Showing posts with label God and the Gays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God and the Gays. Show all posts

Thursday, April 30, 2009

God and Gays



God and the Gays - To Be or Not to Be (Part 1)
Homosexuality.... Is it a matter of choice? Are some born that way? And if so, then how could God condemn it? Or does He? Does it make a difference?

God and the Gays - All That Glitters Isn't Gold (Part 2)
The gay bar scene or high risk promiscuous sex... Is it so happy-go-lucky? Something so sweet and wonderful we'd "wish you were here?" Or is it actually something you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy?

God and the Gays - Once Gay, Always Gay? (Part 3)
Once gay always gay? How about once an adulterer always an adulterer? Better yet, once a sinner always a sinner (1 Cor. 6:11; 1 John 1:9)? WHO says so?

God and the Gays - Of Vice and Men (Part 4)
Everyone - gay or straight - has the "fire" within (1 Cor. 7:9). Some burn more than others, but it's still there. God understands proper sexual desire and simply commands that we develop His character to control and channel it. He knows our human need to love and be loved, to touch and feel, to give of ourselves totally in a reciprocal relationship.

God and the Gays - A Time to Heal (Part 5)
God calls people from all walks of life and performs a miracle in their minds: they're offered a fresh perspective, given a new outlook, and enabled to try a different approach (Philip. 2:5). Their former "records" aren't held against them and they're started out with a new attitude and identity (2 Cor. 5:17).

God and the Gays - Make Up Your Mind (Part 6)
We can make things easier or more difficult for ourselves. Either you're totally convinced God's way is right and worth living, or you're not sure and continually ride the fence and risk rupture; tormenting yourself and sending out conflicting signals and confusing signs (Matt. 6:24; 7:16).
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Saturday, February 14, 2009

Silencing Christians One Hour Special



God and the Gays - To Be or Not to Be (Part 1)
Homosexuality.... Is it a matter of choice? Are some born that way? And if so, then how could God condemn it? Or does He? Does it make a difference?

God and the Gays - All That Glitters Isn't Gold (Part 2)
The gay bar scene or high risk promiscuous sex... Is it so happy-go-lucky? Something so sweet and wonderful we'd "wish you were here?" Or is it actually something you wouldn't wish upon your worst enemy?

God and the Gays - Once Gay, Always Gay? (Part 3)
Once gay always gay? How about once an adulterer always an adulterer? Better yet, once a sinner always a sinner (1 Cor. 6:11; 1 John 1:9)? WHO says so?

God and the Gays - Of Vice and Men (Part 4)
Everyone - gay or straight - has the "fire" within (1 Cor. 7:9). Some burn more than others, but it's still there. God understands proper sexual desire and simply commands that we develop His character to control and channel it. He knows our human need to love and be loved, to touch and feel, to give of ourselves totally in a reciprocal relationship.

God and the Gays - A Time to Heal (Part 5)
God calls people from all walks of life and performs a miracle in their minds: they're offered a fresh perspective, given a new outlook, and enabled to try a different approach (Philip. 2:5). Their former "records" aren't held against them and they're started out with a new attitude and identity (2 Cor. 5:17).

God and the Gays - Make Up Your Mind (Part 6)
We can make things easier or more difficult for ourselves. Either you're totally convinced God's way is right and worth living, or you're not sure and continually ride the fence and risk rupture; tormenting yourself and sending out conflicting signals and confusing signs (Matt. 6:24; 7:16).
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Friday, October 12, 2007

Brokeback Mountain Blues

Brokeback Mountain Blues

I wanted to see it, but I didn't want to see it. I'm talking about the "gay cowboy" movie called Brokeback Mountain (even though I read Jake Gyllenhaal, one of the two major actors - "Jack Twist," wants it to mean much more than that to its audience).

I didn't want to see Brokeback Mountain because I felt it could be considered some type of tacit approval of two men "falling in love," which goes against my Christian grain and biblical beliefs, but I wanted to see it because I am humanly "gay all the way." However, I am not a practicing homosexual (some would say I'm a professional one!), sober and celibate by choice, so help me God, because of deep spiritual convictions.

I went and ran errands with a gay friend (who knows my beliefs and knew me wild and now knows me tame), visiting his "lover" in the Bowling Green, Ohio jail where he's doing ten days for a drunk driving, donated an autographed copy of my book Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall to the main library in downtown Bowling Green (since I was born there 46 years ago, but never lived there), we picked up some fast food and visited my friend's mother where we ate and then he asked if I wanted to see Brokeback Mountain that would be showing at Franklin Park Mall (now called Southfield or something since the Brits took it over) in Toledo shortly, so I said yes and we rushed to get there and made it -- ten minutes late. He had seen it a week earlier up in Michigan with some gay and lesbian friends, thinking it wouldn't be shown around here -- wrong!

Immediately you have to stand in awe (or sit and watch) the scenery that is most spectacular and moving, especially as the sheep are being herded and moving on the big screen in front of you like you could reach out and pet one, and the mountains are majestic aspiring to reach Heaven with their snow-capped tops and trimmed with forests here and there, evergreens, and of course I couldn't help but think of the irony of nature playing such a prominent role in this film that the Apostle Paul would say is against nature....

I was surprised to see so many older folks in the audience. I thought they would all be set in their ways (I'm not saying that's wrong in some ways), traditional, opposed to such a real or imagined threat to "family values." Maybe they just wanted to watch a movie that looked interesting or they're also jaded, or desensitized to the seriousness of sin like too many, or recognized that it could provoke discussion or a greater understanding (without necessarily approving of it) of this whole issue of homosexuality.

I thought the first sex scene was rather abrupt, nothing really leading up to it, no mating game or cruising or furtive glances or hints of anything out of the ordinary. Must have all been buried underneath all that butch (masculine) appearance, simmering somewhere, and the fuel on the fire was a tad too much liquor, true to life. Alcohol can strip away any inhibitions some might have or offer an excuse later to help cover your butt (which is why I am sober and celibate by the grace of God). The movie does help blow the stereotype that all homosexuals are limp-wristed, sissy faggots - but didn't Rock Hudson already prove that? Among others.

The whole idea (or unwholesome idea) of two men on a mountain, far away from rules and regulations and norms, reminded me of a passage within a little booklet I wrote years ago (God and the Gays: What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality) to address many of the issues Brokeback Mountain broached: about how some men who are basically "straight" (heterosexual) will engage in homosexual acts while in prison or a monastery, but will quickly revert to their preferred heterosexual passion as soon as possible and pretend nothing ever happened.

In BM, which we called “Bareback Mountain” among ourselves (no “safe sex” practiced in it among the men or women involved since it was set in the sixties), the fellows went their separate ways initially and got married and thereby proved they were hybrids - bisexuals - since they could obviously get sexually stimulated by men and women. A curiosity to both heterosexuals and homosexuals. But the first chance they had to get back together, in every way, they jumped at it like a raging bull let out of his cage. "Free at last, free at last!"

I've watched Oprah have men on her program who have been married for years, with children, who have suddenly "discovered" they're gay, and in "finding" themselves - isn't that just interestin'? - lose their wife and children. What about the commitment they made before both God and man? I don't care if you're gay or straight, if you make a vow you should keep it! Why make victims of the truly innocent wife and children who didn't ask for it? Of course some will say they're all victims, and that's true to an extent, but even if someone has "feelings" they should control them or nip wrong thoughts in the bud -- not permit them to take root and grow.

Why do some find it fascinating for a man to cheat on his wife with another man, but would stone someone who was going through his "midlife crisis" sleeping around with younger women to prove some point to himself? It's not that the thoughts aren't there, it is possible to lust after your neighbor's wife or husband (or both), but you're supposed to rein in such maverick thoughts and not let them run roughshod over your life and marriage!

Of course two men can fall in love, or a married man and woman can fall in love with someone other than their spouse, but you're not supposed to set yourself up for a fall, you're not supposed to let yourself flirt with forbidden love, you're supposed to control the thoughts rather than let them control you (Genesis 4:7).

Brokeback Mountain forcibly brings all these tumultuous thoughts, tormenting conflicts of interest and personal struggles to the surface, surging like lava from a volcano, which I'm now wrestling with and pouring out for others to consider.

We can feel hopeless and all too human or we can transcend human relationships, overcoming sin rather than being overcome by it, by going up to the Mountain, following the path paved by the Suffering Servant (Isaiah 53), who gave His back to be beaten for us to break the power of sin over us, by whose stripes you are healed, who bears our heartaches, sorrow and sin; by going up to Mount Zion and "to the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels..." (Hebrews 12:22).

Instead of wrong desires that only lead to self-destruction, please let us yearn to return to Zion, time and again.

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

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Straight Talk about David and Jonathan

Straight Talk about David and Jonathan

A little background information: I am a forgiven Christian who formerly lived a very promiscuous homosexual lifestyle, and due to the grace of God and religious convictions I'm now sober and celibate.

Recently I was engaged in a strong disagreement with a militant homosexual (not all homosexuals are militant) who was twisting (to his own destruction) the perfect example of pure male bonding between David and Jonathan.

May the following debate offer some insight into that biblical account. I quote him and then respond and want it to be known that I truly wish him all the best in this life and the next:

Quote: Look again at the story of David and Jonathan. What you have here is clearly two gay men

Because you're perverted, you immediately see them as perverted like you. They represent the best in male bonding that is pure and without sin and without sex.

Quote: ...who are described by the Bible, itself, as having "entered into a covenant" under God, "between each other's seed"

BIG CLUE right there! They both were heterosexual and were married and had children/seed, that Jonathan, knowing God had decreed for David to become king, hoped the best for his otherwise rival seed/descendants to be spared and dealt with as lovingly as David and Jonathan, continuing their proper love -- NOT SEX!

Quote: ...and against one of the young men's father's wishes, who cursed the other young man, saying his son chose him "to the confusion of his mother's nakedness."

Read it in context. As far as confused Saul was concerned, Jonathan was undermining his own family's dynasty for David's House. That's why it speaks of his mother's nakedness, NOT Jonathan or David's!

Quote: Upon the death of one of them, the survivor exclaims that their love was so great, it "surpassed the love of women."

Go watch My Fair Lady and understand the question, "Why can't a woman be more like a man?" wasn't a homosexual question. Men, like women, have an understanding amongst ourselves that can transcend sexual love.

Quote: That ain't platonic love. That ain't two best friends. That ain't heterosexual male behavior

THREE STRIKES YOU'RE OUT!

You now know the plain truth and you can thank God and let it set you free from your delusions, your misunderstanding, or you can revert to your perverted traditional darkness and get worse (John 3:19). I encourage you to see it in this new and proper LIGHT and reject Satan's queer ideas about perfectly straight men.

For more information, click on God and the Gays: What the Bible Really Says About Homosexuality

David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.

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Friday, October 5, 2007

Islamic Bigotry: The Slaughter of 4,000 Gays

Robert Spencer is a scholar of Islamic history, theology, and law and the director of Jihad Watch. He is the author of seven books, eight monographs, and hundreds of articles about jihad and Islamic terrorism, including the New York Times Bestsellers The Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam (and the Crusades) and The Truth About Muhammad. His latest book is Religion of Peace?.

I understand the point of Robert Spencer's article exposing hypocrisy among the "gay community" for not speaking out against Muslim dictatorships that severely punish homosexual acts, and it's true, but it's also somewhat hypocritical for Jews and Christians to condemn the Muslims for taking the sin of practicing homosexuality seriously when the Bible itself commands the death penalty for the same infraction in an ideal family/society/country taught right from wrong from birth, based upon the Law of Moses tempered by the Sermon on the Mount.
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Monday, July 23, 2007

Celibate Gays for the Kingdom

Having been a member of the Sabbath-keeping Church of God since 1979, I never knew any brethren who were striving to overcome homosexual temptations and never saw any article or booklet address the issue from real life experience. That's why I wrote "God and the Gays" and other articles.

May God bless you to glean from my labor of love and share what you wish:

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