. Charles T. Carter said at the time.
Some 50 to 100 years from now, no doubt, some Christian churches will find themselves apologizing for their contemptuous treatment of gays and lesbians, many of whom are fellow Christians. For now, however, the conservative Christian church — black and white — has forsaken two of Christ's most profound injunctions:
"Love thy neighbor as thyself." — Matthew, 22:39
"Judge not, that ye be not judged." — Matthew, 7:1
Homosexuality is a sexual act. You can't be gay without having sex with someone of the same sex. Comparing forced servitude and bondage with a voluntary sexual act is absurd.
Only someone who wants to abuse it would not take this into account; and would probably defend islam even though there is no fulfillment therein to relieve the believer of all that is written in the text.
When are these idiots going to realize that Christians read the New testament? Christ is the path to salvation!
God then groups all three sins under the same warning: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out before you. In other words, God said "I destroyed the other nations that used to be in this land because of these sins, and the same warning applies to you"!
IF we are to say that homosexuality was given equal billing with child sacrifice and bestiality, and IF we are to believe that homosexuality is now acceptable to God in this current age, then we must believe that child sacrifice and bestiality are also acceptable in our current age. You cannot have it both ways: either homosexuality, bestiality, and child sacrifice are forever sinful abominable acts in God's sight, or all three are acceptable "alternative lifestyles".
A conservative, common sense interpretation of Leviticus 18 demands that we understand that all three acts were and are sinful in God's sight, contrary to His Will for mankind.
Leviticus 20 is even more specific. The sins listed as forbidden are, in order, adultery (adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death), incest (man that lieth with his father's wife), non related incest (man lie with his daughter in law), homosexuality (man also lie with mankind), and intra-family fornication (man take a wife and her mother). All are given equal billing, all are equally evil in God's eyes. If homosexuality was only temporarily forbidden, then we can conclude that incest between parent and child is now acceptable. How foolish! None of these sins were temporarily forbidden, all were and are abominations in God's sight.
As to the Homosexual theologian charge that the dietary laws would have to be enforced if we enforce the Levitical code against homosexuality, this is mere smoke and mirrors. First, the dietary laws are not even represented in these Bible texts. Second, the dietary laws were just that, dietary laws, they were not moral laws (which the above texts represent).
God Himself rescinded the dietary laws for the sake of the Gentiles (Acts 10.14-15). But He never rescinded the command against these sins, in particular, the sin of homosexuality.
Finally, the reason that homosexuality (like adultery and incest) is no longer a sin that you must be stoned for is that we live in the era of Grace. Christ paid the penalty for all sin on the Cross of Calvary, even the sin of the homosexual. In this era we do not stone sinners, we preach the Gospel of Christ to them. The homosexual, like the adulterer, needs the salvation that Christ can bring. They do not need to be stoned, they need to be saved so that they can "go and sin no more".
Cynthia, a bigot herself, recently wrote about Obama in Illnois saying " they had gathered to touch the hem of his garments."
In an enlightened society there can be no rational basis for discrimination on criteria such as race, skin color or ethnicity. However, as with multi-culturalism, the introduction of morally significant criteria changes the analysis of discrimination. Discrimination against harmful conduct is entirely rational, and in many cases necessary.
Discrimination is now synonymous with racial prejudice in the public mind. The "gay"homosexual movement has exploited this association to legitimize its own claims by adding itself to the list of minorities in anti-discrimination statutes.
Moral discrimination is "rational" discrimination.
Homophobia: This term is probably the most outrageous invention of the "gay" homosexual sophists. the illogic of homophobia is insultingly blatant.
Originally, homophobia was psychiatric jargon invented to describe a person's fear of homosexual inclinations in him or herself. "Gay" homosexual activists simply stole the term and redefined it as "hate and/or fear of homosexuals."
As a rhetorical weapon, homophobia is unequaled. It serves first to define anyone who opposes the legitimization of homosexuality as a hate-filled bigot. The universal inclusion of all opponents as homophobic is of course not emphasized. Homosexual activists publicly associate this label with violent "gay bashers" and hateful fanatics. When they use the term they want people to think about the killers of Matthew Shepard, but in conventional practice they include every man, woman and child who believes homosexuality is abnormal or wrong.
Secondly, the term defines opposition to homosexuality as a mental illness. "Gay" homosexual activists take special delight in this since it was scant decades ago that homosexuality was listed as a mental disorder in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry (removed by the political maneuvering of homosexual activists in a 1973 vote of the members of the American Psychiatric Association).
Thirdly, the term serves as the semantic equivalent of "racist," helping the "gay" movement to further indoctrinate the public with the notion that opposition to homosexuality is equivalent to prejudice against racial minorities.
The use of the term is in itself religious discrimination because it implicitly disparages and declares illegitimate the religious teachings of several major world religions. Adoption of the term by government constitutes a prima facie violation of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, which prohibits the endorsement or inhibition of religion.
Cynthia, those gays and thespians already have the same
CIVIL rights as everyone else.
I don't think there's any direct endorsement of slavery by God in the Bible anywhere---but maybe I missed it. I will concede there's plenty of language that's been twisted and misinterpreted to justify slavery-"beasts of the fields" etc.---but I think Cynthia's off her rocker. Big surprise.
"Some 50 to 100 years from now, no doubt, some Christian churches will find themselves apologizing for their contemptuous treatment of gays and lesbians, many of whom are fellow Christians."
The only way that would happen is if there was total apostasy. Anyone who teaches that homosexuality and Christianity are compatible, is either a ignorant fool or a deliberate liar. One cannot live comfortably with being a homosexual and be a Christian. Only repentant sinners can be Christians.
Call yourself whatever you want. If you are an unrepentant homosexual, you are not part of Christ - He doesn't know you.
Dear very stupid lady:
We have no desire whatsoever to mistreat homosexuals. We do hope to prevent them from getting married.
WHY is it that civil unions that bestow the same benefits as marriage aren't good enough for gays & lesbians?
It's becuase they want to force EVERYONE to sanction their behavior, including Christians who believe it's wrong. They want to shove their behavior in everyone's faces.
I personally do not care to know anything about my heterosexual next door neighbors' sex life, so why on earth do homosexuals insist that we all know and approve of their sexual practices?
...judge with a righteous judgment. ~ John 7:24
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Thank you for reminding me why I do not buy the AJC.
Cynthia Tucker did a swell job in distorting scripture.
"Love thy neighbor as thyself." — Matthew, 22:39
"Judge not, that ye be not judged." — Matthew, 7:1
It is not love not to warn someone that they are on the path to hell.
By Ms. Tucker's logic we shouldn't warn a heroin addict that his continue use of heroin is going to lead him to a life of misery. We should be 'tolerant' and not attempt to disuade him from his chosen lifestyle.
And if we see someone set sail with a gaping hole in his boat? Far be it from us to cast judgement upon his boat. That would be 'intolerant'. Better to smile and wave good-bye as he sails away from shore...
We don't judge, the Word of God judges. It is for us sinners (and I count myself no better than anyone) to spread the Word - both the Good News AND the warnings.
Please assist me here. I thought that slavery in ancient Israel lasted seven years. And I thought there was a "happy hour" every fifty calendar years when all slaves were freed. Is this correct?
The truth is EVERYWHERE homosexuality is mentioned in the Bible it is condemned as sin. Nowhere in the Bible is it EVER condoned.
The New Testament repeats and confirms the OT prohibitions and condemnations of homosexuality.
According to Cynthia, God (and Jesus who is God incarnet) as well as the disciples of Christ, and all who believe them are really anti-gay bigots.
And she has the nerve to quote scripture out of context to support her slander.
It's funny how those who deny virtually everything else the Bible says seem to think they can use these verses to convince us it is bigoted and anti-Christian to call sin, sin.
Cynthia forgot a few scriptures;
In Jesus' own words- about other people's sins- individual confrontation :
"Sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee" - John 5:14
"Go and sin no more" -- John 8:11
"He (the Holy Spirit) will reprove the world of sin" -- John16:8
I believe every 7th year was a sabbath year and every 50th year was a year of liberty (Jubilee year) and that bondservants were freed at both these times.
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