A link to a great video (Every Biblical Argument Against Being Gay, Debunked Biblically, Matthew Vines). It is fairly long but definitely worth viewing. This goes along with most of my previous blogs....Vines also has a facebook page you can like: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Matthew-Vines/409201242470903 and website: http://matthewvines.com/
This is just something to think about, if you know of anyone or if you are someone who is very....traditional or conservative then please listen. What do you have to lose? You get to hear a counterargument, thus making you more informed - how can this be a bad thing? I do feel bad that he has to defend himself, defend himself for something he can't choose. I do believe that we should interpret the Bible through a contemporary eye and choose which pieces still are applicable in today's society.
More to think about that is my opinion:
Let's look at a couple of of the commandments:
1. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. You shall have no other gods before Me."
2. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My Commandments.
3."You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain."
4. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it."
5. "Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you."
6. "Thou shall not murder."
7. "You shall not commit adultery."
8. "You shall not steal."
9. "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor."
10. “You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's.”
***Cliff notes version: Put God first, worship God only, use God's name with respect, remember God's Sabbath, Respect your parents, do not hurt other people, be faithful in marriage, do not steal, do not lie, do not be envious of others.
How many people actually put God first? There are a lot of "homophobic" people out there that use the Bible as some sort of shield, but how much of their day is devoted to God and putting everything He has "said" first?
If asked this question: If you were forced to live on a deserted island and you have the option of bringing one or even two or, heck, even three of your possessions along with you, how many people would say "My Bible!"? No, it is because we live in a society, even though many pretend we do not or that they are not guilty of this, that worships material possessions. So one can pretend to be oh-so-religious, but they'd probably try to bring along their iPod because they bought the new version that just came out for a lot of money even though their old one worked just fine.
Just the other day I heard someone use the Lord's name in vain, people do it several times a day. We even read (and most laugh) at jokes that do it. Why is this, one of the 10 commandments not important to people today, yet homosexuality (not listed in the 10 commandments by the way) is important to shun people?
Sabbath....how many people do absolutely NO WORK on Sabbath? I don't know about you, but my week is busy....when else am I going to clean my apartment? I am definitely NOT the only one who does a little bit of work on Sabbath.
Respect your parents...if you are a parent, how respectful are your kids to you? Do they listen with their undivided attention? Need I say more? I have seen kids scream at their parents, acting spoiled rotten. Some kids do need to be spanked or punished, and if you disagree, then don't do it to your kid! Ugh. Backseat parenting annoys the crap out of me. Make the kids work for something in their lives, if you hand them everything, they will not respect you, your hard work, your money, or the thing(s) you just bought them. Or if you aren't a parent, how many times to walk into a store and see kids screaming their heads off because their parents said "no"?
We do punish people for murder and stealing, but check out the prisons - overcrowding because people do this often. A lot of these people are Christians....
People lie everyday, many several times a day....we tell little white lies, some to try to protect our friends or whatnot, but bottom line is it is still a lie. We deem these okay because we have to justify to ourselves someone would get hurt. Murderers and thieves lie to stay out of prison, usually. Big fat lie = lie, little white lie = lie. However, I do not advocate for someone to be so brutally honest with someone that it harms them in anyway, mentally, emotionally, or physically. I think this is where interpretation comes in: I think God will judge you in the end how you treated others, were you kind? or did you judge them and shun them? Because I am fairly certain that a kind person who doesn't necessarily go to church every Sunday, tells a few lies here and there to avoid hurting someone and is homosexual will make their way to Heaven before someone who lies about their lifestyle, is mean to people because of their race, sexual orientation, gender, etc but goes to church all the time, remember, if you believe in God, then you also believe you can't keep secrets from him. Your life is an open book to Him.
How many people do you know who have had an affair? How many people do you know who don't leave their eyes lingering on an attractive someone who is not their significant other? This happens all the time...the same political people who say homosexuals are bad or wrong are probably married but have someone on the side.
How many people have envied another? People kill over jealousy. Grass is always greener, people.
The 10 commandments merely offer a guideline of how to live. We, ultimately make the choice of whether or not to listen to them. For those who think being black, a woman, and/or homosexual is wrong, it is a choice to believe it is wrong, however, you should seriously consider this: those people didn't have a choice to be born that way.
| *Kristen | ||||||||
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