This a reply to a letter submitted by Misty who objected largely to my Billboard placed during the 2004 Presidential champagne. Her letter may be read at the end via this link:
To get directly to the issues of Homosexuality addressed in my response, use this link:
Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I had so many run-ins with free-speech terrorists from the democrat-school-of-religion, that it was practically a full time job to keep those signs standing and preaching the good word. They turned out to be exceptionally popular – from both sides of the isle. Your legitimate and heartfelt note was unfortunately buried by some unsolicited leftist spam. With the election won, I now I have a little bit of time.
Sounds like you went to the same “church” as one of several fellas the police hauled off in the paddi-wagon after messing with my sign. Ironically, the only spiteful, angry hateful folks I have encountered hailed from this new school of “democrat religion.” (Their words not mine) In any case, you asked for a response; so lets give it a whirl. I could be pithy or scorched earth, but lets try calm and reasoned 1st and see if we can find some unity. You covered a lot of territory with remarkably few words, so initially, I will give you a rather terse retort. You should appreciate, being a teacher, that each one of your sentences could easily generate an essay worth of response. If you seem at all reasonable, I’d be happy to help you understand these matters as God has given me to understand them in more detail. I gather you believe in some sort of God and an afterlife of man. That would be good to know for sure in establishing some area of common ground.
My son returned from a year in Iraq, and is still in the reserves, so on a personal level, I had a direct and immediate stake in this election. My son voted for Bush. We can explore his experiences later.
So what is this fear thing? In the future, kindly add at least a modicum of support before jumping to the next thought – I am not sure where to go? Was it the sign, “Military Loathes a Traitor, Kerry’ll Need To Draft” that scared you or are you all coked about the Gay thing? Help me out here teacher! I only had 2 large billboards and a dozen street signs. The street signs only lasted 24hrs on a good day and they address the communists parties Kerry endorsement, so if you saw them – count yourself lucky! Sneaking about? Pleeease, my signs have official city permits and I change the messages frequently and yes even in broad daylight. The drive by approbation far exceeded the occasional censure, which warmed my soul. Someone must have liked my “Bush, Solid faithful Dependable” sign as I saw a few crude reproductions in town. You gotta love that grass roots stuff. But Misty, really, the main body of folks skulking about in Issaquah were the Kerry crazies. Now, I know there are some instances on the other side, but all the major Kerry signs survived in Issaquah – unscathed the entire election, whereas keeping any Bush sign up – at all - was an all out battle; a battle we won in only a few strategic locations by untiring diligence.
My signs were quite popular because I was, finally, publicly saying what a majority of folks believed; thoughts previously censured from the public by the PC thought police.
21st century? Truth and right have not changed because of a calendar date. As a matter of fact, things are just about the same. Thousands of years ago, sexually perverted priests and followers of animals gods like Baal and Ashteroth hid in groves and worshiped animals, their own bodies in orgies and sacrificed their children for their perversions. Today, the likes of Kerry and his PETA sect worship their animals and sacrifice their children on the surgical alters behind hidden doors. 21st century? Thoroughly Modern Misty, some things don’t change much – some – not at all.
If you don’t ban murder, the tacit effect is to allow it. You can “say” anything. Kerry’s verbal gymnastics and flip-flopping are famous. All I care about from a man like Kerry, is what does he do. That’s why PETA gives the photo op-ing gun toting Kerry a complete pass. That is why the NRA gave Kerry a solid F rating – for his actions regardless of his words. Both sides know what his real affect is regardless of what he says to his goose-toting caddy while the cameras are running. I have 3 lines and not many more words to speak the truth. What Kerry does is to vote in a manner that enables the complete Homosexual agenda. Marriage is a synonym for Civil Unions. There is no practical difference and Kerry knows it. That’s the big lie. Similarly, Kerry voted against a ban on Partial Birth abortion. Every year that ban is not in effect, thousands of children are butchered instead of being adopted. That is the real and undeniable effect. You can say, technically, he did not vote for PBA, but real babies are dead any way you slice the language. Voting against the ban has the same tally of dead babies as voting for enabling the procedure. There is an old saying “A rose by any other name is still a rose” So stop pushing the lie. Search you own conscience and ask yourself why you were more concerned with my syntax than the message.
Additional laws and constitutional protections become mandatory when the tyrannical courts are abused by activists, who seek to overturn the popular will. Not one single state has voted to promote homosexual marriage/unions. A handful of judges, 1st in Mass., now in WA overrode state referendums, their legislatures votes and their governors signature to force homosexual marriage/unions on their peoples. Those activists, subsequently “married” in MA are now fanning out into other states with the purpose of using the courts in other states to achieve what the people of those other states have nonetheless forbidden.
They intend to use the full faith and credit clause found in Article IV of the Constitution, which says in pertinent part, "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other state;". This is why marriage and driver licenses are currently honored across all states. That is why if you marry 2 women in two different states, you can still be charged with bigamy.
That is why when Hawaii was considering extending marriage contracts to homosexuals, the federal government (not Kerry) passed the DOM(Act) to specifically exclude Homosexual unions/marriage from this requirement. Challenges to the DOMA vs Full Faith and Credit are already working their way up the courts which is exactly why the federal amendment has now been pushed. Everyone, even remotely familiar with this subject knows that the courts could with 1 stroke of their pens so order the implementation of the homosexual agenda. The only thing that would stop that is a constitutional amendment DOMA.
The irony that perhaps escaped you is that my sign actually said nothing disparaging about this subject. If you are for Homosexual “Marriage”/Unions, my sign simply pointed out that Kerry was your man. Hurrah! No? I use “” to in fairness point out that the word Marriage would be taking on a whole new context. That’s only fair – right? I am very big on fairness, honesty and reality. I don’t give a hoot for disingenuous verbal gymnastics that might be used to hide real intent.
My interest in that particular hot button of yours stems from the fact that my brother was prayed upon by homosexual pedophiles. He died from AIDs a few years back now. The last thing I want is for teachers to be preaching the “good news” of homosexually from your pulpits in the public schools. There is much evidence that homosexuality has a huge nurture component. To have public school teachers mainstreaming homosexuality to their captive congregation of grade schoolers will have a sorry deleterious effect (read more homosexuality)
What makes you think I even care about your biblical interpretation? You can slice this melon any way you want. Would you prefer to look at this from a moral relativistic point of view? That’s where you and I arbitrarily agree on what constitutes a good thing vs. a bad thing. This could get real interesting if I declare that you and I are just a collection of electrical-chemical reactions; rocks, as it were, rolling down the hill which eventually stop. Isn’t that the religion many, perhaps most, public teachers preach? So, if you stop that chemical reaction, is that called ‘so-what’ or is that murder or perhaps abortion? Leave God out of the discussion and we get to contend with real tough questions indeed.
Rather, did you want to debate this on a basis of your own reasoning of scripture? Which basis. To arm wrestle scriptures, shall I be a Baptist, or a Methodist? Perhaps I should argue from the writings of the Catholics or the Mormons. Perhaps you would like to set the parameters? I would set one parameter. Don’t bore me nor waste my time with stupid accusations about what the Bible is supposed to say. Quote it well or don’t quote it at all. I am not susceptible to sound bytes and any attempts at outright deception will put an end to any discussion.
That said, let me remind you that the writ speaks of God commanding Abraham, not everyone to sacrifice. The statute about rape likely refers to statutory rape – thus the basis for the ol shotgun wedding. “bisexuality was accepted” By who? Somehow, between the statements in the Old Testament to stone such and the statements in the New Testament about such sinners not inheriting heaven, I must have missed something really BIG like that.
Was your point about the translations to infer, with no rhetoric, that the holy writ might have been trustworthy at one point, but that it is so corrupted that it should only be casually regarded compared to your own clearly superior plane of reference? Some have argued that it fails more from omission than error. I am aware of some disputed passages, but I have not heard it argued that significant, let alone, wholesale rejection was warranted based on bad translation. If you are going to charge, you had best be prepared to defend the ground.
Christian theology clearly teaches that Jesus was crucified to pay for the sins of the world. He himself said that that was why he came into the world and that the poor would always be amongst us. I believe the Bible is painfully clear on that point. There has to be a thousand Christian variants that agree on this point. Jesus was no 60s peace-nic. No, not with his whipping the money changers and statements like “ I have not come to bring peace, but a sword!” Jesus showed mercy to the adulteress and said, “Neither do I condemn thee,” the 60s perverts like to quickly close their dusty Bible lest they wince from His immediate injunction, “Go and SIN no more!” Get it - SIN and then that other part NO MORE. If God himself came here just to fix the plight of the poor, he sure botched the job.
You say I spread hate. HATE FEAR?? Really, Where? What is the evidence? Does the truth make you afraid? Does my public declaration make you hate me? Is it just possible that you view me and for that reason the whole world through the prism of your own feelings and responses?
What I hate, is the sin, not the sinner; Tell you what, this is what a google search found from your precious Bible:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”
Enough Bible thumping? God is said to love His children, but no one argues that God loves or tolerates sin. He does express a special anger for teaching others to sin. If you want to use the Bible as your datum for good and evil, you should be very wary as you are now calling good what the Bible called evil. You are calling beautiful what used to be called lothsome.
One last quote from old dusty: Isa. 5: 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
I have spent the better part of my life improving the lot of man. I believe based on both religion, personal experience (1 dead brother), and statistical and historical evidence that homosexuality and extra-marital sex is respectively wrong, bad, and destructive to individuals and whole societies (Africa, Roman Empire). So that makes me immoral? What is immoral is that 1/3 of parts of Africa are dieing of STDs and some folks want to mainstream this here. What is immoral is that acceptance of promiscuity, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality which are destroying the family here and throughout the world. Misty, there is no reason to believe that giving societies formal stamp of approval to another perversion is going to improve the situation any more than condoms and abortion reduced pre-marital sex.
You say God is not fear; yet the Bible is so full of “Fear God and live” scriptures that generations of preachers have had no trouble finding fodder for their fire and brimstone sermons. Where have you been? It’s a carrot and stick approach – Kind of like gold stars and bad grades. Amazing what you can fetch on the net. Here is an interesting piece:
http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/May97/editorial.html
A law that prohibits drunk driving does not deny that a person is a drunk nor does it say anything about the drunk’s maleness or femaleness. The law is directed to a behavior. I might have a real hankering to mate with 3 females. Yes, that’s it. I feel I was born that way. If that hankering extended to love and care, I might even want to establish a formal relationship with them. In the free open hedonistic society that we live in, I could do that. I could even set up living wills, partnerships, joint housing, but society, might - just might make the judgment call that my polygamist behavior is not in societies best long term interest. In other words, they need not grease the skids for such an arrangement. Society might make the judgment call that my “arrangement” is best not promoted by official sanction and stamp of approval. There is a big difference between tolerance and promotion. Or try this one. Some argue that 10% of the population has a genetic propensity to alcoholism. Nevertheless, society has made a judgment call that alcoholism is bad for me and bad for society and makes laws that while not prohibiting it, at least do not encourage this behavior.
The biggest problem the homosexual activists have is that they will not rest until their perversion (yes my word) is accepted endorsed, promoted and embraced by every last person on the planet. THEY will not leave US alone. I watched a half dozen new movies recently – innocent topics, yet homosexuality was injected completely gratuiticly (ie nothing to do with the plot) in every last movie. I am sick and tired of their agenda being shoved in my face at every turn. They are constantly trying to get their message into the public schools. Even private organizations like Catholic charities and the Boy Scouts are being sued left and right by the homosexuals. Freedom of association means nothing compared to their agenda.
The Right – Slavery; Goodness Misty – are you ignorant that it was the southern democrats who were supporting slavery. It took a significant majority of conservative republicans to pass the civil rights act. Come on you knew that - surely. You are a teacher, right? educated, college – and all that? Is this some kind of a con to waste my afternoon?
President Bush doesn’t know who I am, but his actions align well with his words that he cares about what kind of America my kids will grow up in. That’s why I care about George Bush. If a decent majority of Americans chose George Bush even though Moore, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSN and 80 some odd percent of newsprint were constantly pushing for his opponent, can you imaging how many of our people would choose righteously (my definition) if all the news from all sources were actually fair and balanced? I tell you, I am really UP about our people. There must be a huge amount of goodness in the people for things to stack up like they did. Frankly, I’m stoked! I even have faith that someone that writes as passionately as you did can perhaps see another viewpoint. That would be a good start. I am convinced that given the same knowledge, most folks will come to the same right conclusions.
If you wish to continue this dialog, kindly focus your attention on only a few items and I’d be happy to explore them in better real detail with you.
Sincerely,
Brother Steve
>To: peoplesvoice@hotmail.com
>Subject: question
>Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 10:27:07 EST
>
>Good morning. My name is Misty and I am a concerned citizen, a patriotic
>citizen who has a dear friend in Iraq and lived in Washington DC on Sept. 11. I am
>25, a teacher and a mom and a volunteer in our community. And I must say, I
>have been disgusted to say the least by your efforts to put fear in my
>community with your facitious signs lining the streets of Issaquah. You sneak in and
>change the signs thinking that you are effecting voters but to say the truth,
>your signs have led myself and many others to see how ridiculous the right can
>be. This is the 21st century, the time of a new age. Get over your false
>accusations, such as, Kerry voted for "homosexual" marriage. Not true. Kerry voted
>AGAINST the ban on gay marriage. He has stated over and over he is against gay
>marriage. If you understood the law you would know that each state currently
>has the right to accept or not accept any marriage license from another state.
>There is no need for a ban. That is a right wing religious effort, however sir
>or mam, there is seperation of church and state. You cannot force your
>religious beliefs on everyone. And if you knew the bible at all you know that in
>Leviticus, the section that says man shall not lie with man also states that you
>should sacrifice your 1st born son and that if a man rapes a woman and is
>caught he must marry her. Do you belive that too? You wold also know that in the
>time of Jesus, bisexuality was accepted, especially among adult men. You would
>know that the bible has been translated over 20 times and that Jesus was a
>liberal man, crucified for standing against the majority of his time and up for
>the poor, the sick and the minority. You spread hate to people like that. Your
>work is not Gods work. God is not fear. God is beautiful love. Your work is
>immoral. I ask that you answer this, how do you form your conscience? Has a law
>ever denied who you are? If the right still had their way, slavery would still
>be legal. I do hope that you understand that George Bush doesnt care about
>you. He is using you for your vote so that he can make money. Oldest trick in
>the book. Although I respect the fact that you are obviously passionate, I am
>shocked at your efforts and ashamed of my neighborhood. Thank you for your time.
>God Bless,
>Misty
Top of the Document
Actually sent:
Dear Misty,
Sorry I took so long to get back to you. I had so many run-ins with free-speech terrorists from the democrat-school-of-religion, that it was practically a full time job to keep those signs standing and preaching the good word. They turned out to be exceptionally popular – from both sides of the isle. Your legitimate and heartfelt note was unfortunately buried by some unsolicited leftist-Spam. With the election won, I now have a little bit of time. Your note was written in Kerry's style blast and run, blast and run. So like Bush said in his debate - "Boy, where to begin?" Even a terse response to your style of writing will be necessarily longer. As I am no so interested in banter, but in imparting real understanding.
Sounds like you went to the same “church” as one of several fellows the police hauled off in the paddy wagon after messing with my sign. Ironically, the only spiteful, angry hateful folks I have encountered hailed from this new school of “democrat religion.” (Their words not mine) In any case, you asked for a response; so lets give it a whirl. I could be pithy or scorched earth but lets try calm and reasoned 1st and see if we can find some unity. You covered a lot of territory with remarkably few words, so initially, I will give you a rather terse retort. You should appreciate, being a teacher, that each one of your sentences could easily generate an essay worth of response. If you seem at all reasonable, I’d be happy to help you understand these matters as God has given me to understand them in more detail. I gather you believe in some sort of God and an afterlife of man. That would be good to know for sure in establishing some area of common ground.
My son returned from a year in Iraq, and is still in the reserves, so on a personal level, I had a direct and immediate stake in this election. My son voted for Bush. We can explore his experiences later.
So what is this fear thing? In the future, kindly add at least a modicum of support before jumping to the next thought – I am not sure where to go? Was it the sign, “Military Loathes a Traitor, Kerry’ll Need To Draft” that scared you or are you all coked about the Gay thing? Help me out here teacher! I only had 2 large billboards and a dozen street signs. The street signs only lasted 24hrs on a good day and they address the communists parties Kerry endorsement, so if you saw them – count yourself lucky!
Sneaking about? Pleeease, my signs have official city permits and I change the messages frequently and yes even in broad daylight. The drive-by approbation far exceeded the occasional censure, which warmed my soul. Someone must have liked my “Bush, Solid faithful Dependable” sign as I saw a few crude reproductions in town. You gotta love that grass roots stuff. But Misty, really, the main body of folks skulking about in Issaquah were the Kerry fanatics. Now, I know there are some instances on the other side, but all the major Kerry signs survived in Issaquah – unscathed the entire election, whereas keeping any Bush sign up – at all - was an all out battle; a battle we won in only a few strategic locations by untiring diligence.
My signs were quite popular because I was, finally, publicly saying what a majority of folks believed; thoughts previously censured from the public by the PC thought police.
21st century? Truth and right have not changed because of a calendar date. As a matter of fact, things are just about the same. Thousands of years ago, sexually perverted priests and followers of animals gods like Baal and Ashteroth hid in groves and worshiped animals, their own bodies in orgies and sacrificed their children for their perversions. Today, the likes of Kerry and his PETA sect worship their animals and sacrifice their children on the surgical alters behind hidden doors. 21st century? Thoroughly Modern Misty, some things don’t change much – some – not at all.
Lets cut to the chase, Misty. If you don’t ban murder, the tacit effect is to allow it. You can “say” anything. Kerry’s verbal gymnastics and flip-flopping are famous. All I care about from a man like Kerry, is what does he do. That’s why PETA gives the photo op-ing gun toting Kerry a complete pass. That is why the NRA gave Kerry a solid F rating – for his actions regardless of his words. Both sides know what his real affect is regardless of what he says to his goose-toting caddy while the cameras are running.
I have 3 lines and not many more words to speak the truth. What Kerry does is to vote in a manner that enables the complete Homosexual agenda. Marriage is a synonym for Civil Unions. There is no practical difference and Kerry knows it. That’s the big lie. Similarly, Kerry voted against a ban on Partial Birth abortion. Every year that ban is not in effect, thousands of children are butchered instead of being adopted. That is the real and undeniable effect. You can say, technically, he did not vote for PBA, but real babies are dead any way you slice the language. Voting against the ban has the same tally of dead babies as voting for enabling the procedure. There is an old saying “A rose by any other name is still a rose” So stop pushing the lie. Search your own conscience and ask yourself why you were more concerned with my syntax than the message.
Additional laws and constitutional protections become mandatory when the tyrannical courts are abused by activists who seek to overturn the popular will. Not one single state has voted to promote homosexual marriage/unions. A handful of judges, 1st in Mass., now in WA overrode state referendums, their legislatures votes and their governors signature to force homosexual marriage/unions on their peoples. Those activists, subsequently “married” in MA are now fanning out into other states with the purpose of using the courts in other states to achieve what the people of those other states have nonetheless forbidden.
They intend to use the full faith and credit clause found in Article IV of the Constitution, which says in pertinent part, "Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other state;". This is why marriage and driver licenses are currently honored across all states. That is why if you marry 2 women in two different states, you can still be charged with bigamy.
That is why when Hawaii was considering extending marriage contracts to homosexuals, the federal government (not Kerry) passed the DOM(Act) to specifically exclude Homosexual unions/marriage from this requirement. Challenges to the DOMA vs Full Faith and Credit clause are already working their way up the courts which is exactly why the federal constitutional amendment has now been pushed. Everyone, even remotely familiar with this subject knows that the courts could with 1 stroke of their pens so order the implementation of the homosexual agenda. The only thing that would stop that is a constitutional amendment - DOMA.
The irony that perhaps escaped you is that my sign actually said nothing disparaging about this subject. If you are for Homosexual “Marriage”/Unions, my sign simply pointed out that Kerry was your man. Hurrah! No? I use “” to in fairness point out that the word Marriage would be taking on a whole new context. That’s only fair – right? I am very big on fairness, honesty and reality. I don’t give a hoot for disingenuous verbal gymnastics that might be used to hide real intent.
My interest in that particular hot button of yours stems from the fact that my brother was prayed upon by homosexual pedophiles. He died from AIDs a few years back now. The last thing I want is for teachers to be preaching the “good news” of homosexually from your pulpits in the public schools. There is much evidence that homosexuality has a huge nurture component. To have public school teachers mainstreaming homosexuality to their captive congregation of grade schoolers will have a sorry deleterious effect (read more homosexuality)
What makes you think I even care about your biblical interpretation? You can slice this melon any way you want. Would you prefer to look at this from a moral relativistic point of view? That’s where you and I arbitrarily agree on what constitutes a good thing vs. a bad thing. This could get real interesting if I declare that you and I are just a collection of electrical-chemical reactions; rocks, as it were, rolling down the hill which eventually stop. Isn’t that the religion many, perhaps most, public teachers preach? So, if you stop that chemical reaction, is that called ‘so-what’ or is that murder or perhaps abortion? Leave God out of the discussion and we get to contend with real tough questions indeed.
Rather, did you want to debate this on a basis of your own reasoning of scripture? Which basis. To arm wrestle scriptures, shall I be a Baptist, or a Methodist? Perhaps I should argue from the writings of the Catholics or the Mormons. Perhaps you would like to set the parameters? I would set one parameter. Don’t bore me nor waste my time with stupid accusations about what the Bible is supposed to say. Quote it well or don’t quote it at all. I am not susceptible to sound bytes and any attempts at outright deception will put an end to any discussion.
That said, let me remind you that the writ speaks of God commanding Abraham, not everyone to sacrifice. The statute about rape likely refers to statutory rape – thus the basis for the ol shotgun wedding. “bisexuality was accepted” By who? Somehow, between the statements in the Old Testament to stone such and the statements in the New Testament about such sinners not inheriting heaven, I must have missed something really BIG like that.
Was your point about the translations to infer, with no rhetoric, that the holy writ might have been trustworthy at one point, but that it is so corrupted that it should only be casually regarded compared to your own clearly superior plane of reference? Some have argued that it fails more from omission than error. I am aware of some disputed passages, but I have not heard it argued that significant, let alone, wholesale rejection was warranted based on bad translation. If you are going to charge, you had best be prepared to defend the ground.
Christian theology clearly teaches that Jesus was crucified to pay for the sins of the world. He himself said that that was why he came into the world and that the poor would always be amongst us. I believe the Bible is painfully clear on that point. There has to be a thousand Christian variants that agree on this point. Jesus was no 60s peace-nic. No, not with his whipping the money changers and statements like “ I have not come to bring peace, but a sword!” Jesus showed mercy to the adulteress and said, “Neither do I condemn thee,” the 60s perverts like to quickly close their dusty Bible lest they wince from His immediate injunction, “Go and SIN no more!” Get it - SIN and then that other part NO MORE. If God himself came here just to fix the plight of the poor, he sure botched the job.
You say I spread hate. HATE FEAR?? Really, Where? What is the evidence? Does the truth make you afraid? Does my public declaration make you hate me? Is it just possible that you view me and for that reason the whole world through the prism of your own feelings and responses?
What I hate, is the sin, not the sinner; Tell you what, this is what a google search found from your precious Bible:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.”
“Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God”
Enough Bible thumping? God is said to love His children, but no one argues that God loves or tolerates sin. He does express a special anger for teaching others to sin. If you want to use the Bible as your datum for good and evil, you should be very wary as you are now calling good what the Bible called evil. You are calling beautiful what used to be called lothsome.
One last quote from old dusty: Isa. 5: 20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
I have spent the better part of my life improving the lot of man. I believe based on both religion, personal experience (1 dead brother), and statistical and historical evidence that homosexuality and extra-marital sex is respectively wrong, bad, and destructive to individuals and whole societies (Africa, Roman Empire). So that makes me immoral? What is immoral is that 1/3 of parts of Africa are dieing of STDs and some folks want to mainstream this here. What is immoral is that acceptance of promiscuity, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality are destroying the family here and throughout the world. Misty, there is no reason to believe that giving societies formal stamp of approval to another perversion is going to improve the situation any more than condoms and abortion reduced pre-marital sex.
You say God is not fear; yet the Bible is so full of “Fear God and live” scriptures that generations of preachers have had no trouble finding fodder for their fire and brimstone sermons. Where have you been? It’s a carrot and stick approach – Kind of like gold stars and bad grades. Amazing what you can fetch on the net. Here is an interesting piece:
http://www.catholic.net/rcc/Periodicals/Homiletic/May97/editorial.html
A law that prohibits drunk driving does not deny that a person is a drunk nor does it say anything about the drunk’s maleness or femaleness. The law is directed to a behavior. I might have a real hankering to mate with 3 females. Yes, that’s it. I fel I was born that way. If that hankering extended to love and care, I might even want to establish a formal relationship with them. In the free open hedonistic society that we live in, I could do that. I could even set up living wills, partnerships, joint housing, but society, might - just might make the judgment call that my polygamist behavior is not in societies best long term interest. In other words, they need not grease the skids for such an arrangement. Society might make the judgment call that my “arrangement” is best not promoted by official sanction and stamp of approval. There is a big difference between tolerance and promotion. Or try this one. Some argue that 10% of the population has a genetic propensity to alcoholism. Nevertheless, society has made a judgment call that alcoholism is bad for me and bad for society and makes laws that while not prohibiting it, at least do not encourage this behavior.
The biggest problem the homosexual activists have is that they will not rest until their perversion (yes my word) is accepted endorsed, promoted and embraced by every last person on the planet. THEY will not leave US alone. I watched a half dozen new movies recently – innocent topics, yet homosexuality was injected completely gratuiticly (ie nothing to do with the plot) in every last movie. I am sick and tired of their agenda being shoved in my face at every turn. They are constantly trying to get their message into the public schools. Even private organizations like Catholic charities and the Boy Scouts are being sued left and right by the homosexuals. Freedom of association means nothing compared to their agenda.
The Right – Slavery; Goodness Misty – are you ignorant that it was the southern Democrats who were largely supporting slavery. It took a significant majority of conservative Republicans to pass the civil rights act. Come on you knew that - surely. You are a teacher, right? educated, college – and all that? Is this some kind of a con to waste my afternoon?
President Bush doesn’t know who I am, but his actions align well with his words that he cares about what kind of America my kids will grow up in. That’s why I care about George Bush. If a decent majority of Americans chose George Bush even though Moore, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSN and 80 some odd percent of newsprint were constantly pushing for his opponent, can you imaging how many of our people would choose righteously (my definition) if all the news from all sources were actually fair and balanced? I tell you, I am really UP about our people. There must be a huge amount of goodness in the people for things to stack up like they did. Frankly, I’m stoked! I even have faith that someone that writes as passionately as you did can perhaps see another viewpoint. That would be a good start. I am convinced that given the same knowledge, most folks will come to the same right conclusions.
If you wish to continue this dialog, kindly focus your attention on only a few items and I’d be happy to explore them in better real detail with you.
Sincerely,
Brother Steve
>From: Isisoluna@aol.com
>To: peoplesvoice@hotmail.com
>Subject: question
>Date: Mon, 1 Nov 2004 10:27:07 EST
>
>Good morning. My name is Misty and I am a concerned citizen, a patriotic
>citizen who has a dear friend in Iraq and lived in Washington DC on Sept. 11. I am
>25, a teacher and a mom and a volunteer in our community. And I must say, I
>have been disgusted to say the least by your efforts to put fear in my
>community with your facitious signs lining the streets of Issaquah. You sneak in and
>change the signs thinking that you are effecting voters but to say the truth,
>your signs have led myself and many others to see how ridiculous the right can
>be. This is the 21st century, the time of a new age. Get over your false
>accusations, such as, Kerry voted for "homosexual" marriage. Not true. Kerry voted
>AGAINST the ban on gay marriage.He has stated over and over he is against gay
>marriage. If you understood the law you would know that each state currently
>has the right to accept or not accept any marriage license from another state.
>There is no need for a ban. That is a right wing religious effort, however sir
>or mam, there is seperation of church and state. You cannot force your
>religious beliefs on everyone. And if you knew the bible at all you know that in
>Leviticus, the section that says man shall not lie with man also states that you
>should sacrifice your 1st born son and that if a man rapes a woman and is
>caught he must marry her. Do you belive that too? You wold also know that in the
>time of Jesus, bisexuality was accepted, especially among adult men. You would
>know that the bible has been translated over 20 times and that Jesus was a
>liberal man, crucified for standing against the majority of his time and up for
>the poor, the sick and the minority. You spread hate to people like that. Your
>work is not Gods work. God is not fear. God is beautiful love. Your work is
>immoral. I ask that you answer this, how do you form your conscience? Has a law
>ever denied who you are? If the right still had their way, slavery would still
>be legal. I do hope that you understand that George Bush doesnt care about
>you. He is using you for your vote so that he can make money. Oldest trick in
>the book. Although I respect the fact that you are obviously passionate, I am
>shocked at your efforts and ashamed of my neighborhood. Thank you for your time.
>God Bless,
>Misty