USA To Use Foreign Aid To Promote Gay Rights

[aegsm76]

Originally Posted by jfrog

prohibiting what?

homosexual activity

[aegsm76]

Originally Posted by AncientPaths

Join us? Because THAT'S what's stopping people from turning gay. Oh, good grief. Sorry. This is paranoia at it's worst. The drumbeat is an equal acknowledgement issue. Plain and simple.

Wrong. I will venture to say that I have more contact with this lifestyle that almost anyone on here.
I have family members who are in it.
I have friends who are in it.
I spent an hour today with one of my employees who is in it.
By the way we were discussing how to help her to advance in her career.
I treat no one differently in my work, because of their personal lifestyle.
My view is not paranoia, it is realism.
I am in an executive position with a Fortune 15 company.
I know people who set up the political agenda in this country.
In my 25 years with this company I have seen the changes that I mentioned happen.
You seem to have no idea where this "rights" issue is headed.
Frankly I am amazed at how some of my totally non-religious co-workers are disturbed and upset at some of these issues and yet some of you are not.
Where this ultimately will wind up, is if you teach your children that homosexuality is wrong, they will be taken away from you.
We are already seeing this with parents who are racists having their children taken away, because they are racists.

That's where we are headed.
This issue is not about liberty, it is about putting Christian's and their beliefs into bondage.
Amazing.

[Titus2woman]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

homosexual activity

The only (homo) sexual activity that is still illegal anywhere in this country that I am aware of, is sodomy... Also illegal for heteros in those places... but proving it without a major invasion of privacy would be nearly impossible.

No amount of married homosexuals could make me desirous of homosexual sex, so just who will be answering the 'join us' cry?

Our country has always valued individual freedoms above much else. When societal norms lined up more closely with our personal beliefs it was more comfortable for us and less comfortable for homosexuals. Now there is a shift that makes us the uncomfortable ones.

To me this proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that protecting the rights of the minority has to be valued even when we are in the majority. Because one day that may shift and it will only be an ingrained sense of fairness that keeps us from losing our own liberty.

[jfrog]

Originally Posted by aegsm76

Wrong. I will venture to say that I have more contact with this lifestyle that almost anyone on here.
I have family members who are in it.
I have friends who are in it.
I spent an hour today with one of my employees who is in it.
By the way we were discussing how to help her to advance in her career.
I treat no one differently in my work, because of their personal lifestyle.
My view is not paranoia, it is realism.
I am in an executive position with a Fortune 15 company.
I know people who set up the political agenda in this country.
In my 25 years with this company I have seen the changes that I mentioned happen.
You seem to have no idea where this "rights" issue is headed.
Frankly I am amazed at how some of my totally non-religious co-workers are disturbed and upset at some of these issues and yet some of you are not.
Where this ultimately will wind up, is if you teach your children that homosexuality is wrong, they will be taken away from you.
We are already seeing this with parents who are racists having their children taken away, because they are racists.

That's where we are headed.
This issue is not about liberty, it is about putting Christian's and their beliefs into bondage.
Amazing.

first its theyll ask us to join them. then its theyll take our kids away... your fears seem a little irrational and all over the place. Just sayin...

[Hoovie]

Ok I won't be "joining the homosexuals, but I do understand if homosexual sex is accepted and even encouraged as a normal outlet during the Adolescent years, I do think more would join them. Of course I don't believe in gay gene at birth, but rather that homosexuality is a deviant choice - so that effects my thought pattern on the issue.

[Aquila]

Here's an interesting angle on this. What are some of your thoughts?

I know a former dean of the Anglican Accademy in Columbus Ohio. He's an Anglican priest and is VERY liberal. We were talking almost a year ago and he was explaining how proud he was of his congregation. He went on to talk about how his church voted to be open to gays as active members and was proud because no one made a serious issue over it. He doesn't believe the homosexual issue as we know it today is what the Bible was addressing. So he doesn't see it as sin. He has traveled abroad and even officiated gay unions. He believes gays can be Christians and since their church doesn't see it as sin, for him and his church gay marriage is an issue of religious liberty. He feels a fundamentalist interpretation is being forced on gay affirming churches who desire non-celibate members to marry, rather they be gay or straight.

In this context is this an issue of religious liberty?

[Hoovie]

Originally Posted by Aquila

Here's an interesting angle on this. What are some of your thoughts?

I know a former dean of the Anglican Accademy in Columbus Ohio. He's an Anglican priest and is VERY liberal. We were talking almost a year ago and he was explaining how proud he was of his congregation. He went on to talk about how his church voted to be open to gays as active members and was proud because no one made a serious issue over it. He doesn't believe the homosexual issue as we know it today is what the Bible was addressing. So he doesn't see it as sin. He has traveled abroad and even officiated gay unions. He believes gays can be Christians and since their church doesn't see it as sin, gay marriage is an issue of religious liberty. He feels a fundamentalist interpretation is being forced on gay affirming churches who desire non-celibate members to marry, rather they be gay or straight.


In this context is this an issue of religious liberty?

Oh absolutely! In the same way as Charles Manson might have yet another redefinition of religious liberty.

[Aquila]

Originally Posted by Hoovie

Oh absolutely! In the same way as Charles Manson might have yet another redefinition of religious liberty.

Lol

You're comparing gay couples to Charles Manson? lol

Most of the liberal gay couples I know that might marry are pacifistic, wimpy, bleeding heart liberals.

I believe that personal liberties are God given to all men. In my opinion, the Government should only prohibit something if it endangers the life, liberty, and/or property of another. Manson's notions of liberty would no doubt be prohibited.

Lol

[Jay]

I was following the news a few weeks back and I heard something that bothered me to the core. 'Homophobia based hate is now defined as fear, dislike, hate, or tolerance of homosexual behavior. To be tolerant of the homosexual lifestyle is not enough, but one must also affirm and endorse it.' How much longer will it be before they say that you are homophobic because you refuse to attend a gay pride parade and actively celebrate the lifestyle. And how much longer after that will it take before it is said that if you choose not to participate that you are homophobic. This slope is all down hill, and those who want to deny that this will ever occur had better research the statements made about this through the last 50 years of the gay rights movement. The bar is always moved.

[Titus2woman]

The views of the Anglican Priest have been espoused by the Unitarian Church forever and by many other 'religious' groups. While it may feel like an ever widening circle that accepts the homosexual without requiring change, this theology has existed for a very long time.

Inside and outside of the religious community there have always been homosexuals and society has always accepted them to a certain degree. Almost every person can tell you about gay uncle so and so even if it was not acknowledged that he was gay until after he was dead and buried. America had a brief (less than 200 year) period where homosexuals had to hide their behavior or risk job loss, loss of status in the community, and even possible physical danger. They were automatically assumed to be most morally degenerate in all areas i.e. natural pedophiles who would attack children of their same gender given any opportunity. Forced into isolation they were easy targets for what we today term hate crimes and often had no recourse even through the law as second class citizens. To avoid this persecution many married yet led secret homosexual lives. When discovered, entire families were destroyed. Others bunched up into 'gay communities' for safeties' sake and began the ever downward spiral into what we see today. Suicide rates were and are quite high among homosexuals who despite the term 'gay' are some of the unhappiest people I have ever known.

Today, while still a small percentage of the population, no more than in ancient Rome or Greece if we can believe history, they have sought change. They have asked for understanding and to be open about this lifestyle choice. They have asked not be be singularly hated by Christians and equated with pedophiles and mass murderers and abortionists as they even have been in this thread, as attempt is made to push every button . I AM FOR that. Nothing left in the dark can ever be brought into the light.

Having spent many years in an all girls school I have seen many people struggle with sexual identity. Many of the those girls who identified themselves as gay or bisexual in adolescence are now happily married women with families and some of them Christians. But if we are going to reach gay people with the Good News of Christ we can not push gayness back into the closet as a secret and especially shameful sin, somehow dirtier than any other sin. If we raise our young people to believe that purity is valued and marriage sacred we will do well. But if, God forbid, they stumble into fornication or homosexuality, let them have been taught that there IS a way back at the foot of the cross.