One of my favorite Facebook pages posted a great article about a study showing that the families with lesbian parents have a 0% child abuse rate. Um first may I say Sweet! It is really good to know that there is a group of children out there who can now realistically have 0% chance of being beaten, molested or verbally asaulted. Then may I follow up by saying, of corse they couldn't possibly have looked at every lesbian couple with kids in the whole world but the ones they did talk to didn't abuse their kids. any of them.
Some people made the point that since lesbians can't get prego by accident they have to work really hard to get the kids they have so they are more likely to really appreciate them when they get them, however that may be. ok, well whatever. The point is, it seams to me that this would be a group with nothing but the love and safety of the next generation in mind. At some point in the thread some guy comes in spouting hellfire and damnation about how Jesus hates gays and living in sin and just being gay around kids is child abuse and all that. He started using the bible to show that god hates gays so I said, 'don't hate- appreciate! don't teach your kids anger and hate based on something intangible. It will divide us and destroy the fragile world we have left.' He shot back basically saying that the bible is the only true source of information ever and that if I even had a bible (which I don't) and would read (I have read the bible, several times. I believed every word of it until I began to read other books written during the same time and written about the men who wrote the bible, you know, that subject some christians seam to be so blind towards- History) it, I would see that God does indeed say that a man lying with a man is a sin... but so is eating shellfish and talking to woman on her period. sweet- proof that god is a woman, I always want to be left alone when I'm menstruating!
Any way, I digress. So I came back with what I felt was a relatively peaceful, tolerant rebuttal to his blind faith. I mentioned how the bible was not written by god, or even Jesus but by men at least one generation removed from Jesus and what had happened during his life. I also pointed out how Jesus wasn't considered to be divine to his followers until the council of Nicaea in 325 AD. Yes, he was already the son of god, but he wasn't God A to be prayed to and worshiped until that date. I wrote about the Messiah Myth that is way older than Jesus himself and mentioned how the same story can be traced to Osiris of the ancient Egyptians. All I wanted to point out was that if you chose to believe in that story, you must also look at the context in which it was written. Look at many Catholics I know who still believe in Jesus and God and All That but are very well versed in history and philosophy and other religion. They believe because they know enough about other factors to strengthen what they believe in. Following a flawed historical account blindly does not a good argument make.
Ok so, needless to say he didn't like that. He came back saying that since I am not a christian I don't get to be in this conversation and discuss the "fact" is being gay is a sin. yay.
So my question is this. Why do people who put so much faith in what is clearly a flawed, over edited, out of context piece of writing hate others sooo much? Why do they really think they are right in every moral argument? "Oh the Bible said that what you are doing is wrong and the bible is the only book ever published that has any moral direction!"
3 comments:
well put
Here's my best answer: It's because a lot of Christians are ignorant. I don't mean that to be insulting. I mean, they are ignorant to the historical context of the Bible. To really answer your question, I'd need a lot more time than I have, but I can tell you that not all Christians are like that. And we don't all think that Jesus hates gay people- as a matter of fact, Jesus himself never mentioned homosexuality, but he sure mentioned divorce...and guess how many Christians get divorced!! I'd be happy to talk more with you about Christianity if you want, but what helped me understand it the most was a book by CS Lewis called "Mere Chrisitianity"; it really touches on all the things we wonder about, such as, "how can we be sure", and he gives a much more detailed answer than "because the bible says so", lol.
-Myndee
Hi Myndee- Thanks for your response. I really love that you took the time to read and reply. Sweet!
I agree with you about everything you have said. I guess I was trying to have a conversation as someone who spent my entire young life studying the bible, it's historical context and believing very strongly in "the word of god." The thing that really got to me was this man's refusal to even consider other opinions or sets of moral values. Like I said, I know many catholics (priests, professors, regular people) who spend a lot of time reading histories and other texts that help put the lessons of the bible in context.
thank you so much for your reply.
kat
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