Gay Growth

[Alabama Larry]

In Sunday's Louisville Courier-Journal a writer from UCLA wrote an article about Louisville leading the nation in Gay Growth in the last ten years.

 

The next ten years worries me. To be gay is not natural and doesn't fit into God's plan. That is my take on it and its a message I got from studying Bible scriptures. We can't pick and choose Bible verses that we want to fit our lifestyle. I don't have the answer, but I know what I have read.

 

Someone asked me if my son's soccer coach was a gay gentleman, how would you react? I said "I'd be nice and explain why my son would no longer be on the team. I didn't want to explain why the two guys coming to practice were holding hands."

 

I can't stop him from seeing things and hearing stuff, but I can make a choice about his coach.

 

I know a question I'll see.."If one of your four sons were gay, what would you do?"

 

Still love him very much, but couldn't allow his partner around the family. This would be hard, but I couldn't pick and choose bible verses.

 

If you are gay and reading this, I will warn you about your ways and hope you can turn the right way, God's way, but i still love you and care about your soul. Ezekiel 3:16.

 

If the Mods want to delete this, I understand.

[02Ram54]

Some other helpful tips about your life from the Old Testament...

 

The Holiness Code in the Torah permits:

slavery (Leviticus 25:44)

The code requires:

	a child to be killed if he/she curses their parent (Leviticus 20:9)
	all persons guilty of adultery to be killed (20:10)
	the daughter of a priest who engages in prostitution to be burned alive until dead (21:9)
	the bride of a priest to be a virgin (21:13)
	ritual killing of animals, using cattle, sheep and goats (22:19)
	observation of 7 feasts: Passover, Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of Firstfruits, Feast of Pentecost, Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, Feast of Tabernacles (23)
	a person who takes the Lord's name in vain is to be killed (24:16)

The code prohibits:

	heterosexual intercourse when a woman has her period (Leviticus 18:19),
	harvesting the corners of a field (19:9),
	eating fruit from a young tree (19:23),
	cross-breeding livestock (19:19),
	sowing a field with mixed seed (19:19),
	shaving or getting a hair cut (19:27),
	tattoos (19:28),
	even a mildly disabled person from becoming a priest (21:18),
	charging of interest on a loan (25:37),
	collecting firewood on Saturday to prevent your family from freezing,
	wearing of clothes made from a blend of textile materials; today this might be cotton and polyester, and
	eating of non-kosher foods (e.g. shrimp).

[ladiesbballcoach]

As a teacher, I am exposed to alternative lifestyles of youth that is more fascination and experimentation than it is something they are born with. Society has said that this lifestyle is acceptable by the way they handle such relationships and thus the teenagers have taken to it being something cool. And thus they delve into that realm.

 

They are already confused and not sure on relationships and it has done nothing but to further the issues that teens are facing.

 

I too worry about this country and the next 10 years.

[Habib]

We can't pick and choose Bible verses that we want to fit our lifestyle.

 

Do you pick and choose these?

 

Some other helpful tips about your life from the Old Testament...

[Alabama Larry]

We are no longer under the "Law Of Moses". That was easy.

[02Ram54]

We are no longer under the "Law Of Moses". That was easy.

So I assume that we'll see that movement to post the 10 Commandments fizzle out pretty soon...

[Covercorner]

We are no longer under the "Law Of Moses". That was easy.

So do we not have to follow the Ten Commandments?

 

Not a smart-alec question by the way.

[BigBlueFreak]

So I assume that we'll see that movement to post the 10 Commandments fizzle out pretty soon...

 

Beat me to it...

[ladiesbballcoach]

So do we not have to follow the Ten Commandments?

 

Not a smart-alec question by the way.

 

It is direction on how to live our lives AFTER our salvation by accepting Jesus as the Lord and Savior of our lives.

 

If you live everything to those 10 (and btw, that is not possible) and don't take Jesus as your Personal Lord and Savior, I don't believe you will be getting into Heaven PER Scripture.

 

God could always choose to change his mind but he indicates he won't in Scripture.

[HHSDad]

We're getting away from the topic.

[Habib]

We are no longer under the "Law Of Moses". That was easy.

 

So where do you find this in the New Testament? And where do you find the power or right to judge in the New Testament? Are you not called to love everyone?

[Trinity alum]

Any growth in the number of gays in Louisville is a result of people feeling more free to "come out". Seeing a gay person will not make anyone gay, but it may make someone feel more free to express their true inclinations. I have fears about the future, but gays have nothing to do with any of them. We are all free to express our religious views as we see fit, but I feel commanded to love my neighbor as myself. That would include a gay partner of a loved one.

[02Ram54]

Interesting site on a Christian's obligation to the OT:

 

Now many years earlier Israel — also in the wilderness — was lured into testing the care and fidelity of God (Exodus 17:1-7). As a result the law of God recorded: "You shall not put Jehovah your God to the test, as you tested Him at Massah" (Deut. 6:16). Such a law would surely seem conditioned by its historical setting and restricted to its Jewish recipients, if any law does. Yet in the face of the Satanic temptation Jesus cited this very commandment to thwart His adversary: "Jesus said unto him, 'Again it stands written, You shall not make a test of the Lord your God' "(Matt. 4:7). Clearly the law of God was deemed valid and was not restricted to the ten commandments.

 

Of course Jesus also deemed the ten commandments to be authoritative — but not uniquely so. When He was asked to judge which commandments should be kept in order to enter eternal life, He made use of a portion of the decalogue (Matt. 19:16-19; Mark 10:17-19). However at the same time He included the relevant case law, "Do not defraud" (Mark 10:19, from Deut. 24:14), and the summary command, "Love your neighbor as yourself" (Matt. 19:19, from Lev. 19:18). He used the extradecalogical commands just as authoritatively as the decalogue's own requirements. Indeed, when asked to judge which was the greatest commandment in the entire Old Testament, Jesus did not go to the ten commandments at all, but chose rather two laws outside of the decalogue: love God with all of your heart, and love your neighbor as yourself (Mark 12: 28-31, from Deut. 6:4-5 and Lev. 19:18).

 

Consequently, the practice of Jesus does not encourage a disregard for the details of God's law, as though New Testament moral duty is circumscribed to a small sub-section of the Old Testament law. Jesus was often challenged by the traditionalists (who took their authority from outside of the Scriptures) about His activities on the Sabbath. In His defense He would response, "Have you not read in the law ...?" (Matt. 12:5; John 7:23), citing the Sabbath activity of the priests. Were the law outmoded by His coming, of course, such a vindication of His behavior would have been baseless. Over and over again Jesus could show that the traditionalists — whose boast was in the details of the law — were actually violating and twisting the law's demands (e.g., Matthew 5:21-48). On an occasion when Christ's disciples were accused by the Pharisees of violating their traditions, Christ replied that the traditionalists actually transgressed the commandment of God in order to preserve their traditions instead (Matt. 15:3, 6-9). It is striking to note the specific illustration which Jesus chooses to use (among many available ones) in this particular moral judgment. He says that while the law of God requires honor for one's parents and death for those who dishonor them, the Pharisees allow a subterfuge by which one can withhold financial aid to his parents (Matt. 15:4-5). The Mosaic law which Christ holds up as valid — the standard by which to judge the Pharisaical performance — is the detail of the law (commonly ridiculed today) which requires the death penalty for cursing one's parents!

 

Another illustration of Jesus' use of the Old Testament's moral standards (outside the decalogue) can be found when He lays down instructions for the new organization of the people of God. As the church replaced national Israel in the plan of redemption it needed its own operating instructions, for instance regarding discipline. In the moral judgment delivered by Christ regarding this matter He asserted the demand of the Old Testament law: "at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established" (Matt. 18:16, cf. Jn 8:17, based on the law at Deut. 17:6 and 19:15) — the same Old Testament law of legal evidence promoted by Paul (I Tim. 5:9). The use of the Old Testament law in matters of sexual relations, payment to workers, and revenge toward enemies further substantiates the New Testament dependence on the law's validity. When Paul prohibits marrying an unbeliever, he cites the Old Testament requirement that unlike animals are not to be yoked together (2 Cor. 6:14, from Deut. 22:10). "Be not unequally yoked together" is a well-known verse used by many pastors to discourage their young people from marrying outside the faith, and yet many of these same pastors will elsewhere insist that the believer is not under the requirements of the Old Testament law! When Paul was confronted with the wicked situation of incest within the church, his moral judgment on the matter was taken from the Old Testament prohibition (I Cot. 5:1, based on Lev. 18:8 and Deut. 22:30). Ask just about any evangelical pastor today whether incest is immoral from a biblical standpoint, and he will surely insist that it is — thereby enlisting the moral standards of the Old Testament, even if he proclaims elsewhere that they are repealed and invalid. Or ask him about homosexuality. When Paul delivered an apostolic judgment as to the immorality of homosexuality he specifically reiterated the Old Testament standard (Rom. 1:26-27, 32, from Lev. 18:22 and 20:13).

[ladiesbballcoach]

Any growth in the number of gays in Louisville is a result of people feeling more free to "come out". Seeing a gay person will not make anyone gay, but it may make someone feel more free to express their true inclinations. I have fears about the future, but gays have nothing to do with any of them. We are all free to express our religious views as we see fit, but I feel commanded to love my neighbor as myself. That would include a gay partner of a loved one.

 

So, every gay act you consider their true inclinations and not possibly a confused kid?

 

Not condoning their actions and not loving thy neighbor is nowhere near each other. I can not condone my neighbors actions and still love them. I do it with my kids about every week.

[HHSDad]

Any growth in the number of gays in Louisville is a result of people feeling more free to "come out". Seeing a gay person will not make anyone gay, but it may make someone feel more free to express their true inclinations. I have fears about the future, but gays have nothing to do with any of them. We are all free to express our religious views as we see fit, but I feel commanded to love my neighbor as myself. That would include a gay partner of a loved one.

What about children raised by gays? Do they have an increased probability of becoming gay?