Subscribe to Breaking News
Loading ...Gay-friendly church launches anti-discrimination campaign.
09.11.2009 12:15pm EDT
A liberal church movement based in Texas has launched a campaign that is “designed to ask people whether Jesus would discriminate against others,” according to PinkNews.
The Would Jesus Discriminate? movement launched its campaign on the web by quoting a series of Biblical passages suggesting Jesus never discriminated against gays.
The DFW Metropolitan Community Churches, which have five chapters in the Texas area, say they provide an alternative to the perceived discrimination and intolerance from “religious institutions [which] have used their interpretation of the Bible to justify discrimination against women, ethnic minorities, and people with a different sexual orientation and/or identity issues.”
The Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches is not a full member of the US National or World Council of Churches because the Eastern Orthodox and Konservative Kristianist Kultists (what few belong … most regard the NCC and WCC as instruments of the devil) threatened to withdraw if MCC was recognized. Yet the Eastern Orthodox REGULARLY sit down with those whose SACRAMENTS they regard as INVALID.
Go figure …
Very interesting.
Would like very much to know how this campaign goes also.
SunDriedTomato FTW.
I couldn’t have said it better myself. Even though I’m an atheist, I still think Jesus was a pretty awesome person who preached about ideas of morality that can be accepted by all walks of life.
Why does everyone seem to forget that Jesus’ entire ministry was a reaction AGAINST the Old Testament? He was a radical liberal, he broke every possible injunction and law and social more codified in the Old Testament. His ministry was scandalously radical for his time. He would NOT have agreed with “his culture’s view”, his entire ministry was counter to “his culture’s view.”
Dr. Peter: Putting words in Christ’s mouth is done ALL of the time by Christians. Putting words in Christ’s mouth is no different that putting words into Captain Kirk’s mouth.
Rebuttal to Raycol’s post here.
1) How DARE you put words in Christ’s mouth!
2) “surmise=assume, and when you Raycol assume anything, you make an ASS of U and ME!
Jeffery; I have read the Christian bible and have no need to read it again.
I grew up going to church, Sunday school, and vacation bible school. I am not ignorant about the beliefs of Christians and about the contents of your bible, especially the new testament.
I find many similarities between dedicated Christians, dedicated Trekkers/Trekkies, and dedicated World of Warcraft players. The belief in the stories and lore of their chosen obsession by these groups of people is amazing. The major difference is that Trekkers and WoW players don’t feel that they have to press for laws to enforce their beliefs and stories on others. Trekkers and WoW players also do not proselytize others to follow their obsessions.
Christians have fought in almost every state, and some cases are still fighting, to take the rights of gays to marry away from them.
From my observations and experiences, I feel that Christianity is not compatible with being gay.
I’ll admit that I am not too familiar with MCC’s other than the one to which I belong.
In preparing to install a new pastor, the pastors have been talking about the history associated with the last 27 years in the life of our church. After hearing the story of how we got our current building, no one who believes in God could doubt that HE was involved. Without HIS blessing, it would never have happened.
When I hear this story, the saying of Fred Phelps (I’m sorry to say I’m from Kansas) that ‘God hates fags’ just does not compute.
Raycol: Assuming that there ever really was a Jesus, I think you’re right about what would have been his views. Further evidence to disregard that abominable book that was engendered by depraved imaginations: The Bible.
With regard to Secrity’s comment, you are absolutely wrong. I am gay, i have put my faith in Christ, and the Lord has shown me time and again that i am His. I suggest that the next time you go to read the bible you first spend some time learning how to read the bible through an historical critical approach and then ask God’s Spirit to guide you rather than projecting your own personal hatred of GLBT people onto scripture. A good example of the issues in biblical interpretation can be found at the following sitehttp://www.gaychristian101.com/Gay-Centurion.html.
It seems to me that Jesus would discriminate.
While there is no record of Jesus saying anything about homosexuality, we can surmise his probable views.
Jesus’ ideas on same-sex behavior would have been partly formed by his Jewish background and religious education. This would include his acceptance of male-female sex as the usual practice and his knowledge of the condemnation of full sex between males in Leviticus. Therefore Jesus probably agreed with his culture’s view that male-male penetration is bad. It is likely that his views would have been expanded by the occupying Greco-Roman culture, reinforcing his culture’s basic values of purity and male honor. Hellenistic Jews around Jesus’ time were hostile towards sex between males.
The Gospels report Jesus as saying very little about sex. He did condemn adultery, illicit or immoral sex and sexual debauchery (Mark 7:21-22) He also emphasized the permanence of male-female marriage (Mark 10: 6-8) while rejecting traditional family values (Luke 14:26 and Matthew 12:47-49).
Jesus’ only implied reference to same-sex sexual activity is its possible inclusion in his condemnation of illicit or immoral sex (assuming that illicit sex is any sexual activity condemned in the Old Testament). On the other hand, it is possible that Jesus was referring to gay men when he mentioned “born eunuchs” – without any condemnation (Matthew 19:12). In Bible times, such men were anatomically whole but were unable or unwilling to have sex with women. They either were not at all interested in sex or were interested but only with other men.
The MCC isn’t really accepted as a church by other churches: it only has Official Observer status with the World Council of Churches and it has been denied membership in the US National Council of Churches.
Gay and Christian are two words that can’t combine to make sense.
Please give a follow-up on the reaction to this campaign. I’m very interested to see what happens.
I’m expecting the campaign to be largely ignored since I don’t think the other churches will be able to come up with a good argument against it, but hopefully the other churches will actually give a reason and further prove that their argument is a hateful one.
Many years ago (long before I even knew any gay people — I led a rather sheltered life in that respect) I was having a discussion with a member of a Pentecostal congregation. I said that something depended upon your interruption of a certain Biblical passage and was told “There’s only ONE way to interrupt the Bible.” My response was “So if I interrupt it different from the way you do, I’m going to H—.” His answer was an immediate “I didn’t say that.”
As a straight ally of the gay community, I am certainly glad that MCC dosen’t discriminate. They even let straight people join.
Funny how people get all up in arms when your interpretation of the Bible doesn’t conform to theirs. Jesus never taught hatred of anyone to anybody. Other than of those who hated and abused others.