Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu (Dr Nancy's Sweetie) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Lesbian/Gay PRIDE day, suggestions... Message-ID: Date: 21 Jun 91 07:36:26 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Glassboro State College Lines: 50 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Bruce Benning writes about an upcoming Lesbian Gay Pride Day, and asks: > But were this your city, what would your body of Christ do? Divide against each other and fight among ourselves, which is what Christians have been doing for thousands of years. Some of your suggestions seem useless or worse; traditional relationships are not scorned by our society, so there is not much need for a rally. If any of the rally-ers are Christian, they know everything which will be said about the Bible -- and the marchers who are not Christian will not care -- so witnessing to them would only cause trouble. And this brings to mind an important question: why should Christian wish to interfere in what non-Christians do? If non-Christians do things which you consider sinful, but which do not involve any unwilling (or incompetent) individuals, what is your place to speak? Going off to the country or having a prayer vigil both might do some good (and will at least not make anyone else unhapy), so they seem like better choices. No-one expects anyone to support what he considers sinful; it would be unreasonable to encourage very conservative Christians to join the rally. (Though liberal Christians may and some probably would.) -=-=- Here's a little (completely true) parable: In one place that I have heard of, there was a Lesbian-Gay rally which was opposed by a local church (which, I am ashamed to say, was Southern Baptist). This church is (for my tastes) uncomfortably patriotic; they had a party for the American Bicentennial (complete with period costume) and the choir once performed a song called "America The Greatest and The Best". (Ugh) Well, the pastor attacked the mayor for allowing the rally, saying that it should not have been permitted. Here was the leader of the most pro-American church I've ever been in, and he was denying the First Amendment to the Constitution -- specifically, "the right of the people peaceably to assemble". The mayor was quite blameless: he had no grounds to stop the Lesbian-Gay rally/parade unless he also cancelled the Fourth of July parade. But those committed to their traditional way of life (instead of the ideals which support it) sometimes do not recognise that they are destroying what they hold dear. kilroy@gboro.glassboro.edu Darren F. Provine ...njin!gboro!kilroy "I never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer! A guy who wears glasses is a *four-eyes*; a guy who's a *fag* is a queer." -- Archie Bunker