Originally posted by Curval
Kieran,
I assume you subscribe to the "We hate the sin but not the sinner" concept?
That is the cliche, but I don't much care for the "hate" part, because it is misconstrued. The Bible is written in the language the readers of the time would understand, so you see references about people needing to "hate the darkness and love the light", but of course that is a metaphor. What Christians are supposed to do is recognize sin and turn away from it. They are also charged with trying to turn their fellow man away from sin. Christians aren't supposed to condemn others for their sins, rather they are to help lead them away.
This is what a bunch of fundementalist Christians claimed here just before they held a massive gay bashing rally at our national stadium. They actually invited gays to the rally so that "hands could be laid on the sinners" and they could be saved.
Were gays forced to attend? Do you understand the purpose of "laying on hands"? Whether you agree with it or not, those Christians' intent was to reach out in love. You may think it misguided, but their purpose was to help. So tell me... where again was the gay bashing part? See, this is the hard part for me as a Christian... I can understand my beliefs not being welcome, no prob. What I don't get is how that gets turned into "hate".
But, tell you what... you find me a single Biblical passage that directly says homosexuality is okey-dokey with God, and I will be perfectly fine with it. Seriously. Otherwise, how would you expect a Christian to behave?
Their main agenda was to ensure that our human rights legislation did NOT extend to gays. Nice.
I know it's splitting hairs, but no, that's not the main agenda. The main agenda (I say this as in "usually", I wasn't at your event) is to protect their own vision of society, which is their right to do. If you believe in a God that tells you a certain behavior is detestable to Him, you certainly don't want your society normalizing that behavior. How would you expect these people to act? Like it or not, Christians in a democratic society also have a right to vote, to enter government, to try to affect the way government works. Or would you deny them their rights based on their religious beliefs?
To add insult to injury these same fundementalists are die hard supporters of a labour government...which is odd. This government is known to have a Cabinet full of gay people.
So, on the one hand they are rigorously anti-gay...but vote for gays.
Just a bizarre bunch.
I think this is very telling... it's obvious Christians don't hate gays in your country, as you suggest, rather they are against many of the proposals the gays put forth. See, this is how the argument gets framed... if you are against a group's policies, you must hate them. Ridiculous!
Of course that is a standard tactic by minority groups of all types... yell "bigot" or "racist" or "homophobe" and you immediately have the other side on the defensive trying to explain how they are not. Discussion over.
