Do as thou wilt pt2

Sure, homosexuality is a sin but so are all of those other things. What's that saying again? Oh yeah, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Measuring them just by their actions and the directions in their own book, few if any Christians have any right to say anything about what anyone else
is doing, other than to observe that the other person is ALSO not following the Bible.

Now let's talk about those Christians that just want to follow the New Testament. After all if you've read both it almost seems like the Old Testament and New Testament God are two different guys. The Old is full of fire and brimstone and punishment. The New is a more loving understanding God. Who wouldn't want to just skip the icky part?

But is that really okay? I mean wouldn't that be like if your Dad handed you a list of chores that he wanted done and it was two pages long and you just decided to do the second page because it was shorter? But it's okay though right? You did the whole second list, every item on it.

Having said that there is very little in the New Testament on who can and can't sleep with who, especially when looking for man on man or woman on woman action.  But there is something interesting that Jesus said in the book of Matthew Chapter 22.

35 And one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. 36 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 38 This is the great and first commandment. 39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Read that last part again. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. In other words the whole Bible and its message can be boiled down to two things. Love God first and foremost and love your neighbor as yourself.

That kind of reminds me of the Wiccan Rede, An ye harm none, do as thou wilt. At first glance the two might not seem the same but, many Wiccans believe that the whole universe and everything within it is a single being, that we are part of everything. In such a belief system, harming God, harming your neighbor, harming the world in general and harming yourself are all the same thing.

If this is your belief system, essentially, following this advice that it is okay to do whatever you want as long as you aren't harming anyone else makes you just as "sinless" as a person who follows every dictate of the Bible to the letter. If Wiccan law and Christian law are pretty much the same where does the intolerance come in?

And last but not least (for now) where is the part of the Bible that says we should be angry and hate filled towards those who do sin? There are plenty of places where it says to avoid them if possible and a great many more where it says to avoid being like them. But to hate them? It specifically says the opposite. We are to love all our neighbors not just the sinless ones.

What should that look like? Even under Old Testament law it should be more like a parent chastising/punishing an unruly child. Someone that you truly love you are hesitant to cause pain and suffering to, even if it is for their own good in the long run. When was the last time you saw or even heard of someone preaching intolerance showing any hesitance whatsoever to condemn or in fact cause injury to someone that they labeled a sinner?

Do as thou wilt pt1

Today I want to talk about intolerance and ignorance. There is a great deal of it in the world and it comes from people around the world that follow many different religions. From what I have seen the biggest amount of intolerance comes from Christian and Islamic teachings.  I am not as familiar with Islam. So for now the discussion will primarily revolve around Christianity.

During the time that I was a Jehovah's Witness, and indeed for several years afterwards, I spent many hours reading and cross-referencing passages in the Bible. I have read it from cover to cover and have a better memory of and understanding of it than most people that I have met and talked to.

There are Christians, a great many of them in fact, who believe that if you are not following the whole Book down to every last letter and detail that you are not a true follower of God and that you are going to end up in a not so pleasant place after you die. Most of those people have no idea what is in their Bible, at least not anymore than whatever their local preacher tells them on Sunday.

If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not hearken unto them: Then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; And they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear, and fear. -- Deuteronomy 21:18-21

Been to any good stonings lately? What about a woman defending her man?

Deuteronomy 25:11-12.

"If two men, a man and his countryman, are struggling together, and the wife of one comes near to deliver her husband from the hand of the one who is striking him, and puts out her hand and seizes his genitals, then you shall cut off her hand; you shall not show pity."

Did you know that wearing a polyester/cotton blend was a sin?

Leviticus 19:19 reads, "You are to keep My statutes. You shall not breed together two kinds of your cattle; you shall not sow your field with two kinds of seed, nor wear a garment upon you of two kinds of material mixed together."

There are literally dozens more examples just like this. In the interest of conserving both time and space I will just list a few of the other things that the Bible prohibits.

Tattoos, shaving your beard, fortune telling, divorce, and eating bacon are all no-nos. All of these things are in the Bible. Do you know any adult Christian who stones their bad children, wears no clothing made of two different types of fabric, has no tattoos, doesn't shave, has never been divorced and won't eat bacon?

I hate to say it, but from my perspective it seems like the man lovers and the bacon lovers are going to the same place. Sin isn't about personal preference, about what you are comfortable with. According to the Bible sin is about what God is or isn't okay with. You don't get to pick and choose what is or isn't a sin. It is all there in black and white.