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Marriage equality is all the rage in Australia at the present. As our parliament sits to hear the views of its constituency, plenty of christians are getting themselves all worked up demanding that a minority may not dictate the agenda. That is, the so-called militant homosexual lobby may not tell everyone else how to live. Again and again ignoring the reality. Nobody is telling anyone how to live. Nobody is asking you to get married to a person of the same-sex, nobody is telling you that you have to marry a person of the opposite sex. This is about equality. Why are you so scared of equality?
My old mate, Bill, he of the persecuted christian sect, is on his high horse rallying the troops, and I just can’t help my self. Here’s what he’s got to say.
Whenever a time of crisis erupts, more than ever, there is a pressing need for individuals to take a stand, and to do so courageously. And unless you are blind, deaf, and dumb, you would know that we are certainly living in a time of overwhelming crisis.
WTF? What crisis. What overwhelming crisis is this? The fight for freedom in repressive regimes? The fight for food in famine stricken Africa? The battle against global warming? The struggle for financial freedom for the poor? And within the first paragraph the tone is set, if you don’t agree that there’s a crisis then you are blind, deaf and dumb. You either agree with Bill or he thinks you are a complete fucking moron.
The whole Western world seems to be going up in flames – not just London. Each new day we find plenty of headlines illustrating how a moral, spiritual, cultural and ideological crisis is upon us. But the only question is, in the light of all this, what will good men and women do?
The whole western world… all of it, Australia, Canada, Europe, America, the whole lot going up in flames, wow. Good men will try and fix it by understanding the issues and not trying to enforce their own beliefs on the issues.
How will we respond? Will we simply cover our eyes and pretend all this is not happening? Will we hope someone else makes a stand on our behalf? Will we deceive ourselves into buying the PC line that just getting along and not rocking the boat is the best option.
You should try getting along with others, you may enjoy it. There are people out there who need compassion and understanding. Bill makes it clear that unless you accept his view of the world you are guilty of bringing the end of the world. He makes it clear that you may not turn a blind eye or stand back and do nothing.
Or will we stand and fight? In my eyes the last option is our only option.
Fight? Who will you fight? Why is this the only option? You’ve created a fictitious battle that is an overwhelming crisis, and now you want to fight. So now that he’s made you feel bad because the world is ending and you’re not doing enough, he calls you to arms. He attempts to incite in you a violent response.
The next question is, do we have the courage to stand up and be counted? Now is the day we desperately need men and women of courage – those who will not wilt under pressure or give up out of fear.
The only fear you have is that you may not be in control. You create the crisis and then want people to have courage to fight your imaginary battle. The wilting ones are the ones who accept your self-perpetuating crisis as truth. Bill is now attempting to manipulate you by calling you a coward, a coward if you don’t have the courage to stand up and be counted. Just to make sure you get the point, he tells us that the need is desperate.
Of interest is the list offered in the book of Revelation telling us who will not inherit Christ and his Kingdom. Leading the list are the fearful, or the cowardly (Rev 21:8). Those lacking in courage will in effect deny their Lord in the time of battle.
Of course, that reference to Revelations also gives us the news that the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers, the whoremongers,the sorcerers, idolaters and liars will end up in lake of brimstone and fire. Hell, I guess. It’s nice to know that the gays are probably included in either the whoremongers or the abominable. This is the same book that gives us the delightful image of a great red dragon with seven heads and ten horns and seven crowns upon it’s head. Yeah, that’s the sort of book I want to believe in. Bill uses this quote to point out to the believers, that if you don’t participate in this fight, you’re going to hell. He’s making it clear that you won’t inherit the kingdom of god, that is, heaven.
Jesus made it clear how such people are to be viewed: “I tell you, whoever acknowledges me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God” (Luke 12:8-9).
So, take a bit of Revelations and a bit out of Luke and use it to say that if you don’t do what Bill says then you are disowning christ and will end up in the lake of fire and brimstone. Nice one Bill, how to win friends and influence people. You need to make sure you’re good with the lord so you can be acknowledged before the angels of god. Is that like having 72 virgins?
‘But,’ some will protest, ‘I have never denied Christ’. Please think again. When the very gospel is under threat yet we stand idly by and do nothing, have we not denied our Lord?
How is the gospel under threat? Christianity thrives with its churches and massive finances, it’s not under threat. I haven’t heard any politician call for the gospel to be banned, or for your organised religions to be dismantled. There’s no threat. This is all part of the same mind game to make you feel guilt for not agreeing with him.
When God’s institutions of marriage and family are under direct assault, and we sit by and do nothing, have we not denied our Lord?
Direct assault? Please, there is no direct assault. Nobody is denying your right to have the family you want. You however are directly assaulting the rights of others to enjoy their life in their way.
When people are heading to a lost eternity yet we remain silent, have we not denied our Lord?
You’ll notice the fear again here, he’s fearful of a lost eternity, not just for others, but mostly for himself, he actually thinks that he may end up in hell if he doesn’t try and save the rest of us. To get you onside, he tries a guilt trip. He attempts to make it your fault that others will burn in hell. I can smell the burning incense of arrogance.
When people are bound in destructive and terminal lifestyles, yet we do nothing to let them know they can be set free in Christ, have we not denied our Lord?
Who are you to tell others what a destructive and terminal lifestyle is? Who are you to attempt to make others feel guilty because they don’t call the ‘homosexual lifestyle’ destructive and terminal. There’s that smell again.
The tragic truth is, there is a cosmic battle going on right now, and lives are being lost, families are being destroyed, nations are crumbling, and hope is being taken away.
This is truth? You think there is a cosmic battle going on. The cosmos doesn’t provide a battlefield for you to play your pathetic little games on, it has no way to care about you, it just does what a cosmos does, it spins. The grand claim that families are being destroyed and that nations are crumbling is the biggest pile of pooh I’ve heard for ages. The notion here is that the calls for gay marriage are destroying families. Let’s ignore the fact that the men and women in married relationships are often looking to get out of them, let’s ignore that our society continues to grow and prosper, despite the greed of the rich, despite the divorce rate. Let’s ignore that most young people continue to grow up, get jobs and contribute to society, despite having come from divorced families, poor backgrounds. These some children, now adults continue to find partners, have families and the cycle continues. It’s not crumbling. The only hope being removed is that of die-hard christians, that they will continue to have a major influence on society.
Yet we sit by and do nothing and say nothing. But even the smallest things that we can do might be of help, yet we seem too fearful or incapacitated to do even these things.
On a cosmic level? You don’t even rate. Are you still trying to make people feel guilty?
What about taking 1.3 seconds of your time to press the ‘like’ button on Facebook when someone has posted a biblical quote or a helpful Christian word? It can be that easy and simple, and it may encourage another brother to keep on in the battle.
Oh yeah, that’ll change the cosmic battle going on. Bring it on baby. Sounds like nobody likes Bill’s posts on Facebook. Must be very disappointing. So ego deflating.
I often get people telling me they are discouraged and tired of all these struggles. They want to give up. They are discouraged. They think we are not getting anywhere.
You need to listen to them. There’s a reason why you’re not getting anywhere.
My usual reply to them is something like this: “If we ever find that Jesus has given up, has quit the race, has become too discouraged to continue, then we can do the same. But I don’t see this anywhere in Scripture.”
I’m yet to see any evidence that this jesus bloke is still about. I reckon if he is this almighty god thing, he appears to have given up. Bill wants to make sure you understand how unworthy you are of christ because you want to give up, when you should follow the example of his loin-clothed god.
The truth is, Jesus drank the cup to the bitter end. He kept going all the way to the cruel cross – for me and for you. He loved us too much to want to drop out or to just live a quiet and peaceful life. He did not insist on his own rights, but gave them all up, so that we might live.
Oh what bullshit. This is such a fantasy story, not based in reality at all. If this jesus thing, you claim was god, loved us so much he would say so without the crazy antics of pretending to die as a sacrifice only to magically come back to life, thereby not sacrificing anything.
I sometimes get people writing to me, asking if I can remove their comments from my site which they posted in the past. Some have discovered that they are now public property – being monitored and checked up on in cyberspace. I reply by saying that unless there is a very good reason for this, I am not too keen. Why are they asking me to do this? Is it just fear, or not wanting to make enemies, cause trouble, rock the boat, etc?
Some say they have privacy concerns, etc. But I am not impressed with those reasons either. Sorry, but when we come to Christ, we lose our right to privacy. We also lose our right to a life of ease, comfort, luxury and security. In fact, we lose all our rights. We are no longer our own – we are bought with a price.
What an arrogant cunt you are. You’re as bad as Facebook keeping everything for ever. People are entitled to change their minds and people are entitled to a life of ease, comfort and luxury, with security thrown in. I suspect however, Bill, that you like to keep a dossier on everyone, so you can quote them back to themselves when they finally see what a fuckwit you really are. It’s all about power Bill. You love having the power to decide what’s good for other people.
When we become a disciple of Christ, we give up all claims to living a selfish, comfortable and easy life. Quite the opposite. As Bonhoeffer rightly said, “When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.” Dead people have no rights – it is that simple.
Your christ is a prick. You are very selfish.
Of course no one prefers living a life of ostracism, scorn and rejection. But that is what Jesus did, and he told us that the servant is not above the master. To follow Christ means we also will be rejected, ridiculed, hated and persecuted. And that is certainly not fun.
Yet, you treat people with scorn and rejection. It’s funny how you reject, ridicule, hate and persecute gay people and then attempt to claim these very same things for yourself. You then see it as not being fun, with that in mind, most normal people would have some empathy.
Does anyone really think I like all the flack, opposition, abuse, and persecution I get on a regular basis? Do I really thrive on all the hate mail and death threats? It would of course be so very easy to avoid all of this. I could simply stop what I am doing and say nothing: a guarantee to a quiet and peaceful life.
Well yes, I think you do thrive on those things. How else can you keep up such an outwardly hateful exterior.
In fact, I can do what some “Christians” are now doing, and call God a liar. I can argue that what God calls a sin is not in fact a sin. I can say instead that something like homosexuality is God’s gift to mankind, and that to be compassionate and loving, I should instead promote and advocate for this lifestyle. I can even argue that Jesus would favour same-sex marriage.
Or you could just come to the realisation that there is no god, and drop the appalling reasons for your ongoing persecution of those who aren’t like you.
That would be the easy path. Indeed, that would make me the flavour of the month. I would become terribly popular, and even the MSM would give me lots of praise and approval. Yet as Alan Sears has just written, “It doesn’t take courage to ride the wave of support for same-sex ‘marriage.’ It takes courage to stand against the surging tide.”
You’ll never be popular, no matter what you do. The easy path is to maintain your pathetic pretense of speaking for a non-existent god. If you are serious about caring for other people, you’d spend more time asking why, instead of accepting the reason as being ‘coz god said so’.
Quite so. To stand up for God’s standards of holiness and righteousness in the public arena on any topic is to take a courageous stance. If you want to be at rest and have everyone applaud you, then simply go with the flow, and stand up for abortion rights, pornography rights, homosexual rights, and other trendy secular left causes.
So, you’re against letting people just get on with their lives. In your smelly arrogance you think that you have the right to inflict others with your stand on abortion, (of which jesus makes no mention) on pornography (of which jesus makes no mention) and on homosexual rights (of which jesus makes no mention). You claim the moral high ground on your interpretation of ancient text that had no way of knowing what life would be like 2,000 years later.
Anyone can do that. Indeed, any dead fish can simply float downstream. But it takes a living fish to swim upstream, against the current. The call to Christian discipleship is a call to swim against the world’s currents. The world will always be opposed to the things of God, so to stand for Christ will always be to stand against the world.
Oh for fuck sake, the prevailing attitudes in Australia is that of the christian world. Most of the population isn’t doing any swimming, they are going with the flow. The real challenge is to have the christians understand their place of privilege in our world and acknowledge that there are other ways. Stop floating Bill, have some courage to allow people to be who they are. You are full of such arrogance to suggest that if your followers don’t swim the way you do, then they are dead. Rude.
Such a stance requires courage. But the good news is, it is not a question of us mustering up some courage on our own. God provides it. He enables and empowers us. We cannot do it ourselves. I am probably full of fear most of the time. But as George S. Patton has reminded us, “Courage is fear holding on a minute longer”.
You’re not courageous. You’re a coward and an arrogant one at that. You have created a belief system that pulls useful phrases out of ridiculous texts to support your bigotry and you pretend that this is the only way for the world to be. You allow your beliefs to enable you to think you have some sort of authority and power. You’re not full of fear, you’re full of horseshit, and you try to goad people into the fight by telling them that unless they think like you, act like you. they’re bound for hell.
A.A. Hodge once put it this way: “It is easier to find a score of men wise enough to discover the truth than to find one intrepid enough, in the face of opposition, to stand up for it.” But men of courage will inspire others. As Billy Graham said, “Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.”
The truth stares at you. Look up into the night sky, the cosmos is there, uncaring, getting on with it’s spinning. It doesn’t care, it can’t care. Your religion is there for you to comfort yourself against the reality of the universe. You, I and everyone else on the face of this earth are insignificant to the cosmos. The universe will not end based on your ramblings and predictions.
Remember what Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 1:7: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.” And if that is not enough (although it should be), let me finish with some words of fiction which I often turn back to. They come from the film version of The Lord of the Rings. Aragorn is mustering the troops to stand against an army of orcs much greater and more numerous that they, and he encourages the troops with these words:
“I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me! A day may come, when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of Fellowship, but it is not this day! An hour of wolves and shattered shields when the age of men comes crashing down! But it is not this day! This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good earth, I bid you, stand, men of the West!”
And like the Lord of the Rings, the bible is a made up story, full of impossible things. Nobody in their right mind thinks that the Lord of the Rings is real, we understand it’s fiction.
In these days of unprecedented evil, Christ is looking for men and women of courage. Will you be one of them?
Christ is looking? Perhaps he should create a facebook event and invite everyone. There is real evil in this world. The real evil of starving people, the real evil of dictatorships, the real evil of corporate greed, the real evil of the churches of the world having the ability to prevent both hunger and greed and not doing so. Instead of taking on the real issues, the really important things, the likes of Bill Muehlenberg attempt to make minor issues like equality in marriage the big battlefield, ignoring the very real life situations in our small part of the cosmos.
Here’s some advice Bill. Shut the fuck up. Pull your head out of your arse, and do something useful like help the starving by ensuring that the money and food gets to them, by ensuring that dictators are driven from office, and by ensuring that corporations don’t attempt to make massive profits out of food required to feed the hungry.
I suspect you’ll just pray.
