I'm an expert in that I have studied what Jesus, the son of God has said. (Not what other people in the bible who had dubious connections to God at best).

Jesus says "Judge not, lest ye be judged". Anyone saying that a person's lifestyle that harms no one else is wrong is no Christian.

If you're going to call yourself a Christian, then you have to follow the philosophy of Christ. That is the definition of Christian. Christ had no opinion whatsoever on homosexuals, so condemning them and relegating them to second class citizens is definitely not Christ-like. In fact, you will remember that Christ specifically spent time with the various outcasts of society, and embraced them. It's quite app...

I'm an expert in that I have studied what Jesus, the son of God has said. (Not what other people in the bible who had dubious connections to God at best).

Jesus says "Judge not, lest ye be judged". Anyone saying that a person's lifestyle that harms no one else is wrong is no Christian.

If you're going to call yourself a Christian, then you have to follow the philosophy of Christ. That is the definition of Christian. Christ had no opinion whatsoever on homosexuals, so condemning them and relegating them to second class citizens is definitely not Christ-like. In fact, you will remember that Christ specifically spent time with the various outcasts of society, and embraced them. It's quite appropriate to associate homosexuals with the lepers and Samaritans of Jesus's time, so by demonizing homosexuals, you are doing the exact opposite of what Christ taught.

Thus, one cannot call himself a Christian if he demonizes or segregates one segment of society. We are all God's children, and no one has the right to say anyone isn't.

Darkeforce,

It is not a matter of demonizing or segregating a particular segment of society...it is a matter of recognizing that an particular act or acts are not Christ-like. Therefore, Christians should not hate the person, they hate the sin. If a Christian should support the marriage of homosexuals, it is simply their own belief on the matter. Does that one belief determine whether they are Christians or not...I would hope not.

Here is another scenario..."Have not all sinned"? That is stated very plainly in the new testament of the Bible. Therefore, to determine if someone is a Christian or not, based on one particular belief, is an error in itself.

By the way, I am of the foll...

Darkeforce,

It is not a matter of demonizing or segregating a particular segment of society...it is a matter of recognizing that an particular act or acts are not Christ-like. Therefore, Christians should not hate the person, they hate the sin. If a Christian should support the marriage of homosexuals, it is simply their own belief on the matter. Does that one belief determine whether they are Christians or not...I would hope not.

Here is another scenario..."Have not all sinned"? That is stated very plainly in the new testament of the Bible. Therefore, to determine if someone is a Christian or not, based on one particular belief, is an error in itself.

By the way, I am of the followings of Armenianism. Hopefully that will give you an idea as to where my thought is coming from.

And you still did not answer my question...when did God appoint you the determiner of Christianity?

I often see two different sides to the determination that "so-and-so is/is not a Christian". One comes from the outside, in which a non-Christian or former Christian makes an observation on a second party based on the publicly declared tenets of Christianity. This type of determination is based on the image Christians create for themselves and is either compared or contrasted to their actions.

The other comes from Christians, usually in the context of explaining the un-Christian behavior of fellow Christians by saying, "so-and-so isn't a real Christian". This is usually based on a very narrow description of Christianity based on the determiner's own religious predilections....

I often see two different sides to the determination that "so-and-so is/is not a Christian". One comes from the outside, in which a non-Christian or former Christian makes an observation on a second party based on the publicly declared tenets of Christianity. This type of determination is based on the image Christians create for themselves and is either compared or contrasted to their actions.

The other comes from Christians, usually in the context of explaining the un-Christian behavior of fellow Christians by saying, "so-and-so isn't a real Christian". This is usually based on a very narrow description of Christianity based on the determiner's own religious predilections.

Both determinations are ingenuous; the former is sketchy because outsiders frequently lack the knowledge of the nuances of what defines membership of another faith; the latter is almost always fatuous because the insider's viewpoint is narrowly defined along sectarian lines.

This then turns into a distinction between someone being "unChristian" and "not a Christian". The definition of what does or does not make a person a Christian has been the subject of heated debate for as long as Christians have existed. It has caused the death of more Christians at the hands of other Christians than all the persecutions by non-Christians combined. Does anybody expect to resolve the question via Clipmarks?

The point of the cartoon here, though is the hypocrisy of the "family values" fanatics being the ones making these confessions. As for me, I tend to agree with Mohandas Gandhi:

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.

as quoted by William Rees-Mogg in The Times [London] (4 April 2005). Gandhi here makes reference to Luke 16:13.

Dareforce, hear is a passage for you condeming behavior/lifestyle/"person".
This is in the new testament/the new covenant.
So, please do not state that God never mentioned homosexuallity in the Bible. And in verse 11 He is speaking to His people, not the sinners previously stated.

1 Corinthians 6:9

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified...

Dareforce, hear is a passage for you condeming behavior/lifestyle/"person".
This is in the new testament/the new covenant.
So, please do not state that God never mentioned homosexuallity in the Bible. And in verse 11 He is speaking to His people, not the sinners previously stated.

1 Corinthians 6:9

9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

-Waiting on your retort

Also, I never appointed you anything and do not condone un-Christ-like behavior. I stated that Christian "SHOULD" not hate the person but instead hate the sin.

Jorjor, the only purpose of the Old Testament to Christians are the various prophesies that validate Jesus as the son of God. Other than that, it's basically an account of a bunch of savages who worshipped various demons, through the very long, very painful process of being prepared for the coming of Jesus — something they were still unprepared-for in the end. It contains humanistic prejudice, assumptions about the nature of God based on their old demonic gods who demanded blood sacrifices and for their followers to be afraid of them. God tried to speak to them, but in all cases, this message got translated through the attitudes, beliefs and prejudices of the person who wrote the Old Testame...

Jorjor, the only purpose of the Old Testament to Christians are the various prophesies that validate Jesus as the son of God. Other than that, it's basically an account of a bunch of savages who worshipped various demons, through the very long, very painful process of being prepared for the coming of Jesus — something they were still unprepared-for in the end. It contains humanistic prejudice, assumptions about the nature of God based on their old demonic gods who demanded blood sacrifices and for their followers to be afraid of them. God tried to speak to them, but in all cases, this message got translated through the attitudes, beliefs and prejudices of the person who wrote the Old Testament books. Other than those prophesies, the only real use of the Old Testament is as a source for studying the folklore of ancient Israelites.

mgrady, I've already covered the fallacy of attributing the writings of Paul to Jesus. Paul was a well-documented homophobe, and he was passing on his own prejudice. Paul never once met Jesus, so he cannot claim to write anything that Jesus ever said. Paul said some good thing, and gave us some interesting prophesy, but he wasn't the Son of God. He was human, and prone to human frailties.

So yes, I can say with great authority that Christ never said anything whatsoever about homosexuality in the bible.

Now, here you've conjured a strawman. I never said to hate anyone whatsoever. I said that people who did not actually follow the philosophy of Christ have no business calling themselves Christians.

If you want to call yourself a Christian, you read the testament of Christ, finding the absolute truth the areas where the apostles agree, and using prayer, study, meditation and the Holy Spirit to divine the truth about the rest. If you're behaving in a way that Christ didn't, then you cannot call yourself "Little Christ". Thus, a so-called Christian showing hatred and intolerance toward gay people is not displaying Christ-like behaviour.

@darkeforce

Other than that, it's basically an account of a bunch of savages who worshipped various demons, through the very long, very painful process of being prepared for the coming of Jesus...

I know all that, and you don't have to treat me like an ignoramus. Let me say it again - there are some Christian sects that tell their members that the OT does not apply to them; there are other Christian sects that tell their members that the laws of the OT still apply and must be obeyed. The majority of Christian sects and leaders, however, cherry-pick the parts of both OT and NT to conform to their particular prejudices.

This has noth...

@darkeforce

Other than that, it's basically an account of a bunch of savages who worshipped various demons, through the very long, very painful process of being prepared for the coming of Jesus...

I know all that, and you don't have to treat me like an ignoramus. Let me say it again - there are some Christian sects that tell their members that the OT does not apply to them; there are other Christian sects that tell their members that the laws of the OT still apply and must be obeyed. The majority of Christian sects and leaders, however, cherry-pick the parts of both OT and NT to conform to their particular prejudices.

This has nothing to do with my own understanding of the OT or NT, or whether it's scripture or barely literate scribblings of post-palaeolithic brutes; I was simply putting forth that this is how different groups deal with it today.

If you can't recognize when somebody's agreeing with you and you go on and treat them like an idiot, there's no use in participating in the commentary on this clip. You're on your own.