Burnishing Bigotry - 3rd edition

Intermission #03 … Common Claims Clarified
Scaughdt: Well, once again, this thread has veered sharply away from the main point at which
it began. This isn't a bad thing, of course, as I am thoroughly enjoying discussing the
fundamental nature of Christian salvation (and non-Christian damnation) with Lucy & Dan &
others herein. AND YET despite my enjoyment therewith, this is not what this conversation was
originally about. This discussion was originally about the place of homosexuals in the Christian
Kingdom – indeed, essentially whether homosexuals have any place therein at all … And so, to
help get us ―back on track‖ (and to help those of you just joining in to get up to speed), I will once
again provide a general summation of this thread – a review of where we have been, and a
reminder of where we stand to date …
Essentially, this thread began with Bart posting a picture of a smiling (clearly nonfornicating)
gay couple. It was mentioned that one of them (Oliver Clyde Allen) happens to be an
ordained minister in a Christian church, and the question was then posed whether any of us
would ever go hear him preach the Word of God. Of course I immediately said that YES, I
most certainly would, while Bart & Lucy & Dan & Diana then said that NO, they most certainly
wouldn't – for the sole reason that the preacher in question was a homosexual. I pointed out that
this was not only hypocritical of them but bigoted discrimination as well; a direct contradiction
of The Way of Jesus Christ – and that's where the fun began … Over the course of the next
several weeks, quite a few very important points were raised regarding the Bible and whether or
not it authorizes any of us to judge gays as ―mortal sinners‖, much less whether or not it
prohibits us from listening to non-lusting gay pastors preach the Word of God. To this day,
most of these claims remain either fully ignored or only glancingly answered, and so I will
revisit them briefly now.
CLAIM #01) ―But we aren't judging gays; we are only judging their sin.‖
This statement has been made many times in various forms over the course of the thread,
and yet the essence of its claim still has yet to be addressed. Namely, the following three very
important points:
A) … that choosing to worship a God who clearly does judge some sins to be worthy of
eternal damnation (e.g. in this case, homosexual intercourse) and others worthy of forgiveness (e.g.
ignoring Jesus' call for us to be humble as a child -- in Matthew 18:3) is indeed to judge
others by proxy. Hiding behind an unjust & capricious God is no excuse when it is
your choice whether or not to worship that condemning God in the first place …
B) … that it is hypocritical to judge others for their faults when you have not cleansed
yourself of your own (Matthew 7:1-5 + Matthew 23:25-26) … and,
C) … that it is bigotry plain & simple to isolate one particular group of sinners for public
castigation, both when their ―sin‖ is innate to their genetic makeup, and when many other groups
are (according to both Testaments) equally worthy of similar beratement (e.g. all religious zealots –
Proverbs 16:5, all adulterers – Leviticus 20:10-12 + Matthew 5:27-28, all disrespectful children
– Exodus 21:17, all non-vegan ―shedders of innocent blood‖ -- Proverbs 6:17 etc etc etc).
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