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Old 09-05-2012, 12:54 AM   #82 (permalink)
Lura
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: San Diego
Posts: 121
If I were to compile y'all's definitions of "god", "church", and "christian", I would be as against them as you are. Similarly, if I asked a bunch of Republicans to describe the Democrat agenda (and vise versa) I would agree with the wrongheadedness of the "other side". Anytime you have a group defining their opponent the definition is going to be a caricature. But let us who claim those labels define ourselves.

Add to the mix people like Keith who think their experience, in his case a rigid Catholic background, is the only version of a broad group and who seemingly can't think outside of that box, you are going to get a skewed view. Not all christians operate like Catholics, in fact many christians don't count Catholics as real christians.

My experience as a christian proves to me that god is pro-gay-marriage. I think god is love and expressions of love are expressions of god. Personally I think we should follow the model many other nations do and have the state sanction a civil marriage for contract, property, insurance, and other legal reasons, and have the various religious groups provide for their own blessings as they see fit. Separate church and state.

I am pro-choice but anti-abortion. I wish there were no need for abortion but the decision should be the woman's, and if she so wishes in consultation with her partner, doctor, spiritual adviser, or whoever. Keep it legal, safe, and rare. I once saw a video of pro-life protesters being asked, once abortion is illegal, what should be the prison sentence for a woman who gets one. They all just stumbled and said we should pray for them. Think through your argument, sheeple; if it's illegal, it's a crime and we send people to prison for crimes. It cannot become illegal again. Our society owes it to women who find themselves in a crisis pregnancy many avenues of support so that the pregnant teen doesn't have to live in fear of her parents and the working poor woman doesn't have to live in fear of losing her job if she has to take maternity leave. And the "people of faith" on the sidewalks with the huge posters of aborted babies have a greater responsibility by dint of the commands in the bible they adhere to to assist the needy.

I believe the theory of evolution and the big bang theory. I just happen to believe that these are the tools god used to create the world.

The first five books of the Hebrew scripture were written centuries after the fact and were not meant as historical documents. Their purpose is to convey Truth, not Facts, just as Aesop's fables do. No six day creation, no snake with a piece of fruit for Eve. And by the way, it doesn't say the Hebrew slaves built the pyramids. It says when Abraham got to Egypt they were completed for hundreds of years already. The slaves worked on other building projects.

I have learned over the years and through lots of pain and loss that the only honest way to pray is to say "please help". If I tell god what I need or ask him for something specific, that's just dumb. If he's who I believe he is, he already knows what I need better than I do. "Not as I will, but as you will."

Why do the innocent suffer? What about huge natural disasters? I don't know.

You can throw a bunch of "oh yeah, what about..." stuff at me and I don't care. Yes, the church(s) through the years have been made up of sinful people doing shitty things. Every group of humans has that same track record. Jesus never said "My church will be perfect, or even good", he just said "the gates of Hades will not overcome it."

Like Jeffrey Joseph said, what matters to me is I love Jesus and he loves me, and you.
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