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: : Why is it Stuart will not respond to my posts? Is it because I am female? I do not understand. It seems certain posts and parts of posts are ignored(like the ones that make the most sense) He's probably too busy trying to concentrate on his old adversaries to register the presence of anyone as "unimportant" as a non-Christian woman...
: I agree that homosexual activity may not cause harm to people not involved in it, but it can and does cause harm to people who partake in such activities, after all they are destroying thier own bodies and souls, not ours.
By your moral standards alone. If you were a Spartan, you'd see matters differently.
: It's not just homosexuality that is a destructive sexual sin. Sex outside of marraige and sex to others who are married to someone else are wrong too. God told us that we are to abstain from all this.
Really? God told me to shag anything that moved. I guess he must have something against you, dude.
(Seriously, though; do you have any evidence that yours is the One True God? (_other_ than the Bible, of course...))
: Why? Because he loves us and he knows what will happen to us if we do wrong. He knows that if we give in to temptation and sin sexually, we are going to hurt ourselves.
Ooo! You screwed! You're going straight to Hell...
Well, if Heaven involves eternity in the company of bigots, masochists, windbags and crusaders, give me horns and a tail, I'm on my way.
Can you imagine Iowa, only infinite?
: Do you want to contract any STD such as aids? Of course you don't.
Well, that rules out blood tranfusions, organ transplants, going anywhere near a hospital, well, exposure to non-sterile environments of any sort really. Contamination happens. Deal with it, rather than just walling yourself up and trying to pretend that the problems the rest of the world suffers aren't yours; because you're far too holy to ever catch a cold.
: After all, HIV started in the gay community.
Absolute bollocks. It started in monkeys in Africa, mutated into a number of different strains one of which is usually passed via lesions caused by homosexual contact.
To quote "AIDS in Africa: distinguishing fact and fiction" from the World Journal of Microbiology & Biotechnology (1995) 11, 135-143;
"If AIDS in Africa is the same condition with the same cause as anywhere else in the world then AIDS in Africa and AIDS in the West should be identical. This is not the case and what is called AIDS in Africa is almost unrecognizably different from AIDS in the West, so much so that if African patients suddenly switched continents, very few Africans would remain AIDS cases. This is due to the existence of multiple AIDS definitions, one for Africa (the same for adults and children), one for adults in North America, Europe and Australia, one for children in these countries and one for Latin America. "
Guess what? AIDS in Africa has an 80% transmission rate via "normal" heterosexual intercourse. Are you going to suggest that AIDS is God's punishment on the Africans for being immoral?
Or is apartheid OK if the difference in question is subtler than mere skin colour?
Fact; AIDS is a highly mutable virus; as is proven by its rapid emergence and evolution.
Fact; the heterosexual strain of Aids seems to be (largely) specific to Africa at the moment.
It doesn't take Einstein to realize that a new strain of Aids could easily emerge within 30 years; a cross-racial heterosexually transmitted strain. At which point all hell will break loose.
Unless we do our best to combat AIDS now, that is. You don't combat AIDS by condemning the immoral or different. You combat AIDS by supporting efforts to ignore the differences; by helping someone no matter what their colour or sexual preference, not by passing judgement on them as "unclean".
After all, isn't that what the parable of the Good Samaritan is all about?
: If you ignore God's word and decide you like having extra-marital affairs, or you like being gay, then don't come crying to me when the doctor tells you you have some kind of disease.
"some kind of disease"? Thrush? Chlamydia? Herpes? Syphilis? NSU? Scabies?
(hint: you can get all of the above without any kind of sexual contact at all; yet they are commonly labelled as "sexually transmitted diseases" in the popular parlance.)
: You know the consequences of your actions and you are taking a big risk and your life is at stake.
That's perfectly true. Three quarters of gay men are likely to suffer from homophobic violence at some point in their life; beaten up by all those nice "normal" guys who are so screwed up themselves that they can't just live and let live. Heck, given the near-certainty of broken bones, AIDS isn't an everyday problem.
: Finally, and I've said this 100 times before, I don't care if your gay or not, I wouldn't treat you any differently. After all its your life, however homosexuality is not the norm nor is it right
In your opinion.
A challenge; give me three reasons the homosexuality is wrong.
Here's the catch; they have to be reasons that have nothing to do with Christianity.
: and so gay people should not be so open about it in front of regular people. If your gay, fine, just say your gay and leave it at that. You don't need to be marching in parades down 5th Ave every March 17 and you don't need to be "coming out" on TV.
Do you live in a country in which gays are seen as Good As You; a country in which people really are treated as equals, regardless of their preference?
If not, there is a need for recognition that other groups exist and that they are not afraid to stand up and be counted.
Until gays are treated equally, there can be no "live and let live"; how many times can they turn the other cheek as more are beaten and murdered?
Why should they shut up and be cowed in the name of polite sensibilities, when the "polite" folks are giving their tacit approval to the continuing murders? When the police treat them as second-class citizens? When religious bigots and homophobic media call for their mass murder?
To quote the words of another man speaking out about minorities;
"...No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of your trials and tribulations. Some of you have come from areas where your quest
for freedom left you battered by storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality.
You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums
and ghettos of our modern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of dispair. I say to you, my friends, we have the difficulties of today and tommorrow."
Farinata.
