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Love vs Hate


Billy Martin

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blog-0735125001405605651.jpegHi everyone! I hope you all are well and having an awesome day.

 

Those of you that know me will attest that I am a man of many opinions and not shy about sharing them. However, the recent past finds me trying to be more selective in my trips to the soap box to render a diatribe. I believe I have been somewhat successful in this endeavor, at least until now.

 

I have never been accused of being a gay activist and I don't think of myself as one now, either. What has happened now to change my passive attitude you may ask, quite simply, I'm fed up.

 

I'm sick and tired of some in Church Leadership blaming the woes and the decay of America only on the GLBT community. I readily submit that every element of society has bad apples. People none of us would bring home to meet our families or our dogs, for that matter, includes some members of the GLBT community. But I can not subscribe to the Church party line on this subject.

 

I understand the reasoning behind the pulpit assassination attempts on the GLBT community- it's a easy minority to sling hate at without repercussion from the thither, not yet, anyways. I'm hopeful that that will change.

 

It's really a shame that pastors will target the GLBT community as the cause of so many problems that we face. While there are liars, cheats, thieves, murderers, back stabbers, and idolaters that fills their pews every service. I'm not saying that there aren't real Christians who leads Christ-like lives that attends those same services; because I believe there are. What I am saying is that those disgraceful preachers are allowing their need for dollars over-shadow their calling of God's love.

 

You see, I believe that God is the God of love. He created us to have someone to love him as He loves us. He gave all of us free will so we can return his love. For without free will, there can't be love.

 

I won't go into the the verses from the Bible that are thrown about against gays, nor will I answer them with the responses that most people are now familiar with. I think most sane thinking people understands that one must consider the context and the times that the writers of what we call the Bible, lived. I've been taught, as I think most have, that the books in the Bible were inspired by God, not dictated. Therefore, the writers' life experiences and the intellectual thinking of the times influenced what they wrote.

 

For an example, in the New Testament, Paul speaks out about a man laying down with another man like with a women, as being wrong. What you aren't told is that the Great Greek intellectual thinking of the times, which was widely accepted, was that any sex whose purpose wasn't for procreation was animalistic and beneath us as human beings. Paul, being raised Greek, was well aware of this point of view and was clearly influenced by it, as evidenced by some of his other thoughts.

 

To me what is important is what each writer in the New Testament all agree on, God is Love, God sent His Son to us, and Jesus did willingly suffer and died for us all. If that isn't love, I don't know what is. What I do know is if every Shepherd of his flock stuck to this theme, this world would be a lot better off. Jesus left two(2) commandments, and both dealt with LOVE. Love God with all your heart and love your neighbor as you love yourself. As I see it, if God IS love, and I believe he is, and I love another man, there can be nothing wrong with that love, for God is love. I must be clear on this point, I do mean love, not lust. However, even in stating that, I must say that this is just my opinion.

 

In those two commandments hang the ten. I believe gays(GLBT) can be good Christians and go to Heaven. When I think of the preachers that preach hate and damnation (not all of them do and in fact probably most don't) I'm reminded of Matthew chapter 7, verses 15-27.

 

I'm sorry, but this is something I needed to get off my chest. I hope I haven't offended anyone, but I do hope I have caused some enlightenment and provoked some thought.

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Sadly, many Christians forget that it is not their place to judge others.  If they remembered that important lesson, love could flourish.

 

Well said, Billy.

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Unfortunately, many Christians use the Bible to justify their hatred of people who are not like them. It has been used to justify antisemitism, discriminstion against African Americans, women, and people with disabilities to name a few, as well as the GLBT community. God is a God of love and I'm sure it breaks his heart to have his words twisted to justify hate.

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Christians shouldn't discriminate period!  Whether it be race, religion, sexual preferences, etc.  But....sadly they do.  I was raised in a small Southern Baptist town and at times I thought I'd already gone to hell.  It was miserable and a lot of my miserableness stemmed from the "so called Christians".  From the time I was ten years old, I felt the harsh judgment of the people in our church.  It wasn't just me, and the ones judging us were "Christians".  Of course, at the time I didn't know that God was hiring  judges. :P  I toughed it out until I was eighteen and I've never lived there again and since my father died seventeen years ago, I didn't go back until we sold his house a few months ago when my stepmom died. 

 

So Billy, I'm 54 years old and the judgment scars can't be seen on me but they're there. If I hadn't had a real Christian for a father that loved me unconditionally, I don't think I'd survived the battle.  So keep your chin up and be tough.  They can't eat you although they can make you miserable.  I hate to think of the times I cried not just for me but for others that had to put up with it.  Needless to say, the little place is almost like a ghost town now.  After all, who wants to live in a cesspool of liars and gossipers who call themselves Christians.  And, I guess God agrees with me because he doesn't seem to be sending any new citizens or businesses to revive the misery.  

"off the soapbox"

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It seems to me that those that yell the loudest in pointing out the actions of others, usually do so to draw attention away from their own actions.

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I figure people who become preachers aren't any different than people who become something else.  Human nature isn't withheld from anyone.  People who do the right things have just learned something that others still don't know.

 

  I think the important thing to do no matter who you are is care about the other people who live here.  The problem is not everyone is going to do that.  Still, if I do that in my little part of the world it will make a difference.  If I don't do that it will make a difference also.  It's always important to be the kind of person you want others to be.  If your not then your not being honest with yourself or anyone else.

 

We can't expect the world to change completely, but we can increase the number of people who do the right thing, starting with ourselves.

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