I was expecting you, Shalom. What took you so long?
On background, some of us are having a discussion about homosexuality, sparked by a 60 Minutes segments which cited the statistics that 25% of the gay teens who come out to their parents are immediately kicked out of their homes, and that 30% of all teen suicides are among gay youth. This seems to be a horrible human toll, and so I was interested in examining all the facets of this problem in America.
The way I see it, the two most significant reasons that homosexuals are discriminated against are because of homophobia and the influence of fundamentalist Christians. I am not a Christian, as you surely know, Shalom, but I have been doing research on the net, and someone writing on a web page suggested that Christ's sexual identity was unknown. Indeed, since that web page I have encountered the same sentiment in several different places. On of the web pages I have url'ed for you in this post states that Christ never mentioned homosexuality, incidentally, and two of them suggest that Christ never actually existed.
Now don't misunderstand me, Shalom, I am not trying to start a holy war or anything. My entire premise is that if there is so much dissent in the Christian community on whether homosexuality is acceptable in the church (and the ministry), and how to interpret the Bible, and even whether Jesus was a real man or an ideal invented by people later for political reasons, then why do the feelings and belief system of the conservative Christians have such a prominent role in determining the fate of so many people in a free society where we have separation of church and state? Our policies on homosexuality create human misery.
Now while I realize that even the statement that Jesus' sexual identity is unknown might be offensive to conservative Christians, I hope that you, and they, will realize that there is no attempt to offend, but simply to explore the issue. Certainly, there are many other Christians, and Christian churches, making room in their theologies and their congregations for gay members. And of course, to people like me it is EXTREMELY offensive that young people are living in extreme psychic pain, and killing themselves, and that families are being broken apart, because of intolerance for homosexuals.
Anyway, that is what we are talking about. We have welcomed Christian input into the discussion, to understand what the religious concerns are, and are listening to all points of view. Obviously, however, those of us who have not so far been saved are not interested in being converted. So I hope we can all stay on our best behavior.
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