“Language MATTERS — so does spelling and grammar. That the author is writing in cyberspace is no excuse.”

I’ve offered no excuses. When my writing errors have been brought up, I’ve thanked the person for the information.

Be well.

Sincerely,

James

It does? Wow! You’d think after being gay all these years someone would have pointed that out to me before now, but I’ve never encountered a religious screwball before, so this is news to me.

Thank you for your warning, Glenn. In future I will avoid sleeping with my boyfriend. It’s still ok for us to f**k though, right?

As for the issue at hand, religion has no place in the Government. By insisting in involving himself in religious affairs, Obama is inviting religious groups to involve themselves in politics. The separation of Church and State is one of the most important principles in a free society. The Founding Fathers deliberately avoided, as far as possible, bringing religion into the Constitution. It’s about time the Government respected the wisdom of that act and kept religion right out of political affairs.

gled too sea thet hom skoolin is werkin aut fer yoo their, dewd (sic).

Now then: you’re cherry-picking ONE verse from the scriptures of a nomadic bronze-age tribe (Israel).

The original Hebrew, since written Hebrew omits both verbs and vowels, says something like “man, woman, bed, not” as far as we can tell. That could mean ANYTHING. Some scholars believe the verse in question says:

“You shall not force a slave of your household to have sex.”

Period. Gender of rapist or rapee not specified.

In the Christian New Testament, Paul is concerned with pagan temple worship which involved sex with prostitutes of both sexes. The issue was IDOLATRY, not gay sex.

The King James Bible is RIDDLED with translation errors carried over from St. Jerome’s Latin, since St. Jerome wasn’t fluent in Greek or Hebrew.

Later translations are ALL at the behest of some church or group, ALL of whom have their particular axes to grind. The USE of the word “homosexual” as a translation for an untranslatable Greek idiom is dishonest on the face of it, since the word “homosexual” was coined in the 19th century and appears NOWHERE in the original Greek or Hebrew texts of the Bible.

Neither does “hell,” by the way. “Gehenna,” where “the fire never dies” etc. was the TRASH DUMP outside Jerusalem. Nothing eternal or supernatural about that.

Hell was invented by the medieval Western Church about the time of the Black Death (c. 1100 A.D.) to keep the faithful in line and the money flowing. It was around that time that the most famous Gregorian Chant about death was written: the “Dies irae,” with its scary images of “earth in fire and ashes burning,” “doomed to flames of woe unbounded,” etc. etc. etc.

It was around this same time that the bloody, twisted crucifixes became popular … before that, Christ was portrayed as reigning in glory from the Cross.

So … there’s a lot more to this subject than “all gays are going to burn in hell because the Bible says so.”

The Bible DOESN’T say so. It calls a man lying with a man “an abomination.” “Abomination” is a RITUAL LITURGICAL term concerned with RITUAL purity. Eating shrimp and wearing clothes made of cotton polyester is ALSO an “abomination” according to Leviticus.

One cannot “cherry-pick” the Levitical Code … either the ENTIRE Code applies, or NONE of it applies. I don’t see the Christian Churches mandating the keeping of kosher, or insisting upon ritual mikvah baths for women after their menses.

Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA

“English is a LANGUAGE; those who cannot speak, read, and write it correctly and coherently are ILLITERATE.”

James Withers REGULARLY writes “should of” instead of “should have,” etc. etc. etc.

Language MATTERS — so does spelling and grammar. That the author is writing in cyberspace is no excuse.

Now … to the issue at hand.

There should BE no “Faith-Based ANYTHING” office in the government, just as there should be NO tax exemptions for any non-profits, religious or otherwise.

*I* choose the organizations I will support; I do NOT want the government doing it FOR me through tax breaks, grants, etc.

Locally, here in San Diego, MANY of the well-known charities are VIRULENTLY anti-gay and will NOT serve GLBTQAI clients EVEN IN AREAS THAT DON’T TOUCH ON THEIR FAITH, like food, clothing, and housing.

They make NO provisions for homeless same-sex families with children; Catholic Charities and St. Vincent de Paul do NOT recognize LEGAL civil marriages performed in California during the interval when it was legal for same-sex couples to marry. Same-sex married couples have to SEPARATE if they want emergency housing.

I am UNALTERABLY opposed to so-called “conscience exemptions” in hiring for religious non-profits. A Buddhist can wash dishes as well as a Catholic at St. Vincent de Paul; A Catholic can do laundry as well as an evangelical protestant at San Diego Rescue Mission.

But they ALL believe that homosexuality is some how infectious or contagious, and that to give charity to GLBTQAI persons in “Jeeeeeeeeee-zus’” name somehow constitutes “approval” of the homosexual “lifestyle.”

That, dear readers, is a STEAMING PILE OF EQUINE EXCREMENT.

NO FEDERAL MONIES FOR SECTARIAN RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATIONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers,

Bud Burgoon-Clark
San Diego CA USA

Sure! Catholic Charities.

We in the Boston area were very saddened to hear that the local chapter of this organization decided to stop doing adoptions, because of Catholic-church internal politics. They had been widely acknowledged as having provided some of the best adoption services in the Boston area, and they even facilitated some adoptions to gay parents (which caused the internal strife, which caused them to shut down their adoption wing).

I think that there are some good Jewish social service organizations as well, but I’m not as familiar with them.

Which is their right to do so. Just as it is the right of, say, an MCC or UU churches right to fire someone who is anti-gay.

We don’t have the right to control legal behavior that is not tax payer funded.