Intolerance or Integrity

I recently had a ‘conversation’ on Facebook with a friend who accused me of being intolerant because I stand up for my beliefs. She felt that because I vocally stood against certain things, and was honest about my beliefs and feelings that I was intolerant and bordering on bullying.

 

I admit I felt a bit convicted and tried to truly search my intent on speaking my beliefs. I have always valued other people’s opinions, attempted to debate honestly and without fighting and tried to see the situation from a variety of viewpoints, not only religious; as I am want to always fall back on.

 

The conversation began with an article I posted that CBS was gratuitously going to add more homosexual story lines to their fall shows. My comment was that I would be crossing several shows off my watch list for adding the story lines to the shows. Two people commented (paraphrased) that I was making much ado about nothing and that they felt diversity was important. One person even insinuated that I had inferred that “gay” was catching by watching TV. I responded that I felt insulted as that was not what I had said, nor what I inferred.

 

… I struggle here with being honest with what I believe is right and making people happy. I can't do both. I am what I am. I can't explain why God says it's wrong to be a homosexual but people are. I can't explain why it's okay for people to be in this country illegally but it’s against the law. I can’t explain why people with money who commit crimes are less likely to get full sentences and have to serve them than people who can’t afford publicity and good attorneys. I can’t explain why it’s necessary for TV shows to ram it down everyone’s throat that unwed teenage mothers, homosexuals and marital infidelity are acceptable. Or good role models. Just because I can’t explain it doesn’t mean I need to silently sit by and let it happen. Silence is usually taken for acceptance.

 

I have friends and family who are, or have chosen, the homosexual lifestyle. I don’t hate them, I’m not afraid to hug them or be around them, nor do I wish any harm or ill on them. I also don’t want to confer my acceptance of the fact that they are living in what I believe is sin. Disagreeing with the way that someone lives or the choices that person has made is not the same as hating them or wanting them dead. However, I can’t just stand by and tell them I agree with them either. That would make me hypocritical, which to me is worse than intolerance.

 

I also couldn’t stand by and let my friends murder, steal, lie or endanger their families without saying something. The allegory for this is watching and waving as those friends jump off a cliff.

 

So, let me use both the legal system and the Bible as my basis for my beliefs:

 

• In the United States of America, it is against the law to murder. There are varying degrees of murder (which I don’t understand – dead is dead) and varying sentences for the crime. Biblically, we have a commandment “thou shalt not commit murder”. However, it is NOT against the law to have an abortion. Abortion is the termination of a life; abortion is murder. You cannot stop the beating heart of a being and call it anything else but murder.

In Hebrew, the word for “kill” is harag – in English being a verb that covers taking life in all forms and for all classes of victims. The word for “murder” – criminal acts of killing – in Hebrew is ratsah.

• Homosexuality, same-sex orientation and same-sex marriage is against the laws of God. Man was made to be with a woman – their bodies fit together as such and they were created as a unit for procreation. Although sex is pleasurable, and meant to be so, the major intended purpose is for the procreation of the species. There are those in this country that want to make it lawful and acceptable to have relationships that are physically and emotionally impractical. No relationship is perfect, that is not the point. Relationships that are justified by reasoning of “I want it and therefore it can’t be wrong” are equal to letting your child eat candy all day because they like it. There are many consequences involved in getting what one wants; sometimes they are not pleasant and not beneficial.

(Yes I realize that there are many ways to conceive children, and that adoption is a viable alternative to conception. However in order to shorten this entry, I’m not going to delve into family life or the desecration of the family unit).

There are three specific verses in the Old Testament and four in the New Testament classifying homosexuality as a sin, unnatural and ending in eternity in Hell.

Leviticus 18:22 (New International Version) -- 22 " 'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Leviticus 20:13 (New International Version) -- 13 " 'If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Romans 1:26-27 (New International Version) -- 26Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10, 1 Timothy 1:9-10 and Jude 1:7 make it very clear what lies ahead for homosexuals and other who sin sexually. The entire chapter of Genesis 19 speaks of Sodom and Gomorrah, the sexual perversions and the reason for the destruction of the city and its inhabitants.

There are 13 other verses in the bible – both New and Old Testament used to define marriage as between a man and a woman and for the purpose of creating children.

• Infidelity, extra-marital or pre-marital sex is also mentioned in the bible.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition defines "fornication" simply as: "Sexual intercourse between partners who are not married to each other."

In many states this is punishable by law as a criminal activity; it is also grounds for divorce in some states.

1 Corinthians 6:9-10 9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offender’s 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

 As judgmental as all of this sounds, and hateful and intolerant as you may think it is for me to believe these things and stand behind them, consider this: If you knew your friend was doing something that would lead to their death, wouldn’t you do everything in your power to convince them, stop them, save them from dying?

 

I can honestly say that I hope that I’m wrong. I hope that instead of eternity in Hell, God shows mercy to those that have blatantly and unrepentantly disobeyed his clear instructions on what not to do during our time on earth.

 

At some point, God will let us follow our own way. Just as a good parents sometime let their child learn lessons the hard way, God will stand back and let our free will, our desire for selfishness and acceptance be our master.

  

Romans 1:18-32 (v. 21-25 here) 21For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

 

24Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.