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From: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP
Newsgroups: soc.motss
Subject: Re: Forwarded anonymous posting
Message-ID: <422@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 29-Sep-86 12:02:26 EDT
Article-I.D.: ubc-cs.422
Posted: Mon Sep 29 12:02:26 1986
Date-Received: Thu, 2-Oct-86 20:30:37 EDT
References: <421@ubc-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: manis@ubc-cs.UUCP (Vincent Manis)
Organization: UBC Department of Computer Science
Lines: 27

[I don't normally submit followups to my own messages, but I think it's
inappropriate to edit or add comments to a message which one has been
asked to post.]

I guess the thing that makes me most unhappy about fundamentalist
Christianity (apart from its sometimes anti-rationalist stance) is the
tendency to assume that there are two sorts of people: saints and sinners,
depending on whether the individual in question has found Jesus. This
emphasis can be seen in many of the hymns, which lay great stress on the
misery of the individual before s/he was born again. 

A natural consequence is that anyone who has not found Jesus (or does not
conform to "Biblical morality") *must* be miserable, no matter how happy s/he
appears to be. The job of the evangelist is then to lay stress on the misery
before conversion versus the joy after conversion (watch the PTL Club -- or,
in Canada, 100 Huntley Street -- to see reformed drug addicts, criminals, and
homosexuals explain on a daily basis how Jesus changed their lives). 

Since many gays and lesbians are not only reasonably happy people, but also
are quite religious, an evangelist who takes saints and sinners seriously
must start by making his flock miserable. It strikes me as an evil thing to
do.

Disclaimer: I am not speaking of all those people who would describe
themselves as ``evangelical Christians''; only of those who so misconstrue
Paul's Epistle to the Romans that they feel they must create evil so that
good (as they see it) can flourish.