Queller said in post #738:
I don't understand the common (among Fundamentalists) belief that if something is a choice, it doesn't deserve Constitutional protections.
Not if it is a sin. Murder is a choice.
Queller said in post #738:
Being a Christian is a choice and yet that gets multiple layers of protections.
Because it is not a sin.
Queller said in post #738:
Why should they get to put up things on other peoples lockers?
To preach the Gospel to everyone (Mark 16:15).
Queller said in post #738:
How do they know that all the other students are Christian and want to pray?
If they aren't or don't, they can do something else during the prayer.
Queller said in post #738:
Not providing someone with a platform for their prayer is not denying the free expression of religion.
Denying prayer at school events is denying the free exercise of religion.
Queller said in post #738:
Would you be OK with that teacher leading their class in a prayer to Diana?
Any prayer should be up to the students, not the teacher.
Queller said in post #738:
When you will make a cake for an opposite-sex couple's wedding abut won't make an identical cake for a same-sex couple's wedding, you are discriminating against the same-sex couple.
No, it is discriminating against a sinful activity, which discrimination is required for Biblical Christians (Ephesians 5:11).
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Queller said in post #740:
The desire to be like everyone else is one of the biggest pressures that kids are under.
That does not justify the illegal denial of the free exercise of religion at school events.
Queller said in post #740:
And feel like outcasts because they don't pray to the same God as everyone else.
It is Christians who are now the outcasts because they do not serve the current schools' religion of "political correctness".
But Christians are never to treat any non-Christians as outcasts (Mark 2:16).
Queller said in post #740:
Then why do you feel the need to have students forced to participate in Christian prayers or be considered outcasts??
Note that there is no need for any force or outcasting.
Queller said in post #740:
Do you really not understand the Establishment Clause or is the the Free Exercise Clause the only part you care about?
Voluntary school prayer is not establishment.
Queller said in post #740:
And when a teacher then leads students in a completely legal prayer to Allah, what will be your response then?
Any prayers should be up to the students.
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Queller said in post #743:
Rosa Parks just wanted to sit in her seat on the bus. Why couldn't people just leave her alone?
Indeed, why can't homosexuals just leave Biblical Christians alone?
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Queller said in post #744:
Pedophilia: an ongoing sexual attraction to pre-pubertal children.
Note that Webster's doesn't say "pre-pubertal" in its definition for pedophilia, which can refer to children generally, as in minors.
Queller said in post #744:
Someone over 17 engaging in sex with, or fantasizing about, a 17-year-old is not a pedophile.
He is, in the sense of statutory rape of a minor, or possessing minor inappropriate contentography, which is illegal.
Queller said in post #744:
I'm simply saying that it is not, by definition, pedophilia.
By whose definition? Someone who wants to prey on post-pubertal minors, who can be as young as 12 or 13?
Queller said in post #744:
The Bible also considers eating shrimp an abomination (Leviticus 11:9-12)
Not under the New Testament/New Covenant.
For under the New Covenant, all foods are in themselves okay for all Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, to eat (1 Timothy 4:4-5, Romans 14:14,20, Mark 7:18-19; 1 Corinthians 10:25-30, Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 9:10). For under the New Covenant, no meat is defiled in itself (Romans 14:14). All meats are pure (Romans 14:20). Every meat is good, and no meat is to be refused if it is received with thanksgiving to God, for it is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer (1 Timothy 4:4-5). Let no one therefore judge you regarding what meat you eat (Colossians 2:16-17, Hebrews 9:10). For the Kingdom of God does not consist of what meat we eat, or do not eat, but consists of righteousness, peace, and joy in God's Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Happy are those Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, who do not condemn themselves over what meat they eat (Romans 14:22). For no meat can defile them (Mark 7:18-19).
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Queller said in post #745:
[Re: Homosexuality]
What was the compelling state reason for it to be criminalized in the first place?
Because it is against nature, and can lead to horrible diseases.
Homosexuality is "against nature" (Romans 1:26-27) in the sense of how God created nature to work:
Matthew 19:4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
God never intended for males to become sexually joined or married to other males, just as God never intended for females to become sexually joined or married to other females.
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Romans 1:26 is referring to lesbians, who have unnatural, sexual affections for each other:
Romans 1:26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile
affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature . . .
And Romans 1:27 is referring to male homosexuals, "gays", who have unnatural, sexual lust for each other:
Romans 1:27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their
lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet.
Here the "recompence of their error" at the time that Romans 1:27 was written in the first century AD could have been hepatitis-type infections, but it would also include, in principle, the horrible AIDS plague in our own time.
Queller said in post #745:
BTW, a Bible verse is not a good reason for something to be made legal or illegal.
Of course it is (2 Timothy 3:15 to 4:4).
Queller said in post #745:
Remember; chattel slavery is approved of in the Bible.
Also remember that at the time that the Bible was written, thousands of years ago, slavery was not at all based on race. For back then there were many more white slaves than black. And no doubt some of the white slaves had black masters. The Bible is not racist (Acts 17:26, Revelation 5:9).
Also, the Old Testament forbade the cruel treatment of slaves (Leviticus 25:43, Exodus 21:26-27), of whatever race, and forbade the return of escaped slaves to their masters (Deuteronomy 23:15-16). Similarly, the New Testament commands the right treatment of slaves (Colossians 4:1), and says that slaves should obtain freedom from mortal masters if they are able to (1 Corinthians 7:21). But Christians are to remain the voluntary slaves/servants of Jesus Christ (Romans 1:1, Romans 6:22, Revelation 1:1), who has freed them from slavery to sin (John 8:34-36), and offers them eternal life (Romans 6:22-23).
Also, the world today takes pride in its outlawing of slavery. Yet the world overlooks the billions of "wage slaves" today who are not paid a living wage, while their corporate masters grow rich off of their labor. So slaves today are cared for less by their masters than slaves in Bible times were to be cared for (Colossians 4:1, Exodus 21:5).