Discussion: New rule - homosexuality & same sex marriage

Edial said:

CF Statement on Marriage between 1 man and 1 woman does not make on "more" Christian. It affirms that what is obvious. Allowing open discussion in certain Christian areas by groups we identify as Christians in a context that SSM is an OK Christian practice does make one "less" Christian.

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I don't agree with you on this, but I realize that this is your personal opinion and I respect that.

hedrick said:

Note that CF permits atheists to argue against Christianity in certain forums. To permit defense of atheism but not of acceptance of homosexuality gives an impression of Christians that is misleading. Even conservative Christians don't really think traditional sexuality is more important than God. But that's been the impression, and in fact I've cited it as an argument against the conservative position in other venues.

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Edited my post as I noticed that you addressed your post to Edial.

SteveCaruso said:

Theological positions completely aside (and being heterosexual myself this does not directly affect me, personally) I simply wonder if requiring legally married homosexuals to identify as being in a "Committed Relationship" rather than "Married" in their profiles may open Christian Forums up to liability depending on what state Christian Forums is "in," or where the Christian Forums servers are hosted. To play it safe, have you guys ran this by your lawyer?

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We looked into this and at this time we are not concerned about any legal liabilities in this situation. This may change in the future, but for right now we are fine.

hedrick said:

The rule in the annoucement says "If you are in a same sex marriage, you must choose the "Committed Relationship" option rather than the "Married" option in your profile." There is a "private" status. I assume you don't intend to require people in a same-sex marriage to disclose their status when others seem not to be required to. I'd suggest a clarification of the rule saying "you must choose either Private or Committed Relationship."

Also, as I looked at the profile I noticed an option for number of lost children. Is this children who have died? were still-born? who are non-Christians? who have run away from home? Some clarification of the intent might be useful.

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Thank you for pointing this out, we will take a look at your suggestions. I agree that "lost children" could be confusing and we should clarify that.

Christus Discipulus said:

How is arguing that the Bible does not prohibit homosexuality not promoting?

This would seem to clearly be a loophole to the non-promotion rule.

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It's difficult to have a discussion without both sides of the argument "promoting" their point of view. There are some types of promotion that are extreme and will not be allowed, which is why we have put the guidelines in place, but just a normal discussion where members explain and support their points of view will be allowed in the forums that choose to allow it.

We have a very wide range of Christian members here at CF, including liberal, moderate and conservative Christians, who are all from many different Christian denominations. We are not going to allow promotion in those forums where the church (denomination) clearly states that homosexuality and SSM is not Biblical. These forums will not get a poll. We will post polls in the rest of the congregational forums so that the members of that forum can decide for themselves if they want to have open discussion on these topics. There are Christians who do not believe that homosexuality and SSM are wrong, and they want to be able to discuss these topics with other members in their forum. In doing this we (CF) are not making a statement that we condone or accept homosexuality and SSM.

Closing this thread until tomorrow. Have a wonderful Friday evening everyone

sahjimira said:

As long as we're not heading in the PC direction I think it's cool. Will there b sites where as they call themselves gay Christians to have claim to as "their site" meaning no opposing view is permitted? And/or a Christian gay site open to discussion by all? This new forum for homosexuality is a bit weird to me but I guess it will avoid a lot of overrunning of other sites

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We aren't heading in the PC direction
I'm not sure if there will be other sites for only homosexual Christians, but there could be (and that would be fine). Here at CF we will have the open discussions in the congregational forums that vote to allow it. Thanks for your questions.

GAPCanadianChristian said:

So... I have a serious question here. From what I understand, CF is actually asking that any married, gay Christian people blatantly lie, and thereby, sin, about their marital status, regardless of what the law states or what their denomination states. Is that true? Is this a case of the conservative branch of Jesus-loving Christians forcing it's view of Christianity on the liberal branch of equally, Jesus-loving Christians?... and actually asking married, gay Christians to be deceitful and to lie about their legal status in the country they live in and the canonical status of the church to which they belong? Would it not be more honest to have two new relationship status choices... opposite sex married and same sex married... since that is what they are, regardless of what one branch of Christendom thinks they are? Married, gay people will continue to mark their status as married, otherwise, just to make a point. Do you really have the man-power to police that?

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Thank you for your post. We are discussing hedrick's suggestion to add the option of choosing "Private" or "Committed Relationship" and are leaning in that direction. We will add your input to our discussion thread and take what you have suggested into consideration as well.