Shalom, thank you for coming over to discuss this issue of homosexuals. Since we started talking about it I have learned some things, and would like to share them with you:
1. The Bible can be interpreted in many ways, but MANY people, including priests and ministers, would dispute that the Bible says anything negative about homosexuals. It actually seems to be talking about idolators, homosexual prostitutes, and heterosexuals having homosexual sex.
Here is a url for you about this subject, analyzing Biblical passages. I would be interested to talk to you some more after you have read it, to see what you think.
postfun.com
2. Almost all the people in America who force their homosexual teenaged children out into the street are conservative Christians, not all sorts of parents, as you claim. Here is a provocative quote:
GENOCIDE OF GAY AND LESBIAN YOUTH
One of the greatest past sins of the Christian church was its wholesale torture and extermination of innocent people
during the "witch" burning times, from circa 1400 to 1792 CE.
We feel that the greatest current sin of the Christian church in North America is its contribution to the high suicide
rate among lesbian and gay youth.
We believe that the more conservative Christian denominations in North America are currently indirectly responsible
for deaths of American gays and lesbians at a rate greater than the churches exterminated "witches" during the late
Middle Ages and Renaissance. Such a statement requires supporting evidence which we are pleased to supply.
And here is the url for the underlying source material:
religioustolerance.org
And here is a very good web page generally discussing teenage homosexuals, and homophobia. Not only do all these web pages together refute your claim that all sorts of parents reject their children, and make it clear that it is conservative Christians who do this, but they also reiterate the original 60 Minutes statistics which have been challenged on this thread--that 30% of teenage suicides are homosexual children, and that 25% of homosexual children are totally rejected by their parents and asked to leave. This web page also discusses homophobia, and its probable underlying causes, which have to do with repressed attraction to members of the same sex!
religioustolerance.org
I also found this quote quite relevant, from the same web page:
Some people with low self-esteem appear to need to identify some minority that they can hate and feel superior to.
Anyway, Shalom, I would be happy to discuss this issue with you further. I am sure you must know, incidentally, that worldwide, most AIDS patients are heterosexuals, and that is sort of a red herring for the purposes of this discussion.
I am now totally aware of the Biblical passages which can be interpreted as anti-homsexual, so you don't need to quote them to me. I do hope you actually read all the information I have collected for you, so we can have a meaningful discussion.
Go in peace, Shalom!
Christine |
