Seriously, I'm sick of all her subtle moralizing and eye rolls over gay issues. If they said being black was a gift from God she wouldn't object. You know one of these days she's slip and give a Dr. Laura-esque "biological error" speech, and the gays will desert her.
look, ol' girl has a point though. I mean, it says in the bible that homosexuality is an abomination. that's what it says. I certainly didn't write it. It's not my fault it says that. And as for people saying the bible shouldn't be taken literally, then i guess things like "honor your father and mother" or "don't bear false witness against ur neighbour" shouldn't be taken literally, either. Mabye God actually meant "treat your parents like crap" and "tell lies about your neighbour." I mean, come on.
Either way, I think the reason why people get so bent out of shape is because a lot of Christians use the fact that the bible says this as an excuse to be hateful homophobes. (see: Jamaica. They are FIERCELY homophobic down there, and it's becuase it's a religious culture.) But that's not right, either. I think that what you do in your private life is whatever, I'm still going to embrace you as a friend, brother, etc. But I don't think I would go so far as to say it was a gift. But at the same time, I don't think you should condemn someone and cut them off because of their sexual orientation.
Whatever. In response to your new twist, thanks for not hating us, and also you cant have it both ways. Either you take everything in the Bible literally, or you acknowledge that the bit about not being gay might not be quite as important as the bit with the Commandments. You decide.
@shinynewtoy: i'm gonna go ahead and call a nigga, please on you. I have to choose to hate gays or abandon the whole thing? That's what it sounds like you're saying to me, and it's completely nonsensical. Furthermore, who are you to tell ME how to think? You decide? This isn't Deal or No deal, boo boo, I can chose to feel however I want to about this issue. Just because YOU don't think i'm right certainly doesn't mean I need to change my mind. Don't try and box me into a corner because you hear I presented my view in an intelligent way, and you want me to sound like a crazy bible-thumpin' pirate. No, homie, that nah go work.
@Jihan Forbes: It's the entitlement stance I don't like, the way straight people like yourself feel empowered to sit back and quote bibles and judge gays like gay people are sitting around watching Oprah waiting for approval. I'm certainly not and I'm tired of the paradigm of this judgement, like if enough people don't like us or don't approve we will just vanish. This not a popular vote issue, despite the fact people want it to be. I certainly don't sit around and ponder whether it's a good thing that you exist.
The point is that just as being alive is a gift, and being able to see, hear, love, laugh, get mad, have emotions, et al is a gift, so is sexuality. Being gay produces the gifts of empathy, of knowing what it is like to be a minority, and understanding people even if you don't understand their life, viewpoints and sexuality. And as fowardmotion indicated above, gay people - at least many of those who are open and have accepted that they are gay - can have an objective view of other people's problems and concerns, and boy, we all have problems.
I wish that more gay men would understand all that and not be so snarky all the time about everything all the time.
We geighs are a gift to you straights. Some of you so much time debating whether we should be allowed to exist that you don't have to focus on your own problems. And trust me, you've got problems.
the problem with gifting gays is that far too many of them end up taken to the pound or let loose after the holidays, because children just don't realize how much work is it to take care of them. people: if you're going to gift gays, please make sure the recipient is ready and willing to take care of a gay, otherwise they may end up unwanted, released into the wild and could then turn feral - and no one wants feral gays rampaging thru their neighborhood, eating the native wildlife and/or knocking over trash cans in the middle of the night. thank you.
@Monsignor Xtravagante D'ouchestache: So true. This will come as a shock to my many admirers on this site, but i'm pretty high maintenance. If only my parents had known that, i wouldn't have run amuck at such a tender age. Instead, released back into a wild i was unprepared for ("Really, Mother. Fresh air?"), i kept crying at the windows, "No, Mother. Not that one. That's ghastly. Wear the pearls." Then there was that whole incident at Macy's when she tried to pick out bell-bottoms for me, but we don't talk about that. Court orders.
OK, you know, sometimes I really think it IS a gift from God...most of the gay people I've met in my life (and I am of an unorthodox sexuality myself, Allah be praised) were unusually sensitive, artistic, gifted...very caring folks. Yes, I'm sure the opposite can be found but honestly, even if God has nothing to do with it people are what they are, so why does everyone still get so excited?? Even if you don't like it, ain't gonna change a thing.
@MattGaymon: Some of you are so handsome and sensitive that you make straight women cry. It's hard for us straight women to be friends with gay men because we keep falling in love with them.
@Squirrelwars: By the way, do you know what happens to handsome, sensitive, artistic straight men?
NO WOMEN WILL DATE THEM. Women cry on the shoulders of their gay boyfriends, then they hop on a harley and date Flynn the bartender, who answers the question "hey, are you dating anyone else right now?" with a wave and a marlboro.
@Monsignor Xtravagante D'ouchestache: Does HGTV (Homo/Gay Television!) still have that design marathon during the Super Bowl? The perfect opportunity to lay in a supply of complicated and frightening little hors d'oeuvres, good booze, and scream at the television.
Mind you these are not Catholic Priests, to whom being gay is "wrong". Of course, how many of them are in prison for not just being gay, buy being gay with little boys?
@gladys_kravitz: @contradicto: I didn't mean all gay men are child molesters, sorry if you took it that way! As a Catholic (not really practicing now) it always pissed me off how high and mighty they are toward gays considering how many of the clergy are pedophiles. That and how they won't allow women to become priests.
If you want to dismiss what God actually said in the Bible thats one thing. And everyone truly has the right to do and believe what they want to. But to say that being gay is a gift from God, when He clearly didn't present it that way is beyond absurd.
Azilaw, take your God-fearing, homophobic icks somewhere else. God hates everyone equally. And this isn't Sunday School, so put your Bible away, preferably up your ass.
@azilaw: That's actually very very true. If we want to accept homosexuality, then members of the various Christian denominations are going to HAVE to choose to phase out certain scriptures from the Old Testament. And maybe from the NT? I can't recall whether there's bum stuff in there.
But there's a lot of precedent. If one assumes that God's plan unfolds through history, one also assumes that each separate scripture is given to the world at the time that it's required, and that it's not an immutable document, but can be forgotten when it's no longer a part of the divine plan.
It's happened a TON of times before. After all, Jesus himself wrapped up the old Jewish law in a neat little bow, and then just said "okay, let's just leave that alone FOREVER."
@Pope John Peeps II: going to HAVE to choose to phase out certain scriptures from the Old Testament. And maybe from the NT? I can't recall whether there's bum stuff in there.
At one point in the NT, Saint Paul admonishes a slave to return to his master. This and other such gems were widely used in the Antebellum South to justify slavery. Yet oddly enough, no contemporary Christian denomination is willing to stand by it, even those with a wearying adherence to biblical literalism. So interpretation is OK for that, but not for manlove? Sorry, kiddies, if you insist on literalism, either it's all true or none of it is.
@Hydroceph: Oh, right. Sorry. I don't know why I missed that.
But yah, literalists are crazy. It's hilarious to hear people say "God's word is immutable, and not for man to change" and then read from a document which has been pieced together by Vatican Council.
@Pope John Peeps II: As a member of the Anglican branch of the Episcopalian Church, I've been vastly amused to watch the ongoing -- and apparently quite serious -- arguments we've been having since the American Church decided to seat an openly gay bishop, and to institutionalize marriage of gay people. Listening to the dissenting conservatives argue that the institution of marriage is fixed and unchangeable, and that it would be a sin to try to do so, I always want to ask, "Em....How much do you know exactly about how our denomination came into being?"
(For anyone who have neither the interest nor the reason to be acquainted with the history of Christianity, the Anglican Church was created when Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholics because the Pope wouldn't allow him to get a divorce -- in other words, our church was created for the express purpose of redefining marriage).
@ShanghaiLil: our church was created for the express purpose of redefining marriage Wow. I used to teach Western Civ, undergraduate emphasis in English history, and angry little monkey about prop h8, and i had never made this connection. Thanks for connecting the dots.
01/08/09
Seriously, I'm sick of all her subtle moralizing and eye rolls over gay issues. If they said being black was a gift from God she wouldn't object. You know one of these days she's slip and give a Dr. Laura-esque "biological error" speech, and the gays will desert her.
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Either way, I think the reason why people get so bent out of shape is because a lot of Christians use the fact that the bible says this as an excuse to be hateful homophobes. (see: Jamaica. They are FIERCELY homophobic down there, and it's becuase it's a religious culture.) But that's not right, either. I think that what you do in your private life is whatever, I'm still going to embrace you as a friend, brother, etc. But I don't think I would go so far as to say it was a gift. But at the same time, I don't think you should condemn someone and cut them off because of their sexual orientation.
01/08/09
Whatever. In response to your new twist, thanks for not hating us, and also you cant have it both ways. Either you take everything in the Bible literally, or you acknowledge that the bit about not being gay might not be quite as important as the bit with the Commandments. You decide.
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I wish that more gay men would understand all that and not be so snarky all the time about everything all the time.
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Oh, I will.
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Sorry Jews. You got the butt end of life's stick there. That's gooood shit.
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THAT is a gift from god.
01/07/09
NO WOMEN WILL DATE THEM. Women cry on the shoulders of their gay boyfriends, then they hop on a harley and date Flynn the bartender, who answers the question "hey, are you dating anyone else right now?" with a wave and a marlboro.
01/07/09
See? We're not so different.
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@MattGaymon: not me, man. I want that asshole at the bar peeps was describing, and to hell with the consequences
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Of course being gay has absolutely nothing to do with being a pedophile, which isn't entirely clear from your comment.
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Azilaw, take your God-fearing, homophobic icks somewhere else. God hates everyone equally. And this isn't Sunday School, so put your Bible away, preferably up your ass.
01/07/09
No bow, plain paper bag with some kind of friggin' grease stain on it, and he left the price tag on to boot.
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Of course, then there are the whole literally vs. metaphorically interpreting the bible. The point: no one fucking knows.
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A notion she fully supported (until she found out I was gay.)
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But there's a lot of precedent. If one assumes that God's plan unfolds through history, one also assumes that each separate scripture is given to the world at the time that it's required, and that it's not an immutable document, but can be forgotten when it's no longer a part of the divine plan.
It's happened a TON of times before. After all, Jesus himself wrapped up the old Jewish law in a neat little bow, and then just said "okay, let's just leave that alone FOREVER."
01/07/09
At one point in the NT, Saint Paul admonishes a slave to return to his master. This and other such gems were widely used in the Antebellum South to justify slavery. Yet oddly enough, no contemporary Christian denomination is willing to stand by it, even those with a wearying adherence to biblical literalism. So interpretation is OK for that, but not for manlove? Sorry, kiddies, if you insist on literalism, either it's all true or none of it is.
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You know that. I know that. Biblical literalists go through all kinds of gyrations to avoid it.
01/07/09
But yah, literalists are crazy. It's hilarious to hear people say "God's word is immutable, and not for man to change" and then read from a document which has been pieced together by Vatican Council.
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(For anyone who have neither the interest nor the reason to be acquainted with the history of Christianity, the Anglican Church was created when Henry VIII separated the Church of England from the Roman Catholics because the Pope wouldn't allow him to get a divorce -- in other words, our church was created for the express purpose of redefining marriage).
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What? I'm a single woman in my 30s in New York. At least half my friends made me watch the damn thing.
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