I saw the following picture on the Facebook page for the church I grew up in.
Below is what started as a response to the page...
You know, I've been thinking about this cartoon all day long and I know my parents are not going to appreciate this, but I just cannot sit back and say nothing.
If this were 300AD, then there would be something other than just a whiny claim of victim-hood here, but the truth is that this is nothing more than a attempt at claiming an inadequacy where none exists.
In 300AD, acknowledging that you were a Christian would have been dangerous to your future, even the Apostle Paul wrote about "soft", the real meaning of the word μαλακός (Strong's G3120), Christians, later we came to associate it with effeminacy. Affirming your Christianity could have meant your imprisonment, torture and eventual public execution in the games by wild beasts.
In today's world Christianity is not persecuted in the US, oh I know some people thing there is a war on Christmas and this is "a Christian Nation" but this is nothing but a claim of victim-hood and an attempt at creating a Christian Theocracy, neither Jesus or the American Founders would have wanted that.
In today's world, one can still be terminated from their job, thrown out of their home and have a lifetime of loving relationship denied and trashed in the name of the person who said "Love each other as I have loved you." We seem to think that love should be limited to the pairing of 1 chromosome, otherwise that love does not count.
We have lawmakers creating laws that validate the attacks of others in the name of religion and then have the gall to name it for the victim of such a crime (though the first time a Muslim attempts to use it for a perceived offense of his religion, I suspect the tune will change). The saddest part is that we do these things in the name of Jesus when what it really is is nothing but our own fear run amok.
So when you cry crocodile tears that the declaration of a sports hero as a Christian is ignored in a predominantly Christian culture, maybe you should ask yourself why it is perceived as being courageous to stand-up and be counted as one of the victims of that same culture's lack of understanding and in some cases hatred that has left many victims in its wake in the name of God and Jesus.
Ask yourself when the last time that someone was fired from their job for loving Jesus, attacked publicly for holding a Bible, or beaten and left for dead for being a Christian in America? In much of this country and, sadly, in many Christian minds, all of these can, and have, happened in the name of being publicly honest about being gay.
PS
Before you start throwing around the "claimed" anti-gay verses from the Bible, do your homework, don't just bird-talk what someone told you as you will make a fool of yourself.
I have often thought that if and when humans become the great masters of Love, that then and only then God might give us permission to determine what is acceptable as love. So far we can barely love those who are like us, little less anyone or anything that is different.
I suspect we have a ways to go before that even becomes a possibility.
Below is what started as a response to the page...
You know, I've been thinking about this cartoon all day long and I know my parents are not going to appreciate this, but I just cannot sit back and say nothing.
If this were 300AD, then there would be something other than just a whiny claim of victim-hood here, but the truth is that this is nothing more than a attempt at claiming an inadequacy where none exists.
In 300AD, acknowledging that you were a Christian would have been dangerous to your future, even the Apostle Paul wrote about "soft", the real meaning of the word μαλακός (Strong's G3120), Christians, later we came to associate it with effeminacy. Affirming your Christianity could have meant your imprisonment, torture and eventual public execution in the games by wild beasts.
In today's world Christianity is not persecuted in the US, oh I know some people thing there is a war on Christmas and this is "a Christian Nation" but this is nothing but a claim of victim-hood and an attempt at creating a Christian Theocracy, neither Jesus or the American Founders would have wanted that.
In today's world, one can still be terminated from their job, thrown out of their home and have a lifetime of loving relationship denied and trashed in the name of the person who said "Love each other as I have loved you." We seem to think that love should be limited to the pairing of 1 chromosome, otherwise that love does not count.
We have lawmakers creating laws that validate the attacks of others in the name of religion and then have the gall to name it for the victim of such a crime (though the first time a Muslim attempts to use it for a perceived offense of his religion, I suspect the tune will change). The saddest part is that we do these things in the name of Jesus when what it really is is nothing but our own fear run amok.
So when you cry crocodile tears that the declaration of a sports hero as a Christian is ignored in a predominantly Christian culture, maybe you should ask yourself why it is perceived as being courageous to stand-up and be counted as one of the victims of that same culture's lack of understanding and in some cases hatred that has left many victims in its wake in the name of God and Jesus.
Ask yourself when the last time that someone was fired from their job for loving Jesus, attacked publicly for holding a Bible, or beaten and left for dead for being a Christian in America? In much of this country and, sadly, in many Christian minds, all of these can, and have, happened in the name of being publicly honest about being gay.
PS
Before you start throwing around the "claimed" anti-gay verses from the Bible, do your homework, don't just bird-talk what someone told you as you will make a fool of yourself.
- The story of Sodom is not about Homosexual rape, it's about the Jewish Hospitality Code
- Leviticus may or may not be as direct as you think (and to only enforce the parts that don't effect you while invalidating the inconvenient parts does nothing but make you a hypocrite)
- Paul's list uses one word that more likely refers to those without a backbone, μαλακός (Strong's G3120) and a phrase that is never found anywhere else, ἀρσενοκοίτης (Strong's G733) which is the conjunction of two words, male and couch/bed
- King David's declaration that he loved Jonathan more than he would ever love a woman
- The culturally unheard of relationship between Ruth and Naomi
- Jesus' response in Matthew to the Roman who's servant, παῖς (Strong's G3816) which many scholars think would imply a sexual relationship between them, and Luke uses the the term δοῦλος (Strong's G1401) which can also carry a sexual undertone as in a sex-slave.
I have often thought that if and when humans become the great masters of Love, that then and only then God might give us permission to determine what is acceptable as love. So far we can barely love those who are like us, little less anyone or anything that is different.
I suspect we have a ways to go before that even becomes a possibility.
