Apr 8, 2012

“I’m Christian, unless you’re gay”

Quite appropriately for Easter, I came across this thought-provoking essay written by a single dad. The article is titled “I’m Christian, unless you’re gay” and in it, the dad struggles to put into words the wrongness of righteousness. That is, how people of various religious beliefs use their faiths in order to be hateful, especially the case of Christians hating on gay people. The thing is, the central tenet of most of these religions say “Love others.” Why is then that we feel the need to shun people, to ridicule people, to persecute people, or even to kill people simply because they do not share our beliefs?

Predictably, this single dad’s essay provoked a lot of responses. Some are hateful, written by people who just refuse to get it, and quite a lot more stories that are positive and quite moving. There’s this daughter who got reunited with her family for Thanksgiving. There’s another woman-in-rehab whose family visited her after refusing contact for three years. And then there’s this mother who reined in her homophobia and started accepting—loving—her gay son.

The world would be a much better place if we only learned to be more loving rather than hating of other people.

6 comments:

^travis wrote on April 9, 2012 at 1:51 PM:

Thank you for sharing the article.

It contained most of the thoughts I have always wanted to write about but have been unable to articulate due to one thing or another.

I hope everybody gets a chance to read it and the follow-up posts and responses.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on April 10, 2012 at 12:51 AM:

@travis, you're welcome!

 
Santiago wrote on April 18, 2012 at 1:02 PM:

You and the blog you referred to get this all wrong. It's not about these people hating gay people. WBC has never stated that *they* hate gay people. It is about demonstrating how God views this sin. It's in the Bible, actually.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on April 19, 2012 at 12:03 AM:

@Santiago, then why does WBC do their disruptive rallies? If it is really God's view, then it should be between God and the "sinner". WBC has no business trying to make people repent in such a hateful way. As Jesus said, "Why do you see the speck in your neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in your own eye?"

Besides, it's debatable that the Bible indeed considers homosexuality a sin. Just do a Google search. And take note that Jesus himself never said anything about homosexuality.

 
Santiago wrote on April 19, 2012 at 7:30 PM:

Vince,

WBC see their campaign as displaying *God's* hate. And, no, it is not "debatable" whether outlived homosexuality is a sin or not. It is explicitly clear from both testaments in the Bible that it is indeed - a sin. A sin that actually carries the death penalty with it (confirmed by Paul in NT - Rom.1:32).

Traditionally and historically this is the position that christianity has hold on to.

Only deceived and ignorant people will deny this. And the so called "pro-gay" articles on the web by this deceived crowd is mostly nothing else than their own wishful thinking (coming from the imaginations of their own darkened hearts/minds). Or if you wish it put more simply: pure nonsense or baloney.

End of story.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on April 19, 2012 at 11:26 PM:

@Santiago, I guess we just have to agree to disagree.