The Answer Girl
My name is Jessica and this is a Christian Apologetics and Q&A Blog!
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I wonder if there’s any other way to pose on a grave… OR listen to music.
![Infographic: The Most UNUSUAL Baby Names of 2011.
“Penisimani???!!” REALLY??!
[Click the pic or HERE for the large image.]](http://kidcrave.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Baby-Names-InfoGraphic.jpg)
Infographic: The Most UNUSUAL Baby Names of 2011.
“Penisimani???!!” REALLY??!
[Click the pic or HERE for the large image.]
Kudos to Mr. Johnson for his honesty.
The task demands intellectual honesty. I have little patience with efforts to make Scripture say something other than what it says, through appeals to linguistic or cultural subtleties.
The exegetical situation is straightforward: we know what the text says […] I think it important to state clearly that we do, in fact, reject the straightforward commands of Scripture, and appeal instead to another authority when we declare that same-sex unions can be holy and good. And what exactly is that authority? We appeal explicitly to the weight of our own experience and the experience thousands of others have witnessed too, which tells us that to claim our own sexual orientation is in fact to accept the way in which God has created us.
By so doing, we explicitly reject as well the premises of the scriptural statements condemning homosexuality - namely, that it is a vice freely chosen, a symptom of human corruption, and disobedience to God’s created order.
- Things Jesus NEVER Said.
I’m sorry, but This is not forgiveness. This is rancor. And it poisons the soul.
(via the-absolute-best-posts)
By “need” I mean “really, really want one.” I might get it behind my left ear.
Sorry for the random post.
Back to the questions!
I’ll be honest.
Obama doesn’t stand alone in his belief that the values and aspirations of Christianity demand the acceptance of same-sex marriages and THAT’S “loving thy neighbor.”
It makes sense. Really.
If God exists for the purpose of making us happy, affirm our inclinations, help us achieve our goals and approve of our sovereign right to define our own identity, then opposing same-sex marriages is not only a good idea - it’s a necessary and fair idea.
And anyone who opposes deserves nothing less than to be called an anti-Christan, “intolerant bigot.”
Given the broader worldview that many Americans (including Christians) embrace (or, at least, assume), same-sex marriage is a right to which anyone is legally entitled. After all, traditional marriages in our society are largely treated as contractual means of mutual self-fulfillment - MUCH more than serving a larger purpose ordained by God (which is a covenantal agreement). The state of the traditional family is so precarious that one wonders how same-sex marriage can appreciably deprave it.
Same-sex marriage makes sense if you assume that the individual is the center of the universe. This means that God - if he exists - is only there to make us happy; that our choices are not grounded in a nature created by God, but in an arbitrary self-construction.
Every worldview arises from a narrative: a story about who we are, how we got here, the meaning of history and our own lives, expectations for the future. From this narrative arise certain convictions (doctrines and ethical beliefs) that make that story significant for us. No longer merely assenting to external facts, we begin to indwell that story; it becomes ours as we respond to it and then live out its implications.
However, to the extent that this sort of “moralistic-therapeutic-deism” prevails in our churches, can we expect the world to think any differently?
If we treat God as a product we sell to consumers for their self-improvement programs and peace of mind, then it may come as a BIG, CONTRADICTORY surprise to the world when we tell them that truth trumps feelings and personal choice.
The fact that “moralistic-therapeutic-deism” is the working theology of Americans - whether evangelicals, Catholics, mainline Protestants, or agnostics - demonstrates the pervasiveness of secularization of our churches. The old actors may still be invoked: God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit. Bits of the old narrative may still be mentioned: creation, providence, redemption, salvation, heaven. However, the shift is evident enough. These old words are mapped onto an essentially human-centered rather than God-centered map. The map is the autonomous self’s striving to create a sense of meaning, purpose, and significance. Each individual writes his or her own script or life movie. “God” may still have a meaningful role as a supporting actor in our self-realization and peace of mind, but we’re the playwright, director, and star.
So when we come to debates about same-sex marriage in civic debates, even professions of deeply held Christian commitments can be invoked without the biblical narrative, doctrines and commands, doxology, and discipleship actually providing the authoritative source and structural integrity to our arguments
Conservatives often appeal to self-fulfillment: gays are unhappy. They simply don’t realize their own potential to mate with the right gender and produce pleasant families like the rest of us. To be sure, there are other arguments, like referring to the decline of civilizations that accommodated homosexuality. However, this is just to extend the pragmatic-and-therapeutic-usefulness presupposition of individual autonomy to a social scale.
On this common ground, a third grader knows the right answer: Same-sex marriage is a no-brainer.
How would someone who believes that “sin leads to unhappiness” and “salvation is having your best life now” make a good argument against same-sex marriage? There is simply no way of defending traditional marriage within the narrative logic that (apparently) most Christians presuppose: God is there to make me happy.
I’m sorry.
It’s not like that.
That wishy-washy “Christianity” is NOT the Gospel of Negation and Sacrifice that Jesus LIVED.
We ALL have urges (also known as “temptation”) and we are all to please God by living in negation and sacrifice - just as Jesus did. After all, I can’t please my husband on my own terms. In order to please Him, I have to do what pleases HIM, not me.
So, where did this self-centered Christianity come from?
I guess that the seats of the churches won’t be filled by saying: “Jesus doesn’t care about your happiness in this World as much as he cares about your joy in the next.”
[/rant]
Thank you for reading.
[adapted from here.]
(via wisdomofscripture)
It proposes a “happy medium” that I found interesting.
(via lovewithoutdissimulation)
[If you’ve seen this video, you need to read THIS REPLY by @WalkGood515:]
Mr. Savage,
I recently watched your address at the JEA/NSPA National High School Journalism Convention and wanted to give some thoughts about certain portions of your speech.
First, you mention that “some people point out that they can’t help but be anti-gay bullying” because of what it says in the Bible. I think we can both agree that people can choose the way that they act. Bullying of anyone is never acceptable. In all range of human behaviors we have a choice as to how we conduct ourselves. For those that say, “I can’t help but act this way” we can both agree that they choose how they behave.
Then you proceed to go on an acerbic rant about the Bible and Christianity. Your message is filled with imploring people to extend tolerance, yet you are unwilling to give tolerance to the beliefs of others and attack scripture which a great number of people consider sacred. Your platform is against bullying, yet you bully those whose ideologies do not coincide with your own. You resort to slinging mud at those who stand in contrast to you. I find that when one chooses to sling mud, one gets their hands dirty and loses a lot of ground. I would say this was the case with your speech. You have taken an extremely volatile issue and chosen to fan the flames by attacking. We must remember that hate begets hate.
Your reaction to Christianity is extremely overinflated. You generalize the beliefs of some to everyone. Not every Christian hates homosexuals. The interesting fact is that those who hate people of any stripe actually stand in opposition to the teachings of Christianity. Jesus taught love. In fact, scripture says that God is love. Perhaps you have had a very poor sampling of Christians who extend hate and incite violence. If this is the case, I am sorry. I do ask that you make a distinction between those who distort the teachings of Christ to harm others and those that do their best to abide by what He taught, though imperfectly.
I would also like to encourage you to come to a greater understand of scripture. You make reference to the Levitical code and Mosaic Law. I suppose there are those who seek to implement the aspects of scripture in modernity, but the fact is, those passages were written to a specific group of people at a specific point in history. What we find in these passages was meant to apply directly to Israel in their immediate context. We “ignore” these laws because they were not written to us. When we attempt to apply these we are essentially reading someone else’s mail.
You mention that the Bible is a pro-slavery document. I do not find this to be the case. I think when we read scripture in its proper context, taking into consideration its ancient milieu and gaining insight into the original language, we come to a much different conclusion. Again, scripture is radically a pro-love document. Slave owners very well may have “waved Bibles over their heads in the civil war”, but this does not mean it was legitimate to do so. Ignorance fuels ignorance. Their lack of scriptural understanding led them to endorse something that is counter to the Gospel. People can erroneously use anything to support their cause or ideology, and this is entirely the case with slave owners and Christianity.
Finally, we must ask, “what does the Bible teach about homosexuality?” It clearly teaches that it is an aberration of human sexuality. I think the problem is, many Christians want to stop there. They want to focus on this one aspect of sexuality and magnify it as though this is the only sexual no-no in scripture. While homosexuality is clearly deemed as sin, so are a host of other sexual practices, including: bestiality, fornication, adultery, lust, etc. I can guarantee you there are more people practicing adultery and fornication than homosexuality, many of them Christians, though this saddens me. I feel that Christians need not be so hyper-focused on homosexuality and give credence to what scripture teaches on the whole about sexuality. According to Christianity, sexuality is sacred and should be treated as such.
Christians would do well to learn that it is not hate, judgment, or abuse that leads people to Christ. It is only love. I believe that a Christian can hold to the view that homosexuality, along with the aforementioned sexual behaviors that scripture affirms as aberrant, is a sin, and still treat everyone with respect, love, courtesy, and kindness. No one is any less. We all have eternal value. Every single person is created in the image of God.
Let’s stop the name calling. No more bullying. No more hatemongering. Let’s promote love instead.
Thanks for letting me share my thoughts.
Walk good. Live wise. Be blessed.
Josh
Written by Josh Fults (read the letter in his page and follow him on Twitter!)
…so I thought it appropriate to link my “THOUGHTS ON HOMOSEXUALITY” post.
