Comments on: “Free Speech” & “Hate Speech”

By: PFOWolf

PFOWolf — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 18:54:56 +0000

You have pointed to the religious truth in that, at least from a Christian perspective. Jesus died as the last covenant with God to remove Man’s sin. Jesus said that it is only through me (Jesus) that you will reach God. This effectively negates the previous covenants. God decided to sacrifice his son as he had told Abraham to do in order to save man kind. That should be the end of the hate. Jesus never preached hate.
In my mind those who profess to believe and are Christians are only that in name when they profess hate. If they believe the Bible is the very word of God, the New Testament is meant to be the NEW BEGINNING. The Old was included as a history of where we have come from, but it is with Jesus you should move forward. However one learns it, the last word is with Jesus, and his disciples. If you take the Revelations as gospel as well, it is meant as warning to what is coming, not a prescription to bring about the End. Just because a person says they work for the Will of God does not mean they do especially when they commit acts that directly break with God’s commandments, nor should they judge others because in the sight of God, they are just as guilty if not more so.
Being raised in the Church and having studied the Bible helps. But as my Priest always warned, you should always look to Christ for your guidance through the dark, and to be humble.
At least for what it is worth, that is my Protestant perspective.

By: Dirck71

Dirck71 — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:56:19 +0000

First of all, being gay is not a choice. And second, how could one live a sinful life if the only thing he or she does is love another human being, even if it’s same sex/gender? I see what you’re getting at, I respect you for ‘accepting’ our way of life as far as it goes for you as a Christian. But you also need to know I don’t need your sympathy or compassion. I can do without it. I’m not mentally or physically challenged.

By: Pieman

Pieman — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:35:13 +0000

The irony of preaching about your God’s compassion and understanding when your name is “GodsWrath” is quite amusing.

By no stretch of the imagination is eternal damnation to hell “compassionate”.

By: GodsWrath

GodsWrath — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 21:53:33 +0000

gay people can be gay if they want, its their choice. If they want to live sinful lives, let them, but remember, we are all born sinners. so dont think youre any different from them. its not our job as christians to force beliefs upon others. Nor is it to condemn others for their beliefs/ways of life. Christ didnt go around bashing all homosexuals and sinners. NO, instead he dealt with compassion and understanding. We shouldnt hate gays or lesbians as themselves for being homosexual, but the sin they are commiting. Its not our jobs to scare people into believing in God or “bible thumping” as i like to call it. It is merely our job to plant the seeds of Christ. He will do the rest. God Bless

By: kuraiakki

kuraiakki — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 11:25:00 +0000

I say i fthey have the right to wear it becasue or religious freedom, then I, by religion, have the right to invoke Psalms 137:9 and beat them against a rock

By: islanddreamer

islanddreamer — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 18:19:44 +0000

I’m sympathetic with your defense of freedom of speech Taitrnator but there has to be a line drawn somewhere when speech threatens physical harm. For instance, if someone started a false rumor that you were a child molester, that could result in you getting beat up or worse. But fortunately, under slander or defamation of character statutes that would be against the law. When we call for the death of entire groups of people defined by race, beliefs or sexual orientation etc. that is also defamation. Freedom of speech is a basic human right. Freedom from hateful speech resulting in harm is also a basic human right. These simply have to be balanced. I don’t know if you are a member of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) but that would be a good start. This is an excellent organization that has a good track record of sorting these sorts of issues out.

By: thomasdosborneii

thomasdosborneii — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:09:12 +0000

Absolutely correct, Aeros. And the best book I ever read that shows that compassion so beautifully is Kahlil Gibran’s Jesus book, “Jesus, the Son of Man, As Told By Those Who Knew Him.” That book is, in fact, my favorite Kahlil Gibran book, and that is saying a lot.

By: thomasdosborneii

thomasdosborneii — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 03:04:04 +0000

Kaeleb–your discussion here is absolutely right-on and it is too bad how many out in the world do not have the ability to reason and understand this way, they just want to have a rule to blindly follow. The Bible is actually full of fascinating things that effectively tell of the time and place and the particular culture where their various rules were meant to apply. I enjoy reading analyses of that sort of thing. For example, in the “prodigal son” story (in which the father forgives and accepts his son), it says that when the father learns that his son is coming back, he goes out to meet him on the road, and when he sees him, he RUNS to greet him. An analysis I read said that in those days, it was considered unseemly for a respected, grown man to run, they were to remain dignified in their bearing. So the fact that this man ran to greet his son shows just how much he loved him and wanted him back. He was willing to sacrifice his dignity in order to make it clear to his son that he was welcome. To me, that makes that whole scene even more powerful that it originally seemed.

Another analysis I read showed how Jesus truly did accept homosexuals, but to our modern sensibility, we do not catch the clues. One very powerful one is that for the Last Supper, Jesus was going to have this in a secret location (because he knew the Sanhedrin wanted to arrest him and he didn’t want that to happen yet). So the disciples were to look for a man carrying water who would tell them how to find the chosen location. The person writing this analysis said that in that culture, carrying water was women’s work, so when in the Bible a man is described as carrying water, you may as well say “look for the swishy man wearing make-up and calling everybody “girlfriend”. Not every homosexual was “fem”, of course, but in this case, Jesus trusted a fem homosexual with the location of the Last Supper!

And the very best one of all was the story of the Centurion who sought out Jesus to heal his slave boy. A “Centurion” is a soldier who is a captain over a hundred men, they were very powerful and respected warriors. They very often had what were called “body slaves”, attractive young males from the enemy camp who were captured as slaves and used for sexual purposes. (If I am not mistaken, “The Persian Boy” was an example of such a body slave, in this case for Alexander, the Great, so this concept wasn’t just Roman, but went back into the Macedonian culture, as well.)

However, in the case of the Centurion who ran through the streets to find and beg Jesus to heal his sick slave, what this meant was that the Centurion and the slave were actually lovers. So that puts it much closer to what we would think of today as homosexual lovers rather than say, owning a rent boy or hustler. Okay, so what did Jesus say about this? “Never among all the Jews in Israel have I ever met a man with faith like this.” [The Romans were considered heathens by the Jews, yet the faith of this Roman soldier surpassed that of the Jews.] “Just as you believed, it will be done.” And when the Centurion returned back to his house, he saw that his slave had been healed (from afar, no less), just as Jesus had promised.

By: thomasdosborneii

thomasdosborneii — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 02:33:45 +0000

Thank you, Kaeleb!

By: Bruce Tharp

Bruce Tharp — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 00:03:47 +0000

America is now a kid centered society that has regressed to a hiphop, homie, street culture where women are refered to as bitches and intelligent, sensitive boys are referred to as fags. If you carry a book or get good grades you considered to be “acting white.” A dress code would put a dent in the gang dress in California schools.