For all you Christians.

That's what I was thinking. I mean, I bet they all could have told me where to find the best Bar-B-Que in their hometown had I asked.

 

I would dearly love to do something like that. I'm sure that within a few minutes, they'd be damning me to hell, too.

 

It's funny you would draw a comparison with a cult. In a way, I think a strong argument could be made that radical church groups like this are a cult. They're so departed from the teachings and the One they reportedly champion, there's little in the way of similarity anymore.

For these people, I can't imagine conversion is any more of their agenda than it was during the crusades. It's about fueling "righteous anger" and "taking back society", or whatever the catch phrases are these days.

Ironically, what these people are doing (from an abstract, not practical point of view) isn't that dissimilar to what's happening in the Middle East with Islam. The people are discarding the doctrine and allowing themselves to get wrapped up in the misguided passion of a handful of people with their own agendas.

 

How did they do this?

 

You ask someone to leave you alone, they continue to talk. You ask them to go away, they continue to talk. You walk away from them and they follow you, still talking. You keep walking, and they're right behind you. And it's not just one or two, it was like 100 of them or more. And then there were the loudspeakers. And the signs. It's not that they were preaching the Bible. They were preaching hate. To me, I can't find any respect in someone that does that.

 

If you made it clear you were not interested then they should have left you alone. You can never force anyone to choose Christ, even God respects free will. I respect their right to come up to you and speak to you but once you tell them you do not want to hear any more they should not follow you around.

 

What got me was that they were in that park trying to "convert" gay people to become "ex-gays", something I don't believe is possible at all. One can stop the behaviors, but you're still going to be attracted to the same sex. Yet, they were blaming us for using that festival as a method of "converting" others. It's hypocracy at its finest. Next year, I invite all Charlotte Christians to come out to the pride festival and show those people what the true love of your God is all about. I would welcome that with open arms.

 

Take my picture, I take yours.

 

There's sort of a duality working here. According to the American Psychiactric Association, homosexual desire can be changed by what boils down to a reprogramming of the sexual identity portion of the psyche. That's oversimplifying what they state, but you get the basic idea. The radical spiritualists, however, are being taught that gays who congregate in "pride" events are enticing or luring others into a 'lifestyle', even if passively. And the more radical among them believe it's a matter of spiritual life and death -- a question of heaven or hell -- whoever follows the gays go to hell, whoever follows them go to heaven. It's not truth, but that's what I believe their mindset is, hence the passion, the drama, and the reckless abandon.

If there's a way I can be there, I will.

 

There's already a group of pride people looking to do that very thing. It was posted on the QCForum yesterday. If you need help and I'm still here, holler.