*I do realise it's choice quotes plucked from the more mentalist end of the spectrum, and as such doesn't represent the average views of the global christian community as a whole.
Hmmm, well in the Old Testament in 1 Tim 4: 1-3 it quite clearly (as clear as religious books ever are) that compulsory celebacy is a heresy. Throughout celebacy is "abnormal".
Curse you for making me read several chapters of Genesis today, have you any idea how badly written that story is?
Accepting even the King James "In The Beginning" which in itself is incorrect, the tale of Sodom and Gomorrah's referrence to homosexuality is the defilement of a straight man by a homosexual act (committed by straight men) in order to humiliate him by treating him as a woman - in a book where women are 'property' of men. Neither is the rape itself part of the moral, but a metaphor of the inhospitality served. This pertains to the commandment to love thy neighbour and has nothing at all to do with sex. It's not the sexual orientation being condemned here, and it's quite explicit, not really an interpretation issue. Any interpretation to condemn the sexual orientation from this passage is clearly deliberate and an attempt to use the bible to provenance ones own fealing on the issue.
I have had enough head spinning reading religious texts for one day, and I dont think many forum readers are interested in the issue anyway, so i'll leave it at that for now, but if I must answer the other chapters raised, I will. Years of bible study are bubbling just underneath the surface waiting to get their own back...
If God loves us all unconditionally, why does bad stuff happen to good people? I'm not going to put down your faith, believe whatever you think is right, but that's the part where the whole God thing kinda falls apart...If He has supreme power over everyone, and loves everyone equally, why isn't the world full of flowers and puppies and ice cream and rainbows and what-not?
And for what it's worth, religion doesn't bring joy to everyone...Did you know contraception is still outlawed in Ireland by the Catholic Church? (Maybe that's why I turned Agnostic )
Ok, I can understand it. I was just pointing that they are people who studied the Book a lot (maybe the most in History) and both (Islamist and catholics) reach the same interpretation about homosexuality
If the Bible itself is the views and opinions of a few disciples and not in itself the word of God then the 10 commandments could be the same as tehre is no real fact proving they came directly from God
Anyway, check out the 6th commandment.
"Neither shall you commit adultery"
Adultery is the breaking of the holy bond between husband and wife, and is thus a sacrilege. This commandment includes not just the act of adultery, but lust as well. (See Catechism 2331–2400.).
So as long as don't exist a husband and a wife in homosexual relations it is against this commandment. If you can think it in other way, the only valid reason for sexual practices given by the Bible is reproduction (remember Onan, killed by God himself for spilling his seed upon the ground :schwitz, so in that way, homosexuality (or at least his sexual side) it's against the likes of God and this connects with Vatican not blaming people for being homsexuals but recommended them to practise chastity
And isn't that the final purpose of every Bible read? (and you can generalize to every religion if you please)
You have some thoughts about how the world may work and what things are correct and what not. Then you take your religion or your holy book and look for things that reinforce those thoughts. And given that is all a matter of interpretation, you can sustain almost any theory with the words in that book . And that is exactly what sects leaders do
It's just a way of having the head focused in something different than the disesase itself. And many people find in it a way of relaxing and holding an optimistic behaviour and this helps them in various ways.
In fact there are some studies about this subject that (in most cases) could be hilarious. Check out those ones
I remember a documental I saw at TV about one of this studies were there was prayer groups of various religions and some christian patients were worry about islamist praying for them as they think that would cause the opposite effect
Actually in the bible a adultary can only be committed against a man, it is not a crime to commit adultary against a woman - women are property of men in the bible and are not afforded the same rights - conveniently this means I cannot commit adultary with a lesbian as she has no man.
I might come back and edit this post later to make it clearer i'm not long up and have migrane sign coming grrr. If it doesnt make sense bare with me
OK i'm awake now. I'm going to do use the Vaticans interpretation of this passage. This is made easy because the Vatican page you listed actually details the Catholic tradition of the interpretation of the 6th Commandment and I quote, "The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality."
With this in mind, considering 'normal' heterosexuals here, then the traditional interpretation of Jesus' sermon on the mount (translated it's more or less, "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart") for women so that it reads "But I say to you that every one who looks at a man lustfully has already committed adultery with him in her heart".
This is the traditional Catholic interpretation of the passage. However the Vatican is quite specific here, it says "The tradition of the Church has understood the sixth commandment as encompassing the whole of human sexuality.". Therefor to be consistent to Catholic tradition we must apply this swapping of gender norms to Jesus' words for gay people too.
Personally I interpret the whole thing totally differently, but since we're talking about Catholicism here i'll leave my personal view out of it. The Catholic view is very clearly a double standard, where one thing is said as justification to prove something else. Sadly all they've shown to me is that they are just as bigotted as ever they where.
Catholicism is full of double moral... just look at what they treat the priests who love children a bit more than they may
About Jesus words... well I think he and the apostols were a kind of hippie band, so maybe they have free sex one with each others, so I think he really didn't have nothing against homosexuals, or at least I don't see it in his words
Anyway... you seem to refer to New Testament and Old Testament indifferently, when they are two Books with a lot of differences about many things, and this is clearly one of them
i despice old testament,but i like the new one though
abraham willing to murder his son just cause he ate too much at night and had a night mare being etically right, nuking sodoma and gomorra for being gay, causing the deluge to genocide the giants, these aint aceptable and yavhe should be trialed for crimes against humanity
love your enemies, admirable, i even recall a gnostic source of jesus saying yavhe really is the devil( the demiurge), obvious if you judge by their fruits
I believe to him,her or whatever.I believe because my family said : '' if you wanna be a good person and make the things right you have to belive into the god.'' in my opinion matter is not believe to him .The matter is being a good person . I love whole world.
...and Tomba(FIN) your signature makes me wonder. Is GTR2 better than LFS ?
fortunately direct words from god (trinity and all that) show that this interpretation cannot be correct
Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it [german luther translation translates that bit as "of equal importance]": 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
and i kinda sorta fail to see the bit about homosexuality in there... mind you it very specifically says ALL the law
so by literal interpretation if becky enjoys having a girl between her legs jesus commanded her to repay the favour and lick that girls cooch... same goes for kev enjoying being bummed by the noobs
Nice to have the heat off me, I felt like an atheist in a forum full of religious folk!
But I suppose I "volunteered" to be the whipping boy of this thread. Someone had to.
someone pointed that evil happens cause god is not all mighty
homer realized of this when he got stoned and questioned:
can jesus make a burrito so spicy that not even him can eat it?
if he can make it he is not all mighty cause he cant eat it, and if he cant make it then he is not all mighty
hell but god by definition must be allmighty and homer proved he aint not, so there cant be god, hell now i understand why homer said now you know how i feel
maybe god is not protecting us nor helping us maybe its all up to us
so the universe must have existed always, has not been created
)
, so in that way, homosexuality (or at least his sexual side) it's against the likes of God 
and this connects with Vatican not blaming people for being homsexuals but recommended them to practise chastity 
