The Bible and Love and Christians

[frogboy4]

...with clickable images

I've put a lot of thought into what I've said and what other members have posted on this thread and I would like to make a statement. I apologize for much of what I said and I know I overreacted. Something inside of me just went off and I got mad at everybody. I know I probably offended some of you guys, and I'm sorry. I used some offenesive terms such as "liberal crap" in this thread and "tree huggers" in the PETA thread. You are right, frogboy, name calling like that is unacceptable and I apologize again. I really don't know what happened. I am usually not that kind of person. Frogboy, I apologize if you thought I was attacking your character, that was not what I intended to do. And I did not start arguing because of other Christians leaving this thread. That was not a statement of supremacy, and I accept your apology for misunderstanding me. Believe me, I did not mean to insult but I did. I apologize for everything I said. I did twist some of your words to make it sound like you were arguing and I am deeply sorry. If I have offended anybody, I apologize greatly.

Please don't think that I am a bad person. What I did was not Christlike and went against my beliefs and who I usually am. I'm going to think some more whether or not I should join back into this discussion or leave. I want to continue to discuss this in a mature manner. Please, allow me back in. Again, I don't want you to think of me in a rude manner. I hope you can accept me back into this group. I will not insult or offend anybody else. I am very sorry for my comments and I hope you can forgive me.

Thank you,
Bannanasketch

Thanks, Bananasketch. I appreciate that and apologize for letting my passion get the better of me and for misunderstanding you too. So many friendships have been forged by incidents just like this at MC over the last decade or so. You never know! No worries.

This is a slice of the world I come from - I'm writing this from my tiny little tucked away toy shop in San Francisco's Chinatown where I'm the only white guy working for several blocks. (That's me, the blonde in the middle and a Pixar artist who came to our grand opening last July.) All types of people from around the world stop in here daily. They're all looking for trinkets and collectibles that remind them of their happiest times and we have a lot of different things. Something for everyone. This shop is filled with Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and all the colorful Muppet items that I've been able to stock. There's a Buddhist temple across the street and a Christian church with a big white cross right around the corner. I'll walk by a beautiful Catholic cathedral on the way home. There are usually dragon parades on Sundays, but all the local color I've gotten so far today is some prayer drumming upstairs and a musical funeral procession outside. Not only that, but the monitor has been playing Muppet Show episodes all morning. We're just about to switch to Coraline. All of this makes me think that we probably have more similarities even with all the differences. I almost feel like a Muppet myself celebrating this in the shop every workday.

 

[Bannanasketch]

*looks around thread* oh no, nobody is posting here anymore. Does this mean I've killed this thread? Oh well, heres a *bump* for anybody to continue this discussion.

 

[CensoredAlso]

Oh no, no one person killed the thread or anything, lol, just ran out of things to say at the moment, hehe.

Um...stay tuned!

 

[frogboy4]

been busy

 

[Bannanasketch]

Cool, we have to figure something out to talk about. haha

 

[CensoredAlso]

Ok I remember Religion class in middle school, we were learning the chapter on World Religions. Our textbook pointed out that every major religion has some form of the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I personally find that fascinating, not only because the major religions are scattered throughout the world, but in many cases were formed thousands of years ago. When you think about it, it's incredible that human beings, imperfect and flawed as we are, would put such high priority on compassion, selflessness and basic fairness.

 

[frogboy4]

Ok I remember Religion class in middle school, we were learning the chapter on World Religions. Our textbook pointed out that every major religion has some form of the "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." I personally find that fascinating, not only because the major religions are scattered throughout the world, but in many cases were formed thousands of years ago. When you think about it, it's incredible that human beings, imperfect and flawed as we are, would put such high priority on compassion, selflessness and basic fairness.

I guess most religions have the Golden Rule at their root, but this is often perverted by some followers who figure out a way to justify the opposite sentiment. IMHO that has nothing to do with spirituality and more to do with human nature.

Here are some stats that I've finally got around to posting...

The National Coalition for the Homeless cites:
-20% of homeless youth are LGBT. In comparison, the general youth population is only 10% LGBT.

-LGBT youth, once homeless, are at higher risk for victimization.

-Once homeless, LGBT youth are roughly 7.4 times more likely to experience acts of sexual violence than heterosexual youth

-LGBT homeless youth commit suicide at higher rates (62%) than heterosexual homeless youth (29%)

Of the estimated 1.6 million homeless American youth, up to 42 percent identify as lesbian or gay, and a disproportionate number identify as bisexual or transgender. Why do LGBT youth become homeless? In one study, 26 percent of gay teens who came out to their parents/guardians were told they must leave home. LGBT youth report they are threatened, belittled and abused at shelters.

I bring this up because much, if not most, anti-gay sentiment is religiously rooted. Most gays, like myself, don't see our lives as a choice that is made or something that is wrong with us. But some are made to feel inferior and suicide seems like the only answer. I respect religious folk's ideas of Jesus, but that simply doesn't work for everybody and nobody should expect it to. Nonetheless there is NO excuse for a Christian family to turn its back on their own child.

The "gay lifestyle" is a myth, however being legally deprived of developmental milestones such as marriage and family building retards our growth and helps maintain a perpetual "post-college" phase. Sure there are ways around legalized marriage in which we can achieve something kinda-sorta-somewhat similar with lots of confusing contracts that only give us a pale fraction of the rights of legally married people, but it takes so much effort to travel such a never-ending uphill battle. It gets tiresome, so you can certainly see why many of us stay in the rut we've been cast. That's the reality.

Anyway, getting off work now so I'm cutting this diatribe short. I didn't mean to get too deep - and I will reiterate that I'm not talking about all religious or Christian folk here. Just the way that some of them affect others. I have known many homeless youth gay and otherwise. There's little in the world that upsets me more. Maybe laying out a few facts on the table from time to time will help somebody somewhere down the line.

 

[Puckrox]

I don't post on this thread ever, seeing as I gave up my religious lifestyle when I entered high school due to personal reasons. However, I have absolutely no problem with other people being religious. In fact, I love the idea of religion. And when it works, it certainly works.

But seeing all those stats about homeless LGTB youth makes me so utterly depressed. A great deal of my friends are gay or lesbian, and while I guess we're no longer considered youth, a lot of my friends grew up struggling with their sexuality. The thought of any of them ending up on the street because of who they were/are breaks my heart; and, although they all had loving families that accepted them, knowing that there are families out there who willingly disown children because of who they are breaks my heart. It's the 21st century. This shouldn't be a problem anymore.

Sorry. That was my two cents. I feel very strongly about homophobia... Right. Shutting up now.

 

[CensoredAlso]

I guess most religions have the Golden Rule at their root, but this is often perverted by some followers who figure out a way to justify the opposite sentiment.

Well yeah, if you're looking for perfection in humanity, you're always going to be disapointed. All we can offer is people trying their best, for better or for worse. The Golden Rule is not easy and it's no wonder most of us try to weasle out of it so to speak, heh. It's just amazing to me that at some point we all realized that it should be our priority at all, worth writing down.

IMHO that has nothing to do with spirituality and more to do with human nature.

I don't think there's that big a difference, considering it's humans and their nature that helped develop the concept of spirituality in the first place. But in any case my point was, why would a sentiment like that be in our human nature at all? Why would we have this desire to treat people in a fair way? Why not create a sentiment of selfishness?

It's the 21st century. This shouldn't be a problem anymore.

I don't think that's how the world works. Each generation is born into this world with no memory of what came before it. We start over again in a lot of ways, that's why many things don't change. Now of course we have knowledge of history and we're supposed to learn from it, but unfortunately we're all guilty of ignoring the lessons of the past in one form or other.

Not that things have never changed, obviously they have. But I think when that happens it's a triumph because it isn't the norm.

 

[Puckrox]

Not that things have never changed, obviously they have. But I think when that happens it's a triumph because it isn't the norm.

That's very, very true.