My Response to a Misguided Bigot

First I want to say that I know of Christians who truly are godly and kind. There are too few of them, I admit. But they exist. They are far from perfect and they know it, and some of them honestly believe the same things I was taught for years, that homosexuals are bound for hell. Those truly godly people are concerned and pray for my soul. I thank them, and welcome discussion with them so that they might come to understand things differently, and know that the book is not so easily divided into black and white.

Hm... black and white. It seems that once in this nation there was a belief in dividing the world into black and white, and scripture was misused for that purpose. But even then perhaps there were those sincere few who struggled to understand. Would that more of them talked with us, and not so many of these know-it-all "culture war" church goers.

I responded to someone in a friend's myspace blog this evening. I do not believe that this person was a sincere lover of God or seeker of truth. And I don't think I need to post her response to my friend for you to understand my reply to her. I think it stands on it's own alright. And I am tired of having to justify myself to people who take no time or bother to research and learn and discern the truth for themselves.

Mark Twain is credited with saying that if Jesus were alive today, one thing he would surely not be is a "Christian." Why? Because the majority of Christians in Twain's time were as arrogant, judgmental and hypocritical as they are in this time. I have no problems with God, or with his son Jesus (who by the way never once mentions the issue of homosexuality). It's people like you who take a very small handful of scriptures out of context and clobber other people with them.

You would have me believe that to have sex with a man is an "abomination" because it says so in Leviticus. Interesting, because earlier in that same book (Leviticus 10:10-12, look it up yourself, I'm tired of doing homework for you people) it says that eating anything in the sea that has neither fins nor gills is an abomination. Yet, I don't see you guys out protesting in front of Red Lobster! Don't you get it, God Hates Shrimp, man!

Why do you eat it anyway? Because you pick and choose which scriptures are for today and which were for yesterday, and you only abide by the ones that personally make sense to you. You want to take on the other scriptures in that book that you claim have something to do with my relationship to my partner of ten years? Bring it on. I'll discuss each one in detail with you.

And while we are at it why are you trying to teach anything to us men? In the book of Timothy Paul said, "But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet." So obey the Bible and shut up, especially when you do not know what you are talking about. Your profile says you are a 32 year old female.

You claim to believe the Bible as the word of God but you pick and choose what you will obey and what you don't. Praying without head coverings? Eating Pork? Teaching a Sunday School Class in which men are present? Can a woman do any of these things, you ask? Of course she can! Because these were cultural taboos, NOT moral taboos.

And that's exactly what I am saying. The plumbing may not fit, but it doesn't matter. Why not insist that since a man has a penis he has no moral right to be single? He has a dick and it is made to fit into a specific place. How DARE he go against God's will and refuse to stick it in a woman's vagina? After all we were commanded in Genesis to be fruitful and multiply. So even the apostle Paul, who remained single, was outright disobeying God's order, right?

You see, I can twist and malign the words of the good book as easily as any half-baked Christian can. You need to learn to read the book in it's cultural context and understand that the bottom line of all of it is love. I don't think you know much about love.

You certainly don't know much about being gay. I can tell you it's no choice. I tried for over a decade to choose not to be gay. But it doesn't work. I challenge you to point out to me not only the verse in the Bible that you claim exists where it says it's a choice, but also to tell me when you chose to be straight. If it was a choice for me, then it had to be a choice for you too. Tell me when was it that you woke up and thought, you know what I'm going to be attracted to the opposite sex, instead of my own.

And one last thing, Jesus wants you to learn how to spell. No, I'm not kidding. Paul said, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..." Which reminds me, while you folk say "love the sinner, not the sin" you fail to see that the sin is not an act we do but a way in which we are wired, a part of our personality. And no, it's is not about perversion, it is about love, and how it is expressed. Get your mind off my genitals and keep an eye on your own, please. I think we have enough on our hands just keeping ourselves honest and pure without pointing to others.

And face it, you were not prepared. Honey, a mistake or two, a spelling error, a misplaced modifier, even the subject/object disagreement is fine now and then. It only proves that the the writer is a human being and fallible. But your writings are so full of errors, typos and horrific sentence structure that I have to point out how once again you are disobeying God's Word and not being "prepared to give an answer."

Now, please go get your own life straightened out and leave me and mine alone.