Episcopal Church votes to curb gay bishops

[maycocksean]

I come from a very conservative Christian background. So I know exactly where this is coming from. The problem is the church. They aren't teaching the context of the scriptures and they are telling you that you can take any verse and use it as truth. The truth is this couldn't be further from the truth. And the ugly truth is that the church doesn't want to teach the context or want you to research the context because deep down people oppose what they don't understand. And it's easier to make homosexuality a sin.

This type of teaching and thinking produces folks like AEON who can produce a lot of verses but knows very little of the context.

True. Very true.

I guess even though my church is conservative in practice and in it's belief in the entire Bible as the word of God, what makes it different from other conservative denominations is the members are allowed (and encouraged) to study the Bible for themselves and the church doesn't place so much pressure on the members to conform to exactly what the "standard" line is. At least that's how it seems to me and I've really come to appreciate it.

That bit about "deep down people oppose what they don't understand. And it's easier to make a homosexuality a sin." is a very powerful and very good point. I think all Christians need to think good and hard about that.

Wouldn't it be funny if we were both from the same denomination and didn't know it though?

 

[maycocksean]

Could you identify the Scripture used in the "cut and paste method" 20 - 30 years ago?

Absolutely.

Fortunately, Yolland did most of the heavy lifting for me already. Thanks Yolland! (And yes, I'd be willing to trade war stories. It's not fun to think about of course, but hey, I survived and a lot of it I can look back on and laugh--or at least not fall apart about.)

Believe me I've heard the Bible study against mixed race marriages more than once. One text from the NT not mentioned by Yolland was the classic "Do not be unequally yoked" This has long been used a keystone text (perhaps similar to Romans 1 on the gay issue) to provide a Biblical basis for the sin of mixed race marriages.

We can all--well most of us-- can look back now and see how out of context these once obvious scriptures were. But then times have changed and hindsight is 20/20.

 

[maycocksean]

I think what it does come down to is not whether one is a bigot or not, but whether such bigotry is active or passive in nature. It's still homophobia; that I agree with. However, I think it does come down to a matter that, for many people, it is of a passive nature that's not rooted in deep-seated hatred.

Melon

Good point, Melon. I can agree with this.