Quote from my Pastor from today's sermon

Weird analogy but your preacher, priest, rabbi, is kinda like your lawyer. He tells you how to act, dress, etc for the Judge to get a favorable ruling.

But he does not make the decision, only the Judge decides what is right and wrong.

 

I posted this for you. I am sometimes guilty of viewing homosexual sin as worse, I need to work on that......

 

Quit marginalizing the "sinners" then.

 

You consider it marginalizing when you are presented with the gospel message so it is hard to avoid.

 

I think that's a step in the right direction. I would say that cheating on your companion or spouse is sinful/cruel/selfish (pick one or all three) regardless of sexual orientation. It is a betrayal of love, and it changes the purpose of relationships from self-giving to self-indulgence. If anything, the Christian Bible, and Jesus the Word in person, is the revelation of self-giving God who wants us to reflect his self-givingness towards others and Himself.

People get hung-up on sexual orientation particularly when they try to turn Christian faithfulness into obeying a set of rules. Faithfulness becomes centered around a purity code, or a checklist of good and bad behaviors. Jesus condemned such an interpretation of faithfulness, and instead taught faithfulness as loving the enemy, the poor, the prisoner (that is the people who've made their own mess), etc. Christ the Son of God taking on the flesh of Jesus the man is an act of love that is fulfilled in the ultimate act of love - the cross.

 

Nope, not at all. It depends on the presentation. When you say things like "
...marginalized by the sinner we speak with," you are sounding like someone speaking to one who is inferior to you.

This discussion has been held here before. When a christian (small c is intentional) witnesses to a "sinner," it is a vastly different experience than when a big C Christian does the same. I'm very familiar with both.

You imply your superiority by your terms. By your own dogma, you too are a sinner, yet your tone seems to imply a superiority to just us everday kinda sinners that fail to meet your standards of belief. It's quite irritating and has nothing to do with being confronted with my sins and any guilt I may feel. Believe it or not, some of us secular humanist/atheist/pagan "sinners" can be quite ethical human beings.

 

I am sorry if my terminology offends you. When I used the word sinner before I simply meant someone who has not accepted Christ.

Would you prefer infidel or heathen instead

 

uhm, everyone is a sinner even the people sitting in the pews beside you. yeah, that terminology is offensive. it's like you are perfect people, that ya'll do no wrong. i was at a church this past friday and most of them acted like heathens to me but yet they had that same attitude...

 

I'm cool with whatever you prefer to call me. Just don't expect certain words and, particularly, attitudes to be an opening to meaningful discussion.

I'm sorry you don't understand my point at all.