christ never stated one damn word about being gay nor transgender.

Now let me begin my argument. This is going to be a little tricky to determine what Jesus believed since as my opponent said "those who hung around with Jesus could not read nor write." So to satisfy my opponent I will speak only in terms of the book of Matthew (the tax collector who would have had to be able to read and write) and the Pauline letters. Also to satisfy my opponent I will not be using Paul's letters as direct evidence, instead there purpose will be in closing off things that could have been misleading about the message of Jesus. Also since they both were Rabbis it may be important to examine the general thought process of the times. One more thing on the continuity of the scriptures before beginning my formal debate. To clear up the confusion about the process of translating the bible, I would like to remind you and the readers that the bible is always translated from the earliest manuscripts of the historical documents. This may not be satisfying to not have the original documents, but the time gap for these documents make sense for a historical time line to get the documents to a longer lasting paper. Secondly, there are multiple manuscripts through various different locations and this has allowed us to deduce what alteration had been added to the text (parts of John 8 are an example of this) with this in mind let us jump into the words of Jesus. Like any document the verses in the Bible are best read in the context of the book/chapter. However to save time I will be using a few verses to prove my point. Please feel free to go back and read the passages in their entirety. If you need an online version I advice blueletterbible.com they offer multiple translations and a side by side comparison of the original Greek/Hebrew. The first verse I would like to examine is a verse from a chapter my opponent already cited. Matthew 19 : 4- 6 says: "Haven't you read" he replied " that at the beginning the Creator 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate" Now let's analyze this passage, and it will tell us a lot about Jesus' view point. First the context for this passage is the discussion of divorce. It's more clear in the earlier part of the passage, but you can tell for sure by the last verse on the union of the flesh. Secondly Jesus believes in the gender system. He doesn't talk about preference but simply says male and female. This is the ideal that Jesus' just assumes simply because it's the known view of the scriptures. Jesus does not say a whole lot about homosexuality or being transgender mainly because it was not really a problem for the Jewish community. Everyone knew what the law required at the time. The next verse to be analyzed is Matthew 15:18-20. It reads: "But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. For out of the heart comes evil thoughts - murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them." The thought of this passage is simple it's not what we intake that actually degrades our souls but how we act accordingly. Included in that list is sexual immorality, which homosexuality falls under. Now this is the baseline of my argument. Jesus spoke about homosexuality and the distinction of the two genders. Which takes down both the clause of this argument about Jesus speaking on homosexuality and transgender people. I would also like to highlight the fact that just because we deem these things immoral does not mean that we should not treat homosexuals and transgender people with love and respect. We may not agree with their life choices, however that does not mean we get to ridicule the non-Christians for this. Simply because everyone is a sinner. The role of the Christian to the sinner is a message of warning. We may love you, but our God is angry. Thus the message of the Gospel comes in and completes the Christian message. There is no justification of hating a Christian of hating a gay or transgender. That's a straw man fallacy on my opponent and a breaking of the second greatest commandment (Love your neighbor as yourself). Now before I close this round I need my opponent to answer some technical questions. (You can message me the answers if that's convenient) In the first round you said you would be taking the con side, however you took the pro side of the argument. Some clarification would be helpful. I will be replying to your argument in full in my rebuttal next round. Good luck and have fun.