neither do I - but the point I was making that, whilst I accept that many who say hate the sin not the sinner are sincere, I think that for a not insignificant number of Christians there is an underlying self righteous prejudice against the people too that is not too different to the homophobia of many non-Christians. We've seen in history how otherwise Godly people have been in situations where their prejudices show - Luther for example on the Jews (as said my personal difficult issue is dealing with people who are hard core racists) - of course thats because we are all works in progress as far as holiness etc is concerned. Such attitudes are not anyway confined to Christians, viz all the left/radical or what you will types who claim to love humanity but seem to have a great deal of difficulty loving their individual fellow citizens if they do not have the same enlightened views they have - my personal pet peeve being anyone who refers to other human beings as 'sheeple' - patronisingly arrogant or what. Reading Matthew 11. 18-19 the other day brought me back again to the point that Jesus went to where people were (resulting in him being called a friend of publicans and sinners by the religious folk and the authorities) rather than standing off from people and preaching at them without engaging with them as people - that doesn't of course mean he condoned certain behaviour (despite the attempts of people to imply - as they would today - that even just being there does)
Finally just as the Christian community is not a single body with a single voice, I think we have to be careful not to say 'the gay community do this or that' as that takes us back from dealing with human beings to entities and its much easier to characterise and stereotype entities (as people do re Radical Islam) - as there are of course gay people of all political and social persuasions and views - including to tie back into my earlier point, gay racists! What we often hear is the view point of particularly vocal groups.
yes i agree, i think you absolutely right that all Christians are work in progress, incl myself.
and yes, i can be quite vocal in the way i voice my stance
i guess for me the issue is while accept the fact Christians will always have prejudices and they will always hate the sinners. the matter really come down to whether or not they are letting that hate cross into any behaviors that hurt those "sinners"
you know, alot people probably surprised to hear this, esp those users i have having "heated" discussions. but i guess i can accept the fact people will always have weaknesses. As long as they acknowlege them and work on them, or even if they dont acknowledge them or think their thinking is wrong is fine by me. but when they started to express opinions to could influence others to adopt their views or worse still, encourage hurtful behaviors towards those sinners, that when i feel as a Christians, i have obligation to say something.
your point on not refering to them as a entity is a good one.
i used the term collectively because often those slanderous accusations are aiming at them collectively. Hence that is how i address them in response.
and yes, thanks heavens not all Christians are affiliated with that "hate" group focus on the families.
i have actually came across 1 christian user so far who realize focus on the family is an extreme Christian group.
and another, thankfully, after i confronted him with evidence, was willing to be objective about the whole things.
btw if you really want to know, i personally think focus on family is only notch above the kkk. they just target a diff group
and their tatic is far more subtle, through slanderous accusation rather than physical intimidation ( i just want to get that out my system)
oh yes, i like the fact they seem far more respectable too, associated them with the Lord and having a nice motto of supporting marriage and family (a motto i actually agree with)
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