...In religion and the church.
Not to say for a lack of courage, because to me it feels as if the church does NOT unite people, it unites others against a certain principle 'just because the bible says so, it's wrong.'
What am I talking about?
Proposition 8 in America: (Even though it has passed) Legalization of gay marriages.
Have you seen people protesting? Yes, I bet you did in Cambodia, splashed over newspapers. What about hordes of people opposing the civil union of two very much in love people, some even saying that 'God will throw your ass in Hell.'? Placards with offensive messages scrawled over them: God hates fags, God hates lying sinners, etc.?
You may not be open-minded enough to accept homosexuals, and may have a certain...conservative-ness about you. But are we going to allow ourselves to be tied down by the words of some ancient text revered and amazingly recorded over milleniums ago and follow them word-by-word?
This is the quote from the bible in several published versions, assuming that there is a chance for translating error:
New International Version, first published in 1978: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable."
King James Version, first published in 1982: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind as with womankind: it is abomination."
New English Translation, first published in 2005: "You must not have sexual intercourse with a male as one has sexual intercourse with a woman; it is a detestable act." -Leviticus 18:22
So? No objections, you say.
What about this?
"I do not let women teach. I do not let them have authority over men. They must be quiet." -1 Timothy 2: 12 (New International Reader's Version)
The first thing that went through my mind was WHAT THE FUCK?! followed by 干你妈！！！Ahem.
Then many people across the globe must be mortal sinners right now because of the leadership of women which is apparently deletrious to you pious and anal retentive men. RAWR!
And Xinyi, I know what you are going to say in defense of the bible, but I REFUSE to follow a religion that blinds its followers and has a history of violence and 'religious wars'. Starting a war is stupid enough, to do it because of 'religion' and 'God says that this country is pagan, therefore it is your perogative to purge the country' is...puerile.
You don't know what I'm talking about? Look it up at Wikipedia, the Spanish Inquistition. The boycott of Jews. The abominations that are torture weapons used.
"As for your male and female slaves whom you may have--you may acquire male and female slaves from the pagan nations that are around you. 'Then, too, it is out of the sons of the sojourners who live as aliens among you that you may gain acquisition, and out of their families who are with you, whom they will have produced in your land; they also may become your possession." -Leviticus 25:44-45. (New American Standard Bible)
Hostility towards a foreign race based on misunderstanding. Imagine, for a moment, that our whole Chinese population are religious zealots who steadfastly follows every word of the bible. Then what about other races such as the muslims and Hindus? Do we deface their temples and enslave them? Human beings constiture as property, so they deserved to be herded around like cattle and brought out to display on ice like fish. Is that what we do to them?
Fuck you if you agree. I hope you become a slave in your next life. I give you my middle finger salute.
"Withhold not from a youth chastisement, When thou smitest him with a rod he dieth not. Thou with a rod smitest him, And his soul from Sheol thou deliverest." - Proverbs 23:13-14 (Young's Literal Translation)
Well, that explains why Silas keeps injuring himself (really badly too, with that spiked whip) and creating slashes and drawing blood and revelling in pain for it is deliverance. But jokes aside, you can see the gravity of this statement.
For those who are not familiar with Shakespearean language, try your best to decode. I'm assuming 'Sheol' would be hell or pugartory or whatever dimension filled with horrors lie?
I suppose it can be interpreted as the famous saying: spare the rod and spoil the child. So if the said child commits an act the holy and glorious bible deems to be wrong, the parent is suppose to punish them (physically, judging from the context), for when beaten with a rod he does not die, and when beaten, his soul is somehow miraculously delivered from this place called Sheol.
What kind of moralistic society (kinda reminds me of the people in To Kill A Mockingbird) will beat sense into a child so that the child will obey, not because he or she has distinguished between right and wrong, but just to eschew another beating? Who would beat their child into submission and fear of God? It's the equivalent of an abusive husband beating his broken wife...except infinitely more harmful to the child's development. And this is blatant child abuse. To justify beating a child (CHILD mind you, not a teen, a child is 1 - 12 years old) as morally right as you are helping them to deliver their souls away from the devil? It's like torturing the insane in hope to cure them (and that really did happen before sometime in the annals of history).
--
It is mainly passages from the Old Testament that promote slavery, sexism, child-abuse, polygamy, genocide, and other vices now that were considered virtues in their day. One argument is that when Jesus died on the cross the believer's sins were covered by blood that granted forgiveness and began a new covenant that made the laws of the old obsolete, as can be interpreted by reading Hebrews 8: 8-13. However, in the book of Matthew, chapter 5 after Christ's resurrection, in verses 17-18 Jesus says, "Don't assume that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For I assure you: Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or one stroke of a letter will pass from the law until all things are accomplished." (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Now, we could still suppose I am misinterpreting that verse. Jesus supposedly died two thousand years ago. Why is it that less than two hundred ago, in 1865 when Congress passed the 13th Amendment that abolished slavery, were people were still quoting those same scriptures to justify keeping their black slaves? One could say that those people were misguided, that the Bible was written for a different time, when it was culturally acceptable to do those things; that the Old Testament is not used by Christians for laws we must live by, and that it is basically just a history book. In that case, my argument that there are no moral grounds for condemning homosexuality still stands since the book in which it is prohibited, Leviticus, is from the Old Testament. (Aha Xinyi that's the final book which never made it to conventional bibles).
You can read the article I got most of my evidence from. This essay is BRILLIANT in source quoting and persuasion. Quite factual too as multiple sources have been compared. And, if you're competent in History, you will know that inferring with evidence plus conclusion makes a powerful argument.
http://andalitebandit-6.deviantart.com/art/The-Morality-of-Homosexuality-77069502Too pissed to write anymore. I refuse to want to join the church.
And those who say that I am misguided/worship the devil, please stop sticking to sterotypes to substantiate your argument. It is an argument fallacy, attacking a person because that person has something undesirable, therefore whatever he/she believes in is unjustified. Go hide in your church and believe in lies, cover-ups and hasty glamours. I don't want to live in a lie that is more corrupted than this world is anymore.
When I'm legally an adult, I'm walking out of the church.
P.S. To fellow Christians and Catholics:
It is still your decision whether you want to join. Maybe you can make the church a better place than it was in the past, but you cannot erase facts of the past. Anyone who commits (esp. in a business) will check the reputation of the other party before making any promises. I'm checking, and I don't like what I see, therefore I am against the joining of the church body. It is not to say that ALL of you are misguided, you have the power to make the decision, I am merely baring its ugly past to you. However you react is purely your choice. If it pleases you, go ahead and join, but please don't close your minds to other possibilities and follow the bible blindly.
