From: greg_bradt@msmgate.mrg.uswest.com (Greg Bradt aka The Lensman)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality,alt.rush-limbaugh,alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.bush
Subject: Re: God is intolerant of sin!
Date: 21 Jan 93 17:08:08 GMT
Organization: US West Marketing Resources
XXXDate: Thu, 21 Jan 93 17:07:41 GMT
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Mark Christensen, in the following paragraph, has summed up just about
everything that is wrong with the thinking of modern "Judeo Christian
Moralists".  This provides a convenient opportunity to refute the position,
point by point.

In article <1jki0hINNsu7@transfer.stratus.com> Mark Christensen,
markc@eomer.hw.stratus.com writes:
>When you say that some are trying to restrict the civil rights
>of certain groups (like homosexuals), what exactly do you mean?
>Should homosexuals be foster parents?  I would state an
>emphatic NO! just as I would also say NO to heterosexual couples
>who are living together without the benefit of marriage.  Would
>you allow child abusers to be foster parents?  There must be a 
>line drawn (and a moral one) as to what is acceptable behavior.
>Otherwise, the child abuser can claim that you are restricting
>his/her civil rights.

Many (if not most) Christian Moralists tend to see little difference between
homosexuality and such obvious sociopaths as child abusers.  The victimless
nature of the "crime" does not seem to matter

>I do not find homosexual or adulterous relationships acceptable
>behavior based on the moral code as derived from the Bible.  

No more unreasonable than any other interpretation of scripture.  No problem
here.

>Others
>may have their own made up moral codes...but our country has
>traditionally adhered to the moral codes of the Judeo/Christian
>thought.  

Actually, while some of it's citizens do in fact adhere to such a moral
code, our country adheres to a =legal= code.  That legal code has some of
it's roots in your moral code, as well as in many others.

>Only in the past 30 or so years have we started down
>the path of total decadence. 

30 years???  Christian Moralists have been saying that for as long as there
have been Christian Moralists.  

>When one starts making up their own
>code of ethics and morals, that opens up  the possibilities of
>allowing murder, rape, theft, etc.  After all, what is wrong
>to one person might not be wrong to another.

This is probably my favorite moralist absurdity.  "If you don't completely
accept my morality, then you might eventually completely reject it."  Tis
far wiser to accept the best of all available "codes" of morality and
ethics, as our society has done and is continuing to do as an evolutionaly
process.

The world is a more complex place than the writers of the bible, or even the
framers of the Constitution could have predicted.  If our "code of ethics"
does not evolve to meet those changes, then we will indeed find our society
on a path to extinction.

>Where do you
>(or the governement) draw the line.  

Very simple... "Do what thou wilt, but do no harm."  Or, if you prefer, the
somewhat poorly phrased and loophole filled biblical equivalent, "Do unto
others as you would have them do unto you."

>Should I, if I was a small business
>owner, be required by law to hire a percentage of people based
>on the demographics of the area.  

Absolutely not!  However, if it is found that your hiring practices are
harmful to the community (as arbitrary and unfair descrimination is), then
you might reasonably be expected to defend those practices against an
ethical (i.e. legal) challenge.

>I, as a free citizen, should have
>the right to hire, rent to, exclude anyone I so desire.  I
>have the right to be a bigot, racist, homophobe, etc. (This is
>all hypothetical...I am none of the above as far as I know).

You have an unquestioned right to =be= any of those things.  However, you do
not have a right to =act= in a way that is actively detrimental to the
common good.  That's a very important distinction.

Greg Bradt aka ()The Lensman()

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Newsgroups: alt.politics.homosexuality