Re: When in doubt, choose to love others

Refreshed you normally seem like you have a good head on your shoulders but I have to really disagree with what you say here.

'Can a person be lukewarm, fence-riding and be a christian? Apparently not. There are some deal-breakers.'

And exactly who makes the rules according to which sins are deal breakers and which ones are acceptable enough that you can still declare yourself a Christian? Are you the authority that tells us the deal breakers?

'Usually there is marital sex involved when people get married. So gay-marriage would involve approval of this sin.'

I'm not even talking about that issue, that's a whole other discussion. I don't think Christ would ever approve of gay marriage or abortion or strip clubs, p 0 r n o g r a p h y, but all these things are legal in the carnal world. My topic is not the laws of the world. I'm talking about the hypocrisy in Christianity.

'I consider heart-changed, non-sexual practicing gays to be christian....even if they struggle'

Who cares who you personally consider to be a Christian and who are you to be making up the rules on who can/should be considered a Christian or not?

'However, it can't be used as an excuse to just infiltrate the churches and continue their gay life as usual. There has to be true repentance and constant turning away.'

This is where the real hypocrisy takes place and using words like 'infiltrate' the church is just really sickening. You were so adamant in other discussions that we've had that there is no way that anyone can be expected to be perfect and that no one keeps all the commandments that Christ gave all the time. Yet when it comes to the sin of homosexuality, suddenly you do expect people to be perfect in keeping that commandment. Just like most Christians, you are a hypocrite. And by the way, remember a little fact about Christ always hanging out with the sinners, not those that consider themselves righteous. People that are committing the sin of homosexuality, not just those that are non-sexual should absolutely be invited into all churches and shouldn't be thought of as infiltrating. You think Christianity should only be for people who have already been transformed by Christ? What is the point of that, churches are there for the sinners, the downtrodden. That's who we want in the churches, not so that we can celebrate their sin, but so that they can change. But people with your attitude would never allow that to happen.

By the way, just a note, that personally I am not a homosexual and don't have any relatives or close friends who are. I just find hypocrisy to be so vile, just as Jesus did. And I find Christians that take stances that are against specific people to be tarnishing the name of Jesus. Luckily that's not even his name. Kind of fitting that people who claim to worship Christ but have no idea who He is even got his name wrong.

Sorry if my tone is harsh Refreshed. I don't think you personally are a bad person, although in this particular instance, I do find you a huge hypocrite. I actually think you are a great person and a dedicated follower of Christ and I enjoy reading a lot of posts. It's just that your post reflects so much of the things that I have heard over and over from Christians, so my post is party directed at you but partly just to Christians in general that have hypocritical beliefs. I hope you can forgive the harsh tone and truly examine what I said and what you believe on the matter to see if what you believe really lines up with what Christ taught or not.