Christian and being Gay

Let me begin by thanking calvinknightley for instigating this debate. There is something somewhat disingenuous and insipid about Christians trying to mold Christianity however they please while disregarding its supposed pillar of authority. Religious faith is too irrational, poisonous, and harmful to modern society for us to allow it to snuggle against reason unchallenged. With this in mind I do occasionally stress my points with sarcasm or irreverence. So, try not to take any of my proceeding blasphemy personally. :) ---> "It seems that the Gay-hating-Christians pick and choose their Scriptures." It would seem that you do the same. The fact that you can cherry pick passages of the Bible for the cynical purpose of repudiating other parts of the Bible does not make the Bible a morally wise book. It simply makes it irrelevant. Your argument is vapid and your reasoning is circular. [1] Contention 1: The gay community should not shelter Christianity My opponent has already established in his first round that the Bible is homophobic. Consequentially, he has done most of my work for me. Simply put there shouldn't be any gay Christians because gay people shouldn't be flocking towards a religion that has been oppressing and demonizing them since its inception on the basis of its teachings. When taken seriously much of the Bible contains vast amounts of life destroying gibberish created in large part by desert dwelling epileptics and schizophrenics that weren't bright enough to keep their excrement out of their food. As a result of this it has many problems to contend with both scientifically and morally. To support Christianity is therefore to support the hatred and ignorance that it inspires. And this is equally as true with the gay community as it is with any other group. One ought not to be Christian under any circumstance; therefore one ought not to be a gay Christian. Contention 2: The Bible is ridiculous and should not be followed seriously by anyone To put it mildly the Bible is almost entirely bogus as a book that accurately describes the evolution of our species or that proscribes cogent moral principles for a human to live by. Consider, as though for the first time, the contents of this supposed divine text. The Bible is a very long book, it contains pages and pages on how to kill people, how to beat slaves, and detailed instructions on how to sacrifice a wide variety of animals. Try to imagine how this would look to someone like me who stands outside of the faith. At no place in the Bible does God care to mention DNA, relativity, evolution, or any other bits of knowledge humans have gained for themselves. As though this weren't odd enough for some strange reason that surpasses human understanding God decided to make Shakespeare a better writer than himself. Given that this is the case it puzzles me why anyone would want to follow the Bible, especially groups that have been notoriously mistreated by its application. ===== Slavery ===== The Bible (Ephesians 6:5, 1 Timothy 6:1-4) St. Paul even admonishes slaves to serve their masters well-and to serve their Christian masters especially well. "When a man sells his daughter as a slave, she will not be freed at the end of six years as the men are. If she does not please the man who bought her, he may allow her to be bought back again. But he is not allowed to sell her to foreigners, since he is the one who broke the contract with her. And if the slave girl's owner arranges for her to marry his son, he may no longer treat her as a slave girl, but he must treat her as his daughter. If he himself marries her and then takes another wife, he may not reduce her food or clothing or fail to sleep with her as his wife. If he fails in any of these three ways, she may leave as a free woman without making any payment." (Exodus 21:7-11 NLT) The Bible (Exodous.21:20-21) – Slaves can be beaten so long as they don't immediately die after the process. ============= Animal sacrifices ============= The Bible (Lev.chs 3; 7:11-21, cf.ch. 7:22-27; Ex.29:20-28; Deut.12:7, 18, 1 Sam 2:15-17) ========================= Crimes that carry the death penalty ========================= Homosexual men were to be executed. (Lev 20:13) False prophets are to be killed by their own parents. (Zech 13:3) Witches should be killed. (Ex 22:18) Anyone working on the Sabbath is to be killed. (Ex 35:2) Stubborn children were to be stoned, and the stoning was to be instigated by their parents. (Duet 21:18-21) The list is long and it is preposterous. If I dedicated my time to writing all of them down I would be busy for quite a while. ======= Conclusion ======= Religion faith is a particularly obnoxious species of ignorance and it would be better if it died off. To achieve this end we shouldn't try to support Christianity by making it more inclusive. Nor should we pretend that the Bible is friendly to gays or to straight people for that matter. I write this not so that you may bear your illusion without fantasy or consolation, but so that you may throw it away and learn about the pleasures of critical thinking and intellectualism. Best, Freeman Sources: [1] http://en.wikipedia.org...