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From: jon@ptsfa.UUCP (Jon Gallagher)
Newsgroups: net.religion.christian
Subject: Re: homosexuality and the Bible (orig. net.religion)
Message-ID: <467@ptsfa.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 5-Feb-85 20:00:44 EST
Article-I.D.: ptsfa.467
Posted: Tue Feb  5 20:00:44 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 7-Feb-85 04:51:33 EST
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Organization: Pacific Bell, San Francisco
Lines: 72

> (King James)
> Romans 1:22-32
.
.
.
> Who changed the truth of God into a lie and worshiped and served the
> creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
.
.
> 
> Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil
> things, disobedient to parents,
> 
> Without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection,
> implacable, unmerciful:
> 
> Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are
> worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do
> them.
> 
> 	If you are gay you are worthy of death. Also remember that the
> wages of sin is death. Only through Jesus Christ can you be saved and
> cleansed from your sins.

	Ok, that's it.
	
 	I am a person who beleives in a God unknowable in his
divine Trinity. My background includes very conservative teaching and 
interpretation of the Bible.  Nowhere in that education, at no time,
even in discussions with the most devoted (fanatic?, sublime?) of believers
was there ever a hint of something as dark and as evil as that last paragraph.

	Whoever you are, you have something wrong with you. You should talk
a long time with religious people in your community. If it seems to you
that they are mouthing words of the devil as they try to tell you that 
Jesus would accept a gay person just as he would any of us imperfect human
beings, you should see a mental health professional.

	Am I the only Christian who thinks that there are a lot of human
activities more open to question than homosexuality, when it comes to
evaluating a person's goodness or suitability as a fellow member of the human
race? How about "Judge not, lest ye be judged" (comes from the same turgid
politically motivated, warped Bible as the comments above)? God's judgement
is known only to God. Any hypothetical influence we may have will only
affect our own personal salvation. Raving on at a group of people who will
only suffer harm by the warped emotions you stir doesn't seem to me to be 
the witness of Chirstian life Paul calls on us to be.

	People who are gay are gay. They are not child-molesters, they are
not even disturbers of the peace. They have managed to improve communities
where they are allowed to live in peace as fellow human beings. Working
in San Francisco I have had the pleasure of watching gay groups improve 
the lives of seniors at resting homes, nuture the last few days of dying 
people in hospices, work actively with political groups to change society
(Ronald Reagan may not know this, but on primary day and election day, about
20% of the people manning the phones for him in San Francisco were gay, 
and every single one was a maniacal Republican.)

	A final point to all this. It is my personal belief that God rewards
those who cherish his most valued creation, human beings. Christ enjoyed
the company of tax collectors, women of ill repute, and the common working 
man, loving and cherishing each one. Somehow in my upbringing I was led
to believe that Christ's life is meant to be our role model. Could 3 saintly
nuns, 5 Jesuits, assorted lay, Franciscan, Dominican and Paulist teachers
be wrong?

-- 
Jon Gallagher
Pacific Bell, San Francisco
(415) 774-1326

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